@Argo made a great point that I can't stop thinking about.

Should we really go back and enforce the back 5? Attacking primarily through our wingbacks whilst our CFs are dynamic and interchanging? Is this sustainable should we have enough personnel to implement this kind of football? 

 

Raya

Fofana  Gvardiol  Badiashile

James              Lavia    Enzo           Chilwell

Felix            Mudryk

Nkunku

 

Kepa

Chalobah   Silva   Colwill

Gusto       Kante   Kone    Maatsen

Mount     Sterling

Broja

 

 Bench: Mudueke, RLC, Santos, 

 

LOAN: Carney, Hall, Fofana, 

 

 

To be honest as much as I've liked Badiashille so far I'd still have Colwill ahead of him at this point.

I actually like 343 for this team but we have signed  so many attackers so it is highly unlike 343 will be our main formation. 

 

 

Nope - too much attacking emphasis on our injury prone wing backs is far too risky. We have seen before that when we play a 5, our creativity is almost exclusively through James and Chilly - that has to stop. 

I certainly think it's a paradox that we supposedly want to move on from the back three but then went on to hire a coach who's only had sustained success in the Premier League with the back three!

Obviously tried to implement it here too for several months before ditching it because he could never make it work.

35 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

I certainly think it's a paradox that we supposedly want to move on from the back three but then went on to hire a coach who's only had sustained success in the Premier League with the back three!

Obviously tried to implement it here too for several months before ditching it because he could never make it work.

And even that is highly debatable ! 

10 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

And even that is highly debatable ! 

It really is but i'm in a good mood so figured I would be kind.

David Moyes taking a West Ham that barely survived to an actual Top 4 fight and ultimately finishing two points off fourth in 20/21 and getting them to a semi-final in the Europa League last year is something that I actually consider impressive, not finishing 9th with that Brighton squad. Thats barely par for the course.

Would anyone consider David Moyes as our manager?

 

We haven't been worse with a back 4 in the last few games than with a back 3, so I think that we can move away from the 343.

11 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

It really is but i'm in a good mood so figured I would be kind.

David Moyes taking a West Ham that barely survived to an actual Top 4 fight and ultimately finishing two points off fourth in 20/21 and getting them to a semi-final in the Europa League last year is something that I actually consider impressive, not finishing 9th with that Brighton squad. Thats barely par for the course.

Would anyone consider David Moyes as our manager?

 

So Moyes taking West Ham into the Europa league with a squad of £100m man Declan Rice, champions league winning Zouma, World cup winner Areola etc. is impressive but taking a team from the second division in Norway into the top flight and into the Europa league and even beating Arsenal in that competition isn't impressive to you?

5 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

So Moyes taking West Ham into the Europa league with a squad of £100m man Declan Rice, champions league winning Zouma, World cup winner Areola etc. is impressive but taking a team from the second division in Norway into the top flight and into the Europa league and even beating Arsenal in that competition isn't impressive to you?

If it was a team from Sweden, he might be more impressed, but not from Norway, no ...  LOL

20 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

So Moyes taking West Ham into the Europa league with a squad of £100m man Declan Rice, champions league winning Zouma, World cup winner Areola etc. is impressive but taking a team from the second division in Norway into the top flight and into the Europa league and even beating Arsenal in that competition isn't impressive to you?

So two reserves and Declan Rice is your argument? Potter had about six players in his Brighton side last season that  genuine top clubs either were or are after.

One isolated game is not proof of anything and have you seen that Arsenal side they faced? Shambolic.

 

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

If it was a team from Sweden, he might be more impressed, but not from Norway, no ...  LOL

All the same up there anyway, Viking territory

1 hour ago, OriginalS said:

So two reserves and Declan Rice is your argument? Potter had about six players in his Brighton side last season that  genuine top clubs either were or are after.

One isolated game is not proof of anything and have you seen that Arsenal side they faced? Shambolic.

 

Zouma was a starter for them and Areola started every game in Europe for them when they got to the semi-final you were bragging about...

And where were those six top players before Potter?

Edited February 23, 20233 yr by RIP Mourinho

I think (assuming he is given the time), Potter will go back to a back 3 eventually.

When he first came in we played it a fair bit if I recall. I can't remember who it was I saw say this on twitter, so unfortunately can't give them credit, but essentially I saw a thread positing the following:

- Potter came in, attempted to instil his style

- The injurypocalypse happened, players were forced out of position to cover injuries (sterling wingback, trev RB, etc etc)

- Form/results dried up, Potter chose to go "back to basics" (4231 / 433) to shore us up defensively

- This broadly worked when looking at our defensive stats, but despite making a decent amount of chances, goals dried up massively for us


Now we're in an interesting spot,. The injury nightmare seems to be over, so we now arguably have the personnel to try playing the 3atb, or 3/4 hybrid backline, that GP had us play early on. BUT his back's against the wall, so if he is viewed as experimenting and it doesn't pay off the backlash could be monumental. Personally I would rather us switch back immediately as I think it could exaggerate the strengths of many of our players (Reece and Silva come to mind) whilst covering some weaknesses (namely, our current lack of CM depth). But gun to my head, I don't think we see the change until results improve and GP feels he has more breathing room.

Also, I think Fofana - Silva - Badiashile is a potentially incredible back 3 (assuming Benoit plays as well in a 3 as he does in a CB pairing)

I actually think his remit was to play with a back four and that seems to be going to plan only Newcastle has conceded less goals.

In big games when playing a back 3 the clever opposition packed out the midfield to negate our WBs meaning it was the CB show pinging the ball back and forth hoping to move the opposition out of shape.  Incredibly frustrating watching this. 

A back 4 allows  3 midfield players, a stopper, a creator and a ball winner. We are still hasmpered by injuries in the midfield department hence RLC getting games.

 

16 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Nope - too much attacking emphasis on our injury prone wing backs is far too risky. We have seen before that when we play a 5, our creativity is almost exclusively through James and Chilly - that has to stop. 

That was partly because the backups weren't up to it.

Ofcourse we'll still have the same problem for the rest of the season but next season with Gusto coming in and (hopefully) Maatsen returning it would be a gamechanger.

Would also be a chance to have James and Gusto on the right flank attacking at the same time (with Reece RCB) which if Gusto is as good as advertised could cause absolute havoc.

9 minutes ago, Argo said:

That was partly because the backups weren't up to it.

Ofcourse we'll still have the same problem for the rest of the season but next season with Gusto coming in and (hopefully) Maatsen returning it would be a gamechanger.

Would also be a chance to have James and Gusto on the right flank attacking at the same time (with Reece RCB) which if Gusto is as good as advertised could cause absolute havoc.

Not to mention the likes of Felix and Nkunku added to the fold. 

Enzo too. 

2 hours ago, Argo said:

That was partly because the backups weren't up to it.

Ofcourse we'll still have the same problem for the rest of the season but next season with Gusto coming in and (hopefully) Maatsen returning it would be a gamechanger.

Would also be a chance to have James and Gusto on the right flank attacking at the same time (with Reece RCB) which if Gusto is as good as advertised could cause absolute havoc.

Would be bad news for the likes of Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke etc who play on the wing, as there is no place for wingers in a 3 at the back system, as all the width comes form the wing backs. 

I imagine we'll see 4-2-3-1

I no longer want to see a back 3 tbh. It puts too much strain on our always injured FBs.

If we had 4 fullbacks on par with each other then I'd agree.

Had we bought Hakimi and Zinchenko, it would have been no problem.

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Would be bad news for the likes of Sterling, Mudryk, Madueke etc who play on the wing, as there is no place for wingers in a 3 at the back system, as all the width comes form the wing backs. 

I imagine we'll see 4-2-3-1

I wouldn't say that for certain. The wingbacks coming into the pitch could allow them to still offer the width.

Although I'd prefer Sterling more inside anyway to be honest.

55 minutes ago, Argo said:

I wouldn't say that for certain. The wingbacks coming into the pitch could allow them to still offer the width.

Although I'd prefer Sterling more inside anyway to be honest.

Yeah would need to be a 343 set up. Only issues is it sets those wide players up against Felix and Nkunku, which will harm game tome for some very expensive players.

silva wont play much next season. it would be stupid to build a system round him.  You could play a back 3 with Koulibaly in the centre, Badiashile and Fof but I wouldn't. It was only when Conte came in that we moved from 4 3 3 and it was Conte's willingness to do that and to really show what wing backs could do that made me admire him.

Yet I think 4 3 3 is our natural system or  maybe a diamond although I rarely see that working well. Lately it seems to be 4 2 4 with the wide players in the attacking 4 expected to become backwings without the ball.

I could imagine in a year's time

Arrizabalaga

James Fof Baddy Chiller

Felix Enzo Chukwu/Mount

Havertz Nunku Mudryk

Felix is no Ramires, or Bison or Ballack of course so its a bit of a soft midfield

 

Probably still wont be scoring goals though

 

 

8 hours ago, Argo said:

I wouldn't say that for certain. The wingbacks coming into the pitch could allow them to still offer the width.

Although I'd prefer Sterling more inside anyway to be honest.

Point is that with 3 at the back, if you are playing the wing backs then you'll either have  #10s or wingers - aren't enough spots for both !

Playing a goalkeeper, three centre backs, 2 wing backs and 2 central midfielders  is 8 players.

That would therefore only leave spots for 3 more players, and assuming one is a centre forward, then you are either/or on #10s or wingers, and, if signed, I highly doubt we'd be leaving out Felix and Nkunku. Hence I think 3 at the back is bad news for all our wingers. 

27 minutes ago, ozboy said:

silva wont play much next season. it would be stupid to build a system round him.  You could play a back 3 with Koulibaly in the centre, Badiashile and Fof but I wouldn't. It was only when Conte came in that we moved from 4 3 3 and it was Conte's willingness to do that and to really show what wing backs could do that made me admire him.

Yet I think 4 3 3 is our natural system or  maybe a diamond although I rarely see that working well. Lately it seems to be 4 2 4 with the wide players in the attacking 4 expected to become backwings without the ball.

I could imagine in a year's time

Arrizabalaga

James Fof Baddy Chiller

Felix Enzo Chukwu/Mount

Havertz Nunku Mudryk

Felix is no Ramires, or Bison or Ballack of course so its a bit of a soft midfield

 

Probably still wont be scoring goals though

 

 

Enzo isn’t a DM though so we will get hammered on the break. Felix has also been underwhelming and a smart board shouldn’t be sanctioning a £80m+ £200k/w deal for a player we don’t need. He isn’t a winger, and we already have enough of those. He operates in the same spaces as the £60m Nkunku, so signing him will just create a problem for any manager.