Originally Posted by
AucklandRover
I think that's right, but I still worry that we have a bit of redundancy. I do accept we might need a change or two on Saturday. Presumably, it will be dependent on knocks and bruises assessment in training. I don't worry too much about the midfield or defence, in any case. It's quite easy to see how different players can drop in and out there without too much disruption.
Up front is trickier, however. Brereton is, I assume, the medium-term replacement for Graham, but he doesn't look quite the target-man type. I've watched the Youtube stuff on him again, and he definitely seems to prefer picking the ball up deeper and running at players.
On the evidence, Armstrong would probably be best playing off Graham as the secondary striker, but I can see TM's dilemma, because he wants Dack reasonably central too, which forces Armstrong wider. Given that Palmer would probably be at his best in Dack's position, it gets very complicated.
It would almost be simpler to have just two in front of the midfield. As I said, I thought three forward players against Derby was high risk.
On form, and to cover a few bases, I wouldn't mind seeing this:
Raya
Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Williams
Bennett Smallwood Evans Bell
Dack
Graham.
That's asking a lot of Danny, but Bell and Bennett are capable as both attackers and defenders.
4-4-2 seems to be out of favour, but I still think it has a lot going for it. With those two out wide, we could even afford to replace one of the holding midfielders with Rothwell in the games where we are more likely to dominate possession. (Incidentally, I didn't think Conway did too much wrong, so I could understand him looking p*ssed off. We did need Graham as an outlet, though).
The headache for me at the moment is solving "how many and which ones" from Graham, Brereton, Armstrong, Palmer and Dack?
To be completely honest, I'm not even sure what Palmer has been signed as. Transfermarkt has him down as an "attacking midfielder", but we're not going to use him in that role, are we? Is he just cover for Dack, then? I know he has sometimes played as a winger, but I don't see how we can easily slot him in there, either.
Some good players are going to spend a lot of time on the bench.
I know managers feel comfortable like that, but how the hell do you keep everybody happy if the team is quite settled and not disrupted by injury too much over the course of a season?
On that bench? Rodwell, Downing, Davenport, Reed, Rothwell, Conway, two from Palmer/Brereton/Armstrong, and one from Bell/Williams - not to mention the youngsters. A hell of a group to be doing training only!!