Best XI?

[Ian Royal]

So we're about a quarter through the season and going fairly well... small stutter of late. We've seen most of the new players for at least a few cameos now.

What do you think is our best XI? I think it's still very debateable in a couple of areas and I'm not even sure one shape is particularly firmly established.

................. GK
RB...... CB....... CB..... LB
.........CM.. CM.. CM
.... RF........ST......... LF

GK: Al-Habsi - Bond, Moore
RB: Gunter - Keown, Long
LB: Taylor - Obita, Griffin
CB: McShane (c) - Ferdinand, Sweeney
CB: Hector - Ferdinand, Cooper
CM: Williams - Tshibola, Piazon
CM: Norwood - Fernandez, Kuhl
CM: Quinn - Tshibola
RF: Blackman - McCleary, Hurtado
LF: Vydra - Piazon, HRK, John
ST: Sa - Blackman, Liburd, Samuel

I think we want one midfielder who adds drive and spark going forward (Williams), one as a playmaker (Norwood) and one as a more solid water carrier (Quinn / Tshibola)

[Pepe the Horseman]

Bond

Gunter
Hector
McShane
Obita

Norwood
Williams
Quinn

Blackman
Sa
Vydra

[Sutekh]

Al-Habsi

Gunter
Ferdinand
McShane
Obita

Tshibola
Williams
Norwood

Sa
Blackman
Vydra


Subs

Bond
Hector
McLeary
HRK
Quinn
Piazon
John

[Forbury Lion]

Bond

Gunter
Ferdinand
McShane
Obita

Norwood
Williams
Quinn

Blackman
Sa
McLeary*

*I may yet switch him for Vydra.

[St. Brynjar]

Bond

Taylor
Ferdinand
McShane
Gunter

Norwood
Quinn
Tshibola

HRK/McCleary
Sa
Blackman

[CavershamRoyal]

Bond

Gunter
McShane
Ferdinand
Obita

Quinn
Norwood
Tshibola

Blackman
Sa
HRK

[NewCorkSeth]

-------------------Bond------------------
Owusu--Keown---Cooper--Obita
---------------Fridjonsson-------------
-------------Tshibola-Kuhl-------------
Stacey-----------------------------Fosu
------------------Liburd------------------

[Scarface]

I'd like to see this formation

Al Habsi
Gunter Ferdinand Mcshane Obita

Norwood Williams

Mcleary Blackman Quinn
Sa

Tough one which is good for how strong the squad is right now!

Taylor or Obita
Hector or Ferdinand
Tishbola or Williams
Quinn or Kanu

But I would drop Piazon and Vydra

[Snowball]

I'd like to see this formation

Al Habsi
Gunter Ferdinand Mcshane Obita

Norwood Williams

Mcleary Blackman Quinn
Sa

Tough one which is good for how strong the squad is right now!

Taylor or Obita
Hector or Ferdinand
Tishbola or Williams
Quinn or Kanu

But I would drop Piazon and Vydra

Not saying you're wrong but can't imagine SC could get away with keeping two players out of the side who cost 2.5 million and maybe 50K-80K a week between them on top of that.


Presuming that it's true we don't pay Piazon's wages if he plays..

I think," politically" SC has to get Vydra fit and playing regularly. Unless "something has happened" the guy is a class player and when the right fit is found he should be huge for us, especially at this level.

We have more than just an abundance of riches. While Blackman's run continues we just have to play him where he's best, and that's NOT RW. Vydra is needed, especially if/when Blackman's run comes to an end.

I can only see a very mobile front three in a 4-3-3 working for this, and that would mean no place for Piazon, unless as sub

Sa often drifts out wide left, Blackman when not PINNED as RW often goes out there anyway, so leave Vydra central and all seems just-so. I'd expect these three, given time, to be very mobile swapping positions etc. The only problem with that is at least one (Blackman?) must defend from the front.

El Habsi (has the shirt ATM)

Gunter McShane (*****) Obita (but Taylor for a few games might be good)
Tshibola Norwood Quinn
Blackman Sa Vydra

(while Quinn is injured, probably McCleary even if he's not quite the old Mc, or HRK)



Subs?

Williams can be brilliant but I never know exactly what he's doing, so impact sub for me OR Williams at home for the random effect, Tshibola away for solidity

Piazon for 25-30 mins second half, might pick up a fair few goals but I can't see him doing enough of the dirty work to be a regular starter (yet)

HRK? Maybe he does do more than we think. He doesn't stink, but the HRK who got 7 goals in the pre, I think he got transferred under a false name.

McCleary (but in ATM for Quinn)

One of Cooper/Hector

Obita/Taylor

which when the keeper is added, is one too many



(****) Centre-backs. Hector ON FORM is an excellent CB, but recently the back 5 have not looked such a cohesive machine. i.e. they may be individually OK but as a group they've been ragged. I'm not quite sure whether that's Hector going a bit AWOL, getting cocky , or whether McShane is carrying a knock and is slightly under par.

I really like Ferdinand but we can't rely on him long-term injury-wise.

Also Hector is going at the end of the season. Do we really want to build a defence around him just for it to be broken apart at season-end

Which leaves Cooper.

If we weren't going for promotion this season I'd play Cooper and develop him. I think he will be VVG. He's young, may make a few more mistakes but then we are seeing individual mistakes from the other CBs too...

[bishmanbosh92]

Al-Habsi

Gunter
Ferdinand
McShane
Obita

Quinn
Williams
Norwood

Sa
Blackman
Mcleary


Subs

Bond
Hector
Tishabola
HRK
Vydra
Piazon
John

[SCIAG]

Can't look past the team that beat Ipswich...

Bond; Gunter, McShane, Ferdinand, Obita; Tshibola, Norwood, Quinn; Blackman, Sa, Vydra

Subs: Al Habsi, Hector, Taylor, Williams, McCleary, HRK, Liburd

[RoyallyFcuked]

Can't look past the team that beat Ipswich...

Bond; Gunter, McShane, Ferdinand, Obita; Tshibola, Norwood, Quinn; Blackman, Sa, Vydra

Subs: Al Habsi, Hector, Taylor, Williams, McCleary, HRK, Liburd

Agree with you for once. We should go back to the front 3 of Vydra, Sa, Blackman and the midfield 3 of Norwood, Tshibola and Quinn/Williams (Alex?)

Also the defensive shape looks better overall with Ferdinand instead of Hector, who don't forget is not our player any more so we're gaining nothing by continuing to play him, would rather see Cooper come in if needed.

[Ian Royal]

Can't look past the team that beat Ipswich...

Bond; Gunter, McShane, Ferdinand, Obita; Tshibola, Norwood, Quinn; Blackman, Sa, Vydra

Subs: Al Habsi, Hector, Taylor, Williams, McCleary, HRK, Liburd

Agree with you for once. We should go back to the front 3 of Vydra, Sa, Blackman and the midfield 3 of Norwood, Tshibola and Quinn/Williams (Alex?)

Also the defensive shape looks better overall with Ferdinand instead of Hector, who don't forget is not our player any more so we're gaining nothing by continuing to play him, would rather see Cooper come in if needed.

TBF if we get promoted I'd be very surprised if we didn't have Hector for another season. And it's not exactly like Ferdinand is a reliable long term option. Cooper, maybe... I still think he's another bit part season or League One loan away from being up to playing week in week out for us.

Agree on the midfield. Crying shame Quinn and Tish are out for the next couple of months. I'm not sure there's anyone else from the Academy ready to step into midfield... Kuhl's obviously on loan and is more a replacement for Norwood... Fridge doesn't strike me as one who'll make the grade at this level without a couple of years in League One first, if then. It's really rather early for Husin and Kelly's too small and attacking. I've probably missed someone.

So we're down to Norwood, Williams and Fernandez which is a bit light, and previously it looked like we had an embarrassment of riches in the middle.

[Snowball]

Fernandez has looked like a damn good midfielder when I've seen him

We also have the option of Cooper at CB and Hector DM

[RoyallyFcuked]

Can't look past the team that beat Ipswich...

Bond; Gunter, McShane, Ferdinand, Obita; Tshibola, Norwood, Quinn; Blackman, Sa, Vydra

Subs: Al Habsi, Hector, Taylor, Williams, McCleary, HRK, Liburd

Agree with you for once. We should go back to the front 3 of Vydra, Sa, Blackman and the midfield 3 of Norwood, Tshibola and Quinn/Williams (Alex?)

Also the defensive shape looks better overall with Ferdinand instead of Hector, who don't forget is not our player any more so we're gaining nothing by continuing to play him, would rather see Cooper come in if needed.

TBF if we get promoted I'd be very surprised if we didn't have Hector for another season. And it's not exactly like Ferdinand is a reliable long term option. Cooper, maybe... I still think he's another bit part season or League One loan away from being up to playing week in week out for us.

Agree on the midfield. Crying shame Quinn and Tish are out for the next couple of months. I'm not sure there's anyone else from the Academy ready to step into midfield... Kuhl's obviously on loan and is more a replacement for Norwood... Fridge doesn't strike me as one who'll make the grade at this level without a couple of years in League One first, if then. It's really rather early for Husin and Kelly's too small and attacking. I've probably missed someone.

So we're down to Norwood, Williams and Fernandez which is a bit light, and previously it looked like we had an embarrassment of riches in the middle.

Agree if we get promoted we should get Hector for another season, long way to go though and that still doesnt change the fact he's no longer ours. Disagree on Cooper tho, I think he is getting there. Needs more time yes but there's only one way he will get that. Will do him good to play alongside McShane, potentially a better partner for him than Hector.

Also Cooper did a very good job against Everton in the cup game, I didn't go to that one but it sounds like he was more than a match for Lukaku, a game in which Hector was his partner and although both did well, a couple of people told me Mourinho was in the crowd and apparently he would have been thinking "I bought the wrong one".....

[Ian Royal]

Yeah, still Everton is only one game and the lad had both stormers and utter nightmares last season. There's no doubt on song he's good enough. But the difference between an inexperienced young player and an experienced player is consistent level of performance. You're likely to see worse from Cooper than Hector in terms of consistent high quality performance.

As I said, I think he needs more lower level or drip fed experience before he's ready to successfully take the opportunity of a long run starting at Championship level.

Personally, I think Hector is currently a better player than Cooper and has slightly greater potential too. And is a great partner for McShane, if he can just recapture his best rather than the slightly lesser performances since his international tournament and big money move. I thought he was pretty much there until the last couple of games and whilst he played his part there, I think it was a collective team and managerial responsibility for what went wrong.