YorkshireRoyal99 Crowbar6753 blythspartan
I agree with you about Loum. He looks much fitter now and I thought he looked decent last night.
Overall, I was happy with our performance and it was a better turn out than I was expecting but I’d still like to see 2 or 3k more.
I am not sure if I am delusional but at times I think there’s much more to come from this team but we always fall back into grinding out a narrow win. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take that all day long but I’d love to see one or two more Blackburn type performances.
Ince has hinted a few times that 4-3-3 is his preferred formation and personally one that would suit this group of players, however, i think this current formation and style is slowly getting us to safety and probably the reason he's sticking to it.
The football currently on show is a hard watch but i would expect that to change once we hit that magic number of around 50+ points.
Possibly, I think we just have a lot of CB options and not many CM or wide options really to play a 4-3-3. Loum, Hendrick and Fornah you'd assume would be the 3, which would leave who capable of playing in midfield? Hutchinson and Tetek? Not great depth. Out wide you've got Ince, Meite, Hoilett and Ejaria, the first 3 are good, Ejaria I'm not convinced by and we've got about 7 CB's at the moment on our books I think? Holmes, TMac, Sarr, Moore, Dann, Mbengue, Huctinson... with the likes of Abbey and Dorsett looking promising, I think it could be here to stay for a bit.
Think we've got better wide options to play 4-3-3 than in years. Especially for right forward/wing:
Meite's best position, Azeez has done well there, Hoilett is very capable there, Ince played well there last season.
Left forward/wing is a bit trickier, but both Ince and Hoilett can play there, maybe Azeez, probably NGW to some extent, Long could do a job. Then you have the more midfieldery Ejaria who has played there regularly and Fornah who could do a similar job.
We are certainly a bit light in midfield though, with just Loum, Hendrick, Fornah and then Hutchinson, Tetek and maybe Ejaria, McIntyre etc.
Personally quite like the look of:
...............................Lumley
...........Yiadom, Holmes, Sarr, NGW
........Hendrick, Loum/Hutchinson, Fornah
Meite........................................................Ince
...........................Joao/Carroll
Question marks more in how the defence cope with two CBs and if NGW can be consistent enough, rather than further forward. Sarr not been brilliant since his return from injury, whilst McIntyre is really a bit slow to be paired with Holmes and vulnerable to being caught out in the left channel.
In terms of midfield depth, it's no different to what we were playing for much of the season already.