Mason rejects Bolton move

If Dougie played Mason in a midfield 5 and put Beckford up front would everyone be happy then? You could call it 442 and say we had two strikers. If Mason is playing say 2 yards behind Beckford does that qualify as 442? What about 3 yards? In fact what is the acceptable distance? Is it as much as Rooney plays behind RVP i.e. sometimes as much as 10 yards? The "pundits" still call him a striker even though he is playing as a midfielder.

Still don't get why we shouldn't play 451 i.e. with 6 strikers - apart from the fact that none of our midfielders look the threat or contribute the goals they should be doing.

wanderlust wrote:If Dougie played Mason in a midfield 5 and put Beckford up front would everyone be happy then? You could call it 442 and say we had two strikers. If Mason is playing say 2 yards behind Beckford does that qualify as 442? What about 3 yards? In fact what is the acceptable distance? Is it as much as Rooney plays behind RVP i.e. sometimes as much as 10 yards? The "pundits" still call him a striker even though he is playing as a midfielder.

Still don't get why we shouldn't play 451 i.e. with 6 strikers - apart from the fact that none of our midfielders look the threat or contribute the goals they should be doing.

Spot on Lusty it's the lack of goals from other areas that's the main problem. I totally agree people get too tied up with formation instead of players interacting with each other. A good team has scorers all over the pitch including defence. Unfortunately, apart from Baptiste, we don't have anyone other than Beckford who ever looks like scoring. Danns popped up with a couple but most efforts trouble the crowd more than the keeper and the same for the rest, no end product. This is the most worrying thing because if DF thinks creating chances is enough he's kidding himself. Unfortunately none of our players have a good scoring record so why should that change now?

Whitesince63 wrote:

wanderlust wrote:If Dougie played Mason in a midfield 5 and put Beckford up front would everyone be happy then? You could call it 442 and say we had two strikers. If Mason is playing say 2 yards behind Beckford does that qualify as 442? What about 3 yards? In fact what is the acceptable distance? Is it as much as Rooney plays behind RVP i.e. sometimes as much as 10 yards? The "pundits" still call him a striker even though he is playing as a midfielder.

Still don't get why we shouldn't play 451 i.e. with 6 strikers - apart from the fact that none of our midfielders look the threat or contribute the goals they should be doing.

Spot on Lusty it's the lack of goals from other areas that's the main problem. I totally agree people get too tied up with formation instead of players interacting with each other. A good team has scorers all over the pitch including defence. Unfortunately, apart from Baptiste, we don't have anyone other than Beckford who ever looks like scoring. Danns popped up with a couple but most efforts trouble the crowd more than the keeper and the same for the rest, no end product. This is the most worrying thing because if DF thinks creating chances is enough he's kidding himself. Unfortunately none of our players have a good scoring record so why should that change now?

I used to think that the problem was solely the lack of confidence in our back four which prompted DF to go for 2 defensive midfielders (thereby limiting attacking options) but it's become increasingly apparent that even when we get forwards, it's slow (rather than several players breaking forward quickly as a group) ponderous (lots of sideways passing) and with little threat. Eagles and Lee's goals have dried up altogether, Spearing can't shoot (or pass) straight at the moment, Danns tried hard but doesn't seem to have a striker's instincts (which all midfielders should have) and only Medo has a decent shot on him but he's usually too far back to use it. Where are the goals going to come from? Maybe Trotter will come up with the goods and having Beckford back will help, but we really do need a lot more than we've been getting from the midfield.
Look at City's midfield - all of them are a serious goal threat. Then look at ours....