Mark Davies

[ChrisC]

He can't defend, he can't/won't track people, and is a poor tackler so IMO just take that out of the equation. His main assest is beating people and at this he is very, very good. How many times have we seen him beat 2/3 people only to be tackled by a third/forth. His best position could well be as a forward, there he might only have to beat one player then be baring down on goal and could cause havok for defenders who might have to foul him, he's won quite a few penalties this way and if he played up front in a 442 with a pacey goal scorer I think he could be dangerous. I can see why Newcastle are supposedly interested. He's not a good enough all-rounder to play midfield though IMO.

It's all academic cos we should be playing 451.

Hmm for the first time this season i'd say the effectiveness of our 4-5-1 is highly debatable.

With the personal we had earlier this year, around December/January, 4-5-1 was by a long stretch the best option available to us. Without a prolific, 10 goals plus a year striker, I felt 4-5-1 (with Muamba/NRC) holding allowed the wingers to push further forwards and allow an extra player to come off just behind the main forward and cause chaos. It also provided extra defensive support to a dodgy back line, a line who finally look like a capable premier league defence.

Ever since the incident with Muamba, and now Pratleys illness, lining up 4-5-1 has meant playing someone out of their natural position (be it Mark Davies or Eagles against Swansea) which almost feels like we're flattering to decieve. In my eyes it's no coincidence that 4-2-2 has given us the best of our recent results although the face Kevin Davies has found such fine form of late is a huge contribution.

For the next 3 matches i'm happy to play 4-5-1 against such a superior football side like Tottenham. Hopefully this will allow us to keep things tidy at the back, play the ball and hold possession through the middle, and fingers crossed scrape a winner up top. Against West Brom and Stoke however i'd much prefer to see us play 4-4-2. Despite a little more expansive, and so leaving us a tad more exposed, neither of those team has the type of players that can punish us as quickly and efficiently as Tottenham may and so both give us fantastic opportunities to play to our strengths.

It's not debatable at all. Sunderland hadn't scored in 4 matches. Against our 442 they got two without even trying, they must have been playing at about 70% of their potential. Whenever we play 442 we are so exposed we need to score at least two to get anything from a game. It doesn't even work as a gamble at the end of a match. If we go to stoke needing anything it'll probably be a disaster, if we go to stoke needing anything and play 442 then...

Did we not change to 442 against villa when Davies come on at half time?

[BWFC_Insane]

The truth is that we are not good enough defensively to get away with 4-4-2. Equally we don't have enough goals in a 4-5-1 with NGog up front on his own, given we don't have a consistent goalscorer from midfield or more crucially out wide.

So neither is ideal.

At this stage against Spurs I'd be tempted to start 4-5-1 then bring big Kev on for the last half an hour and go two up......

[Spartan2]

He can't defend, he can't/won't track people, and is a poor tackler so IMO just take that out of the equation. His main assest is beating people and at this he is very, very good. How many times have we seen him beat 2/3 people only to be tackled by a third/forth. His best position could well be as a forward, there he might only have to beat one player then be baring down on goal and could cause havok for defenders who might have to foul him, he's won quite a few penalties this way and if he played up front in a 442 with a pacey goal scorer I think he could be dangerous. I can see why Newcastle are supposedly interested. He's not a good enough all-rounder to play midfield though IMO.

It's all academic cos we should be playing 451.

Hmm for the first time this season i'd say the effectiveness of our 4-5-1 is highly debatable.

With the personal we had earlier this year, around December/January, 4-5-1 was by a long stretch the best option available to us. Without a prolific, 10 goals plus a year striker, I felt 4-5-1 (with Muamba/NRC) holding allowed the wingers to push further forwards and allow an extra player to come off just behind the main forward and cause chaos. It also provided extra defensive support to a dodgy back line, a line who finally look like a capable premier league defence.

Ever since the incident with Muamba, and now Pratleys illness, lining up 4-5-1 has meant playing someone out of their natural position (be it Mark Davies or Eagles against Swansea) which almost feels like we're flattering to decieve. In my eyes it's no coincidence that 4-2-2 has given us the best of our recent results although the face Kevin Davies has found such fine form of late is a huge contribution.

For the next 3 matches i'm happy to play 4-5-1 against such a superior football side like Tottenham. Hopefully this will allow us to keep things tidy at the back, play the ball and hold possession through the middle, and fingers crossed scrape a winner up top. Against West Brom and Stoke however i'd much prefer to see us play 4-4-2. Despite a little more expansive, and so leaving us a tad more exposed, neither of those team has the type of players that can punish us as quickly and efficiently as Tottenham may and so both give us fantastic opportunities to play to our strengths.

It's not debatable at all. Sunderland hadn't scored in 4 matches. Against our 442 they got two without even trying, they must have been playing at about 70% of their potential. Whenever we play 442 we are so exposed we need to score at least two to get anything from a game. It doesn't even work as a gamble at the end of a match. If we go to stoke needing anything it'll probably be a disaster, if we go to stoke needing anything and play 442 then...

Did we not change to 442 against villa when Davies come on at half time?

At Villa it was the right decision because it worked. But you can't take that example and say tada this is what we should do. There is a whole fixture list of examples of 442 not working this season. Just look at the statistics. Every now and again 442 will work just as every now and then we'll beat a top team but sadly this doesn't mean we're better than they are, it just happens. Management is the art of getting the most out of what you have, only one formation does this for us.

[Spartan2]

The truth is that we are not good enough defensively to get away with 4-4-2. Equally we don't have enough goals in a 4-5-1 with NGog up front on his own, given we don't have a consistent goalscorer from midfield or more crucially out wide.

So neither is ideal.

Sadly you're right. But we must play 451 despite the lack of goals simply to stay in matches until the end, if we play 442 we can be blown away early on and never be able to recover. 451 allows us to grind out results, steal wins and win by simply wanting it more than the opposition. 442 for the last 5 mins is a gamble that I might be tempted into, but I don't think it's been particularly effective this season.

[Relentless09]

We beat liverpool 3-1 with 451, why not spurs at home ?

[Tombwfc]

We looked very wide open at times against Sunderland. Spurs have better players, and arguably their best players (Modric, Bale and VDV) like to play in between our defence and midfield.

We didn't look great first half against Villa either, but I'd still prefer to start with 4-5-1. Change it if it's not working, but at least try to start solidly.

All of this is irrelevant however, he's going to play 4-4-2.

[William the White]

We looked very wide open at times against Sunderland. Spurs have better players, and arguably their best players (Modric, Bale and VDV) like to play in between our defence and midfield.

We didn't look great first half against Villa either, but I'd still prefer to start with 4-5-1. Change it if it's not working, but at least try to start solidly.

All of this is irrelevant however, he's going to play 4-4-2.

Against Spurs and WBA and Stoke - 4-5-1. please - but especially against spurs...

but you may be right on Owen's intentions...

[boltonboris]

He'll play 442 because he'll think we need to go all out for the win.

I'd actually like to see us play this for once. Eagles will have to do one hell of a shift down that right side though and I'm hoping Assou Ekotto is still injured and the Lennon injury rumours are true.

I think we need to play quite a high line too to limit VDV and Modric's scheming. But make sure Ream is always there to cover Wheater's lack of pace.

[CAPSLOCK]

We didn't play 4-5-1 at any time against Villa

The clown had us playing 4-1-5 (it was supposed to be 4-1-4-1)

It was laughably naive/disorganised