Quote Originally Posted by the_anticlough View Post
We might as well have had Francis on and O'Brien further forward (or playing a different role) for what Nemane did for us.
The last time I was at Halifax we had Shields and even he did a 200% better job of holding and using the ball than Nemane last night. Wootton was also very poor IMO. Ruben is much fitter these days and puts in a defensive shift, it's not his fault what he has behind him.
Shape/system/balance wasn't the issue last night IMO...
A front 3 of R+R+Woots doesn't have the enough of the running, in-behind threat...and if the seven outfield players behind can't offer that either, one of them would have to be dropped I think
I think O’Brien offers the threat in behind as that third central midfielder. Our success at the end of last season came playing a front two of Wootton and Rodrigues, with O’Brien making runs beyond them. It’s tweaking that a bit to get Roberts into the team, basically.