The way forward

OK- we've all had a couple of days to get all the angst aired in various forums here - about team selection, SKD, new players, tactics (or lack of them).  We need to get this  out of our systems. We need to get rational again and look at sensible ways to address the issues that we're facing.
 Without rants and simply - what do you think the club and Freedman need to do?

Fore example is it to get more players in or stick with what he's got and hope it comes good, or have a fundamental change in tactics.
Keep answers simple and short and above all realistic.  We ain't going to buy Messi!
I suggest that he reshuffles his back line and takes a risk with Beckford and Odelusi against QPR.
What's your suggestion?

We need to bring in a center back as a priority. If not Dawson, then someone who is similar. Needs to be somebody who reads the game well and has some pace to compliment Knight / Wheater's strengths. 

I'd personally like to see a Beckford / Davies partnership up top at home. If we insist on going long, then we have to go with Davies, and I'm sure he'll be able to combine well with the pace and movement of Beckford. I'm convinced that this partnership would get us 20 goals easily this season.

We need to keep it simple in a 4-4-2 formation.

Spearing & Medo centre midfield to stop teams cutting through us and two attacking wingers....one being Eagles (when fit) the other being Odelusi.

Two out and out strikers, my choice would be Beckford and Davies. Get the ball on the deck and get behind the opposition's defence - and get the bloody ball into the penalty area.

I'm not for a minute saying this will produce a string of results, but I just think it's the best thing for the team right now.

Unfortunately the above is too simple for Freedman, he needs to justify his wages by coming up with some system that doesn't take into account personnel.

We can't play 4-4-2. Ever IMO.

You might get away with that against a so called "poor" team at home but otherwise we'll be back to the Coyle days when everyone was crying and whining about why we never played 4-5-1

Hipster_Nebula wrote:We can't play 4-4-2. Ever IMO.

You might get away with that against a so called "poor" team at home but otherwise we'll be back to the Coyle days when everyone was crying and whining about why we never played 4-5-1

I didn't say it was perfect, I just feel we can't even do the basics right now so a "back to basics" attitude might help.

4-4-2 under Coyle didn't work because he always picked Mark Davies - fine when we have the ball, but he went missing when we didn't and teams cut through our centre. Having two defensive midfielders in Spearing & Medo means this won't happen.

I accept the onus is on the wingers to create, but what's wrong with that?

I honestly can't see 4-4-2 being any worse than the garbage that occurred at the weekend.

It'd be the same except we'd concede more, thats my opinion anyway.

Hall is still learning so maybe he could be a creative outlet eventually but CYL has struggled to create so far this season.

Eagles is creative but he likes to drift inside.

the full backs would be overrun and glued to their positions it'd be bloody awful.

The over reaction on here has been crazy and I actually think we only need minor adjustments.

Pratley being out makes the team next week interesting and Freedman has a choice, 442 with 2 out and out wingers or 4231 with Moritz in for Pratley. I don't think there's much choice but to keep the back 4 the same at this point, with Medo and Spearing holding. Odelusi/Eagles (if he's fit) and Hall on the other wing, and then depending on formation Moritz behind Beckford or N'gog alongside. The main thing is getting the players up for it, which I don't think will be a problem. How we react to a result like last week is what's important now.

We should focus more on our game and less on the opposition which means abandoning the different home and away formats. I think too much is made of where the game between two sides is played -  the players should be totally focussed on the game, not the crowd.

wanderlust wrote:We should focus more on our game and less on the opposition which means abandoning the different home and away formats. I think too much is made of where the game between two sides is played -  the players should be totally focussed on the game, not the crowd.

You're so correct. Supposing they are highly influenced by the crowd, how does that have a bearing on what our best team is?

We definitely need more width, Eagles and Hall, with both given instructions to take on their man and cross the ball. No problem with Eagles cutting in to mix it up and 2 up front Davies or Ngog and Beckford, lets try and get behind them and create some chances. Lee out for sure, Eagles in for Prats.

doffcocker wrote:

wanderlust wrote:We should focus more on our game and less on the opposition which means abandoning the different home and away formats. I think too much is made of where the game between two sides is played -  the players should be totally focussed on the game, not the crowd.

You're so correct. Supposing they are highly influenced by the crowd, how does that have a bearing on what our best team is?

22 professionals and a ball on the park.
All this media crap that the players and pundits come out with about the influence of the crowd should only have one effect - boost ticket sales. But when the game kicks off, real professionals shouldn't bat an eyelid at anything other than the game itself.
If anything, the team should make changes on the basis of opposition research - but certainly not the venue.

The way forward is keeping the ball on the floor and copying Swansea's style, why it seems so hard for our players to do god only knows but we're obviously never going to get goals out of Beckford by launching balls to him in the air.

In all honesty I would try 4-3-3 with Medo Pratley Spearing in the midfield and Ngog Eaves and Beckford up front. We obviously can't defend to save our lives so we might as well attack from the off to give ourselves a chance.

I think the obvious key to is to play to our strengths. Understand that we can't just hoof the ball up top all the time. Davies can do a decent job of holding the ball up but if Beckford is in the side, we need to play to his strengths and as such, this means playing it on the floor.

The frustrating thing is that we've shown we can play good passing football, it's just not been often enough,