Sheff Utd (A) 25/2/17 3pm

[truewhite15]

Phil Parkinson on signing footballers Alf, Long & Soloman on transfer deadline day

'"Lads, me & the coaches have been thinking long & hard over the past few weeks about changing the way we play to accommodate the new players who like to play the ball on the floor, so today instead of just aimlessly hoofing the ball to Madine we've decided to change the way we play so today we'd like you to aimlessly hoof the ball to Wilkinson instead"

PP = tactical genius

Transfer deadline day....

Ken - "Parky I've got you 3 decent footballers in the window so that we can start to actually play football now on the deck like most teams do - pass & move at pace, start to thread balls on the deck through midfield for ALF'y & Long'y to run on too"

Parkinson " I wish that you would have told me about this before signing them Ken, I haven't got a clue about how to use decent players & play good football on the floor - if it was down to me Ken I'd have preferred to sign those 2 6ft 5" forwards from the conference that we spoke about last week, so that we can hoof it even higher & further than we currently do with Madine"

Who else do you want? Who else is out there, available, within our budget? Who else came as highly rated at this level as Parkinson? Who else would have got us to the top four despite budgetary and squad issues? Name names, instead of blindly and blithely saying "not good enough", if you're that big and clever.

And lets not resort to childish name-calling again. It demeans you more than me. Big schnozz.

[Tombwfc]

I think it's been obvious for a while now who PT wants as manager... King Ken. Judging from that entirely fictional dialogue, it sounds like he's got much more of a clue than Parky.

As for ALF, I think I'd give him until the Fleetwood game to start showing signs of making an impact. Ultimately if we get him firing we'll go up, so he's worth sticking with for now (and it's not like Long/Wilkinson/VSO are really banging the door down to replace him).

[Tails07]

As for ALF, I think I'd give him until the Fleetwood game to start showing signs of making an impact. Ultimately if we get him firing we'll go up, so he's worth sticking with for now (and it's not like Long/Wilkinson/VSO are really banging the door down to replace him).

I think Long is the most deserving of the three to come in for Alf as the only one that's scored so far. I agree Alf needs a few more games before dropping. I'm still surprised how little Clayton has been involved as before we brought in the two strikers he seemed to me the most likely Clough replacement

[BWFC_Insane]

As for ALF, I think I'd give him until the Fleetwood game to start showing signs of making an impact. Ultimately if we get him firing we'll go up, so he's worth sticking with for now (and it's not like Long/Wilkinson/VSO are really banging the door down to replace him).

I think Long is the most deserving of the three to come in for Alf as the only one that's scored so far. I agree Alf needs a few more games before dropping. I'm still surprised how little Clayton has been involved as before we brought in the two strikers he seemed to me the most likely Clough replacement

Trouble is Clayton doesn't look very good.

They are nursing Long through a hamstring injury.

And it was always a risk with ALF given he'd scored what 3 in 40 odd games? He's also just getting up to speed.

Whether people like it or not we are reliant on a target up front and Madine is our best one. That's why he is one of the first names on the sheet when fit.

[Peter Thompson]

Trouble is Clayton doesn't look very good.

They are nursing Long through a hamstring injury.

And it was always a risk with ALF given he'd scored what 3 in 40 odd games? He's also just getting up to speed.

Whether people like it or not we are reliant on a target up front and Madine is our best one. That's why he is one of the first names on the sheet when fit.

So basically as I've said we are a long / hoof ball team under PP and can't play any other way, which is why Madine is one of the 1st names on Parkinson's team sheet

[BWFC_Insane]

Trouble is Clayton doesn't look very good.

They are nursing Long through a hamstring injury.

And it was always a risk with ALF given he'd scored what 3 in 40 odd games? He's also just getting up to speed.

Whether people like it or not we are reliant on a target up front and Madine is our best one. That's why he is one of the first names on the sheet when fit.

So basically as I've said we are a long / hoof ball team under PP and can't play any other way, which is why Madine is one of the 1st names on Parkinson's team sheet

We haven't got the quality in midfield to be otherwise. We've lost it, either through injury, sales or loans returning.

Sheffield United will win the league. Wilder signed Parky's old target man James Hanson. Let's not pretend it isn't something most good sides in this league don't have in their arsenal.

If we had Ameobi, Clough, Mark Davies available, it might be more relevant to argue we had the quality to play differently. As it stands our best distributor in midifield is Liam Trotter.

[Peter Thompson]

I'm not disagreeing with you on this BWFCI

And this is the reason why we will struggle to go up, even via the play offs, our style of play is boring & predictable and teams have worked us out IMO & now that the defence aren't as good as they where earlier in the season and are conceding regularly Parkinson's win 1-0 tactic is failing (again IMO)

I'm not saying anyone of any quality was available in January (central midfielder), but to me his biggest mistake which shows his tactical weakness was to bring in 3 forward players (ALF, Long, Solomon) who like to play football on the floor, but not think about playing with a system or having a plan in regards to how to accommodate them and to just continue to lump it long - he should have targeted a central midfielder in the window ahead of Long or Solomon - we where told that he was targeting a defender in the window but nothing was ever said about missing out on a central midfielder - even after the window closed and we could still sign out of contract players, he got Wabara (I know that we needed a RB) - but to me again an energetic central midfielder was more of a priority than RB and Parkinson has never mentioned needing to strengthen the midfield.

To have these 3 new attacking players, with Long & Solomon also being very quick - but not having a clue how to use them and to just continue aimlessly lumping it shows me how poor tactically Parkinson is, Yesterday with Madine out he had an opportunity to try something different, we had decent players in Morais & Henry who can play on the deck and ALF, Long & Solomon available who also like to play on the floor and instead he chose to keep the same system and continue to just lump the ball to Wilkinson, who is one of the worst footballers that I've ever seen and is conference level at best.

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm not disagreeing with you on this BWFCI

And this is the reason why we will struggle to go up, even via the play offs, our style of play is boring & predictable and teams have worked us out IMO & now that the defence aren't as good as they where earlier in the season and are conceding regularly Parkinson's win 1-0 tactic is failing (again IMO)

I'm not saying anyone of any quality was available in January (central midfielder), but to me his biggest mistake which shows his tactical weakness was to bring in 3 forward players (ALF, Long, Solomon) who like to play football on the floor, but not think about playing with a system or having a plan in regards to how to accommodate them and to just continue to lump it long - he should have targeted a central midfielder in the window ahead of Long or Solomon - we where told that he was targeting a defender in the window but nothing was ever said about missing out on a central midfielder - even after the window closed and we could still sign out of contract players, he got Wabara (I know that we needed a RB) - but to me again an energetic central midfielder was more of a priority than RB and Parkinson has never mentioned needing to strengthen the midfield.

To have these 3 new attacking players, with Long & Solomon also being very quick - but not having a clue how to use them and to just continue aimlessly lumping it shows me how poor tactically Parkinson is, Yesterday with Madine out he had an opportunity to try something different, we had decent players in Morais & Henry who can play on the deck and ALF, Long & Solomon available who also like to play on the floor and instead he chose to keep the same system and continue to just lump the ball to Wilkinson, who is one of the worst footballers that I've ever seen and is conference level at best.

Entirely disagree. He signed who was available. Which given the way our owners have left us wasn't many. We've signed two players who our rivals didn't want. Who couldn't get into our rivals squads. That shows the level we are playing it in the market.

Our team pre Christmas played football that at times looked like we were good enough to go up automatically. At times we looked superb. Then we lost our two creative sparks through no fault of the manager.

Our squad has had to be assembled and de-assembled too many times this season. Plus we've had our usual run of luck with long term injuries. And an embargo to deal with.

Against that backdrop and considering the two sides who came down with us, but finished above us, are below us, I'd say that all points, nay screams, to Parky doing a marvellous job. But let's be real his hands are towed behind his back.

What we have at our disposal right now is a very limited squad. We are probably top half with the quality we've got now. But with an injury or two it can look much worse than that. Missing players like Taylor and Spearing on top of everything else is hardy going to make a top of the table clash easier. Then add Madine to that. We were down to the bottom of the barrel as it was.

If we don't go up it will be down to a combination of injuries and an inability for the owners to sort out the embargo situation. Ken and Dean could have got together in November, acted like men and said, 'look there is a chance we can go up let's put together and see if we can help Parky out'. Instead they act like fools and we end up trying to piece a squad together from rivals rejects and unfit loans.

[Nicko58]

Trouble is Clayton doesn't look very good.

They are nursing Long through a hamstring injury.

And it was always a risk with ALF given he'd scored what 3 in 40 odd games? He's also just getting up to speed.

Whether people like it or not we are reliant on a target up front and Madine is our best one. That's why he is one of the first names on the sheet when fit.

So basically as I've said we are a long / hoof ball team under PP and can't play any other way, which is why Madine is one of the 1st names on Parkinson's team sheet

We haven't got the quality in midfield to be otherwise. We've lost it, either through injury, sales or loans returning.

Sheffield United will win the league. Wilder signed Parky's old target man James Hanson. Let's not pretend it isn't something most good sides in this league don't have in their arsenal.

If we had Ameobi, Clough, Mark Davies available, it might be more relevant to argue we had the quality to play differently. As it stands our best distributor in midifield is Liam Trotter.

I understand the point about a lack of quality in midfield but I don’t agree that we can’t fashion an eleven that’s capable of playing with the ball on the grass instead of going long. We don’t have a player able to waltz past two or three of the opposition or act as the link between the midfield and the forwards but we do have something that unsettles teams at this level: pace and movement. Le Fondre hasn’t scored yet but against both Walsall and Rochdale he at least worried their centre-backs with his attempts to find space, and from what I’ve seen of Long he’s quick, has decent positional sense and can finish. I haven’t really seen enough of VSO to pass judgement, but he’s also supposed to have pace and be direct with it too. We know that Morais puts a mean ball into the box and can do it regularly and Henry was good enough to cause Crystal Palace problems, so with the right players around him he should be able to link up relatively well.

Granted, Derik hasn’t played very often - preferring Thorpe over him is one of the few things that I think Parky has got wrong - but he appears to me to have some ability when it comes to passing the ball, so we could have him next to Spearing to act as the second holding midfielder but also to find the pass from which we can start our attacks. Combine all of that with Vela’s pressing and, whilst it isn’t perfect, we could well find that we’re able to put together quite a potent forward line - there are a lot of poor teams in this league after all.

We could start with this, for example:

Le Fondre

Long Vela Morais/Henry

Spearing Derik

Taylor Beevers Wheater Wabara

Alnwick/Howard

We would keep the same 4-2-3-1 shape that has worked for us, Parky can still have the insurance of the two holding midfielders protecting the back five, and we would still have the benefits of Vela pressing high up, but it might also allow us to be a tad more effective in and around the opposition penalty box. And that’s without factoring in the headaches that Taylor and Wabara could cause on the overlap.

The unfortunate mix of a transfer embargo, a long injury list, a lack of squad depth and suspensions creeping in might mean that we’re unable to stop ourselves drifting into a play-off place anyway, but I think that the above set-up would still be worth a go.

On a not unrelated note, I think that we’d be sitting pretty at the top of the table now if Mark Davies had been fit.

[BWFC_Insane]

Trouble is Clayton doesn't look very good.

They are nursing Long through a hamstring injury.

And it was always a risk with ALF given he'd scored what 3 in 40 odd games? He's also just getting up to speed.

Whether people like it or not we are reliant on a target up front and Madine is our best one. That's why he is one of the first names on the sheet when fit.

So basically as I've said we are a long / hoof ball team under PP and can't play any other way, which is why Madine is one of the 1st names on Parkinson's team sheet

We haven't got the quality in midfield to be otherwise. We've lost it, either through injury, sales or loans returning.

Sheffield United will win the league. Wilder signed Parky's old target man James Hanson. Let's not pretend it isn't something most good sides in this league don't have in their arsenal.

If we had Ameobi, Clough, Mark Davies available, it might be more relevant to argue we had the quality to play differently. As it stands our best distributor in midifield is Liam Trotter.

I understand the point about a lack of quality in midfield but I don’t agree that we can’t fashion an eleven that’s capable of playing with the ball on the grass instead of going long. We don’t have a player able to waltz past two or three of the opposition or act as the link between the midfield and the forwards but we do have something that unsettles teams at this level: pace and movement. Le Fondre hasn’t scored yet but against both Walsall and Rochdale he at least worried their centre-backs with his attempts to find space, and from what I’ve seen of Long he’s quick, has decent positional sense and can finish. I haven’t really seen enough of VSO to pass judgement, but he’s also supposed to have pace and be direct with it too. We know that Morais puts a mean ball into the box and can do it regularly and Henry was good enough to cause Crystal Palace problems, so with the right players around him he should be able to link up relatively well.

Granted, Derik hasn’t played very often - preferring Thorpe over him is one of the few things that I think Parky has got wrong - but he appears to me to have some ability when it comes to passing the ball, so we could have him next to Spearing to act as the second holding midfielder but also to find the pass from which we can start our attacks. Combine all of that with Vela’s pressing and, whilst it isn’t perfect, we could well find that we’re able to put together quite a potent forward line - there are a lot of poor teams in this league after all.

We could start with this, for example:

Le Fondre

Long Vela Morais/Henry

Spearing Derik

Taylor Beevers Wheater Wabara

Alnwick/Howard

We would keep the same 4-2-3-1 shape that has worked for us, Parky can still have the insurance of the two holding midfielders protecting the back five, and we would still have the benefits of Vela pressing high up, but it might also allow us to be a tad more effective in and around the opposition penalty box. And that’s without factoring in the headaches that Taylor and Wabara could cause on the overlap.

The unfortunate mix of a transfer embargo, a long injury list, a lack of squad depth and suspensions creeping in might mean that we’re unable to stop ourselves drifting into a play-off place anyway, but I think that the above set-up would still be worth a go.

On a not unrelated note, I think that we’d be sitting pretty at the top of the table now if Mark Davies had been fit.

We could. I'm not convinced of the logic behind leaving our most effective striker and top scorer out for a bloke, not suited to playing up front alone, who isn't match fit yet, and who hasn't done anything of note since returning here.

Each to their own though.

[Nicko58]

Trouble is Clayton doesn't look very good.

They are nursing Long through a hamstring injury.

And it was always a risk with ALF given he'd scored what 3 in 40 odd games? He's also just getting up to speed.

Whether people like it or not we are reliant on a target up front and Madine is our best one. That's why he is one of the first names on the sheet when fit.

So basically as I've said we are a long / hoof ball team under PP and can't play any other way, which is why Madine is one of the 1st names on Parkinson's team sheet

We haven't got the quality in midfield to be otherwise. We've lost it, either through injury, sales or loans returning.

Sheffield United will win the league. Wilder signed Parky's old target man James Hanson. Let's not pretend it isn't something most good sides in this league don't have in their arsenal.

If we had Ameobi, Clough, Mark Davies available, it might be more relevant to argue we had the quality to play differently. As it stands our best distributor in midifield is Liam Trotter.

I understand the point about a lack of quality in midfield but I don’t agree that we can’t fashion an eleven that’s capable of playing with the ball on the grass instead of going long. We don’t have a player able to waltz past two or three of the opposition or act as the link between the midfield and the forwards but we do have something that unsettles teams at this level: pace and movement. Le Fondre hasn’t scored yet but against both Walsall and Rochdale he at least worried their centre-backs with his attempts to find space, and from what I’ve seen of Long he’s quick, has decent positional sense and can finish. I haven’t really seen enough of VSO to pass judgement, but he’s also supposed to have pace and be direct with it too. We know that Morais puts a mean ball into the box and can do it regularly and Henry was good enough to cause Crystal Palace problems, so with the right players around him he should be able to link up relatively well.

Granted, Derik hasn’t played very often - preferring Thorpe over him is one of the few things that I think Parky has got wrong - but he appears to me to have some ability when it comes to passing the ball, so we could have him next to Spearing to act as the second holding midfielder but also to find the pass from which we can start our attacks. Combine all of that with Vela’s pressing and, whilst it isn’t perfect, we could well find that we’re able to put together quite a potent forward line - there are a lot of poor teams in this league after all.

We could start with this, for example:

Le Fondre

Long Vela Morais/Henry

Spearing Derik

Taylor Beevers Wheater Wabara

Alnwick/Howard

We would keep the same 4-2-3-1 shape that has worked for us, Parky can still have the insurance of the two holding midfielders protecting the back five, and we would still have the benefits of Vela pressing high up, but it might also allow us to be a tad more effective in and around the opposition penalty box. And that’s without factoring in the headaches that Taylor and Wabara could cause on the overlap.

The unfortunate mix of a transfer embargo, a long injury list, a lack of squad depth and suspensions creeping in might mean that we’re unable to stop ourselves drifting into a play-off place anyway, but I think that the above set-up would still be worth a go.

On a not unrelated note, I think that we’d be sitting pretty at the top of the table now if Mark Davies had been fit.

We could. I'm not convinced of the logic behind leaving our most effective striker and top scorer out for a bloke, not suited to playing up front alone, who isn't match fit yet, and who hasn't done anything of note since returning here.

Each to their own though.

Le Fondre is close to the stage where he has enough minutes under his belt to be considered match fit by now I would have thought. He might not be used to playing alone up front but it doesn't mean that he wouldn't be able to, I wasn't suggesting that he would be used as a target man. In any case, it was just one alternative. We can start Madine if we want to. Or have Long as the one up front and Henry and Morais out wide. The main thing is that we stop just punting it forward, which is what we've resorted to. There's more than one way for us to play with the players that we have.

[BWFC_Insane]

So basically as I've said we are a long / hoof ball team under PP and can't play any other way, which is why Madine is one of the 1st names on Parkinson's team sheet

We haven't got the quality in midfield to be otherwise. We've lost it, either through injury, sales or loans returning.

Sheffield United will win the league. Wilder signed Parky's old target man James Hanson. Let's not pretend it isn't something most good sides in this league don't have in their arsenal.

If we had Ameobi, Clough, Mark Davies available, it might be more relevant to argue we had the quality to play differently. As it stands our best distributor in midifield is Liam Trotter.

I understand the point about a lack of quality in midfield but I don’t agree that we can’t fashion an eleven that’s capable of playing with the ball on the grass instead of going long. We don’t have a player able to waltz past two or three of the opposition or act as the link between the midfield and the forwards but we do have something that unsettles teams at this level: pace and movement. Le Fondre hasn’t scored yet but against both Walsall and Rochdale he at least worried their centre-backs with his attempts to find space, and from what I’ve seen of Long he’s quick, has decent positional sense and can finish. I haven’t really seen enough of VSO to pass judgement, but he’s also supposed to have pace and be direct with it too. We know that Morais puts a mean ball into the box and can do it regularly and Henry was good enough to cause Crystal Palace problems, so with the right players around him he should be able to link up relatively well.

Granted, Derik hasn’t played very often - preferring Thorpe over him is one of the few things that I think Parky has got wrong - but he appears to me to have some ability when it comes to passing the ball, so we could have him next to Spearing to act as the second holding midfielder but also to find the pass from which we can start our attacks. Combine all of that with Vela’s pressing and, whilst it isn’t perfect, we could well find that we’re able to put together quite a potent forward line - there are a lot of poor teams in this league after all.

We could start with this, for example:

Le Fondre

Long Vela Morais/Henry

Spearing Derik

Taylor Beevers Wheater Wabara

Alnwick/Howard

We would keep the same 4-2-3-1 shape that has worked for us, Parky can still have the insurance of the two holding midfielders protecting the back five, and we would still have the benefits of Vela pressing high up, but it might also allow us to be a tad more effective in and around the opposition penalty box. And that’s without factoring in the headaches that Taylor and Wabara could cause on the overlap.

The unfortunate mix of a transfer embargo, a long injury list, a lack of squad depth and suspensions creeping in might mean that we’re unable to stop ourselves drifting into a play-off place anyway, but I think that the above set-up would still be worth a go.

On a not unrelated note, I think that we’d be sitting pretty at the top of the table now if Mark Davies had been fit.

We could. I'm not convinced of the logic behind leaving our most effective striker and top scorer out for a bloke, not suited to playing up front alone, who isn't match fit yet, and who hasn't done anything of note since returning here.

Each to their own though.

He has enough minutes under his belt to be considered match fit by now I would have thought. He might not be used to playing alone up front but it doesn't mean that he wouldn't be able to, I wasn't suggesting that he would be used as a target man. In any case, it was just one alternative. We can start Madine if we want to. Or have Long as the one up front and Henry and Morais out wide. The main thing is that we stop just punting it forward, which is what we've resorted to. There's more than one way for us to play with the players that we have.

Sticking an ineffective lone striker up front doesn't make your centre halves able to suddenly play cultured balls into the channels. Nor does it make your defensive midfield grafter and centre half converted to a central midfield player the sort who can open the game up. Or give your hard running but limited number 10 an extra gear.

This is what puzzles me. We don't have a team to knock the ball around effectively. Where is our change of pace or ability to switch gears in that system? It isn't there.

[Nicko58]

We haven't got the quality in midfield to be otherwise. We've lost it, either through injury, sales or loans returning.

Sheffield United will win the league. Wilder signed Parky's old target man James Hanson. Let's not pretend it isn't something most good sides in this league don't have in their arsenal.

If we had Ameobi, Clough, Mark Davies available, it might be more relevant to argue we had the quality to play differently. As it stands our best distributor in midifield is Liam Trotter.

I understand the point about a lack of quality in midfield but I don’t agree that we can’t fashion an eleven that’s capable of playing with the ball on the grass instead of going long. We don’t have a player able to waltz past two or three of the opposition or act as the link between the midfield and the forwards but we do have something that unsettles teams at this level: pace and movement. Le Fondre hasn’t scored yet but against both Walsall and Rochdale he at least worried their centre-backs with his attempts to find space, and from what I’ve seen of Long he’s quick, has decent positional sense and can finish. I haven’t really seen enough of VSO to pass judgement, but he’s also supposed to have pace and be direct with it too. We know that Morais puts a mean ball into the box and can do it regularly and Henry was good enough to cause Crystal Palace problems, so with the right players around him he should be able to link up relatively well.

Granted, Derik hasn’t played very often - preferring Thorpe over him is one of the few things that I think Parky has got wrong - but he appears to me to have some ability when it comes to passing the ball, so we could have him next to Spearing to act as the second holding midfielder but also to find the pass from which we can start our attacks. Combine all of that with Vela’s pressing and, whilst it isn’t perfect, we could well find that we’re able to put together quite a potent forward line - there are a lot of poor teams in this league after all.

We could start with this, for example:

Le Fondre

Long Vela Morais/Henry

Spearing Derik

Taylor Beevers Wheater Wabara

Alnwick/Howard

We would keep the same 4-2-3-1 shape that has worked for us, Parky can still have the insurance of the two holding midfielders protecting the back five, and we would still have the benefits of Vela pressing high up, but it might also allow us to be a tad more effective in and around the opposition penalty box. And that’s without factoring in the headaches that Taylor and Wabara could cause on the overlap.

The unfortunate mix of a transfer embargo, a long injury list, a lack of squad depth and suspensions creeping in might mean that we’re unable to stop ourselves drifting into a play-off place anyway, but I think that the above set-up would still be worth a go.

On a not unrelated note, I think that we’d be sitting pretty at the top of the table now if Mark Davies had been fit.

We could. I'm not convinced of the logic behind leaving our most effective striker and top scorer out for a bloke, not suited to playing up front alone, who isn't match fit yet, and who hasn't done anything of note since returning here.

Each to their own though.

He has enough minutes under his belt to be considered match fit by now I would have thought. He might not be used to playing alone up front but it doesn't mean that he wouldn't be able to, I wasn't suggesting that he would be used as a target man. In any case, it was just one alternative. We can start Madine if we want to. Or have Long as the one up front and Henry and Morais out wide. The main thing is that we stop just punting it forward, which is what we've resorted to. There's more than one way for us to play with the players that we have.

Sticking an ineffective lone striker up front doesn't make your centre halves able to suddenly play cultured balls into the channels. Nor does it make your defensive midfield grafter and centre half converted to a central midfield player the sort who can open the game up. Or give your hard running but limited number 10 an extra gear.

This is what puzzles me. We don't have a team to knock the ball around effectively. Where is our change of pace or ability to switch gears in that system? It isn't there.

Nowhere have I suggested that we would turn into Cruyff's Ajax. What I have suggested is that we might just be able to patch together a team which is capable of keeping the ball on the grass and playing with a bit more urgency if we want to. As I said, having Le Fondre alone up front was just one suggestion. It wouldn't be ideal but playing him up front on his own is less of a problem if we can get the likes of Morais, Henry, Long and Vela linking up with him. We could drop Le Fondre and have Madine as the one up front and still make it work, but we aren't getting the best out of what we have by passing it back to Beevers and Wheater and then them hitting it long. If you think that we have no option but to do that or that it's the best way for us to go then fine, I just disagree.

[officer_dibble]

What is the real stiry about Madine then?

Photo of him walking into the stadium grinning kitbag in hand on twatter rules out illness, fight on the coach (they were two rumours yesterday, one started by PP). Would like to know why he was dropped.

[Prufrock]

Well Nadine isn't our top scorer is he?

[Tombwfc]

Le Fondre played up front on his own last time he was here, didn't he? Bar the odd game where we wheeled out Big Emile, which basically amounts to the same thing.

Of course, he had Clough, but I think he'd have more of a chance playing through the middle with Henry dropping off behind him, than a big oaf who can't pass. I think the idea of a big man flicking it on to a little quick man who runs through and scores is a bit of a football myth.

However, ultimately scrapping our way past sides with Madine up front is how we've accumulated most of our points this season, so you can understand Parky not wanting to gamble while things are still going ok.

[TANGODANCER]

I think the idea of a big man flicking it on to a little quick man who runs through and scores is a bit of a football myth.

It worked well in plenty cases in the past Tom: John Toshack and Kegan, Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips etc etc, but it was with a goal poacher type rather than a striker as such. It was always about the quality of the poacher as many men can win headers well (Kev Davies jumps to mind, but all too often he was on his own without support) A Klasnic is needed.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Seems Parky agrees with PT (well, to an extent). Per BN:

Gaz (Madine) has been in good form but if he’s out, he’s out. There’s nothing we can do about it. Conor is a Madine-type player, six-foot three and has played the target man role. He did okay. We’d made the sub with Alfie (Adam Le Fondre) who I felt was fatigued and then Conor cramped up. That was a big game to come into for Conor but when we made the change, with two smaller players at the top end, there needed to be better quality. There were too many fight balls.