Today's formation .....

[champs95]

Looks like it will be 3-5-2 with Bennett & Cunnigham as wing backs. Dack & Armstrong as the front 2.
Not sure about dropping Travis but I do like Buckley & he must be impressing in training. Let's see how this works out.
COYB

[seventwo]

I thought it worked well as a first attempt.
Buckley struggled though.

[AucklandRover]

Yes - a few nice touches from Buckley, but his rawness came across.
Downing very good again.
Gallagher and Tosin looked extremely promising too.

[champs95]

I thought Buckley did nothing controversial. He wasn't brilliant, but I did feel he held his own. These lads need to play football, so it's important they get the game time to learn a so they can improve. I get TM wouldn't play both him and Travis in the same side at this point, so he wasn't in the team. Downing was excellent. As was Tosin. He uses the ball so well, especially into our midfield. Johnson is the only one im still unsure about. Gave the ball away alot yesterday. Bennett had a better game, and did well.....see Auks .....
Armstrong has now been given quite a few chances as CF. And now it's time we moved past that option, as he isn't effective. And I think TM sees that. Gallagher made all the difference at HT and I thought we clicked much more 2nd half.
I didn't think the attacking element of this system worked in the 1st half due to the size of Arma, and the balls into him. No point hitting high balls into a midget. We did learnt to play it through the lines 2nd half. And saw much more of the ball. And it was sticking with SG. It didn't work when Armstrong or Dack where the spearheads. I liked it when Dack was behind Rothwell, Gallagher & Armstrong. I feel that should be something we see more of. With plenty of attacking options. But this Tosin needs to play. Which probably means 3 at the back.
Cunningham isn't a LWB though. He's a LB.
Like I feel Nyambe, Bennett, Rankin-costello, Bell are better wing backs and not great full backs.

[AucklandRover]

A lot I agree with there, Champs.
I wonder if Buckley's inclusion meant that TM is moving towards not using two holding midfielders in the games where there is a fair chance we will have the majority of possession.
What we can see now is that there are lots of options. It's not all working fluently yet, but it is easier to make changes in the course of a game now.
I'm still not certain what Rothwell's best position is, but he does provide an element of the unexpected, which we're probably not going to get from Travis, Johnson and Buckley. I wonder if he could be played as a central midfielder, alongside Travis or Johnson. That would still allow for three attackers - say Dack and Armstrong, either side of Gallagher or Graham.
That would look something like this:
Walton
Tosin Lenihan Williams
Bennett Travis Rothwell Downing
Dack Armstrong
Gallagher.
Mind you, I'm not sure I would take the risk against one of the top six.