Your Starting Eleven

Much has been made (rightly in my opinion) of Phil Parkinson's team selections and his baffling substitution strategy over the last few months. While Sammy Ameobi was of course injured but even before that happened it still seemed to many that Phil didn't and still doesn't know what his best eleven is. So just out of curiosity I thought I'd ask my fellow Nutters for their starting line up of choice and which formation you'd play them in.

Not sure what his best eleven might be, but I do know Buckley shouldn't be anywhere near it.

Ben Alnwick in goal, David Wheater in defence, 8 wheelie bins in front of him, then Christian Doidge upfront. The plan is that Alnwick rolls the ball out to Wheater who hoofs it to Doidge. I am pretty sure this will work better than anything else we have seen recently.

Not much left to try, but I’d go with:

T.R.O.Y wrote:Not much left to try, but I’d go with:

Alnwick

Oklowski Hobbs Wheater Taylor 

Vela Lowe Williams

Ameobi Doidge Oztumer

The weak spot for me is the midfield, aside from Lowe who is fine as a holding midfielder. Neither Vela nor Williams are dynamic enough for me, and need to do a box to box job. 

Vela seems to have lost the plot recently. At one time he looked a decent player but he's pretty anonymous in every game now. Oztumer is like a headless chicken. If he could learn to pass instead of shooting (either yards wide or over the bar every time) he could be useful, but like you say we don't have much option. I'm struggling to think of a decent line up from our squad. It's no surprise that Parkinson can't make his mind up to be honest.

Disagree on Oz, think he's a very good addition. If the players around him could finish he'd have picked up 3 assists over the last 3 games. We know he's capable of scoring from anywhere as we saw in his time at Walsall, agree with you that he certainly hasn't found his range for us yet though.

We need to find a formation that gets us playing 2 strikers at home. I would go for a 352 or a 442 with a diamond in midfield.

Obviously a difficult one as the pool to pick from is pretty bare.

As we've not scored at home for 4 games we have to be more attacking so my team would be:


Obviously the team would have to be more defensive against the likes of Derby away, but at home we have to start attacking teams. Yes, the better teams will beat us, but fuck me, we need to start having a threat going forward.

Natasha Whittam wrote:Obviously a difficult one as the pool to pick from is pretty bare.

As we've not scored at home for 4 games we have to be more attacking so my team would be:

Alnwick

Oklowski Hobbs Wheater Taylor

Little Lowe Oztumer Ameobi

Doidge Donaldson

Obviously the team would have to be more defensive against the likes of Derby away, but at home we have to start attacking teams. Yes, the better teams will beat us, but fuck me, we need to start having a threat going forward.

I have no problem if we get beat by the better teams, but at the moment we would probably lose against a pub team. Of course it doesn't help chopping and changing the team every week but I am sure there is more to it than just that. Most of the players look like they have no interest at all. If I didn't know better I would think they are playing that way deliberately. It's like they start the game knowing that as soon as they concede a goal it's game over.

Vela has sufficient class to be in normally but he has been on the bench so often now that he seems to have lost all confidence.

maconman wrote:Vela has sufficient class to be in normally but he has been on the bench so often now that he seems to have lost all confidence.

Genuinely can't remember him ever having a good run of form in the Championship (except for when he played RB). Not up to it for me, not fast enough, strong enough or fit enough - need at least one of those to make it in midfield.

I can only judge from video clips and the occasional match stream but I think this would be my team for home games -


I think Alnwick is obviously everyone's choice as keeper although Matthews did well when he stood in for a few games earlier this season.

We need to attack at home, so we need two forwards so we need a solid back four. I've never been a fan of Wheater so would play Hobbs and Wilson as centre backs. Olkowski and Taylor seem better suited in a back four, so those are my four at the back.

If we jump to the two strikers then the cupboard is somewhat bare. Doidge might well come good but for now he seems to be a bit lightweight and a bit lost when I've seen clips of him, so Donaldson and Magennis are about the only two players we've got to play in the first team right now.

So that leaves me with four to find in midfield who can create chances for our strikers and hold the middle of the park at the same time! Ameobi and Oztumer are our only two flare players we have (I don't rate Wildschut from what I've seen of him) so if they are in the team we need two tireless workers to run and hold the midfield and protect our defenders, so it's got to be Lowe and O'Neil for me.

That's my reasoning behind my selection anyway.