Team For Stoke

[Mattyqpr]

Sandro and Taarabt out (Taarabt probably out the door....) so it'll be Barton and Kelvin in CM. Can't help but think it's from that pairing that much of our trouble stems.

Correct but only because they're played as a two in a four man midfield, 4-4-2 formation. If they play as a two as defensive midfielders, behind an attacking 3 and Charlie it will be more solid.

It can even be a 4-4-1-1 but both central players have to sit, and let our number 10 sit in between the opposition defence and midfield.

[Rangers77]

Yep. Can't play 442 away from home. Kelvin and Joey aren't good enough. And think we can't play them together at home in that formation either

[Mattyqpr]

Yep. Can't play 442 away from home. Kelvin and Joey aren't good enough. And think we can't play them together at home in that formation either

I think we should play 4-2-3-1 home and away. Home games we can line up with the 3 being more attacking, especially the wide players. Away games it would probably look more like 4-4-1-1 but as long as we have two sitting centre midfielders, we'll be more solid.

Look at the centre halves we have on our books. Let's be honest, all are pretty big and slow in terms of moving their feet and are built for dealing with crosses really, so we need to protect them. Be solid in the middle of the park and force teams wide. Dunne, Caulker and Ned have the ability to deal with crosses all day.

I've noticed how easy our full backs are beaten inside though, it's a massive problem. In the last month Swansea, Burnley and United have all scored goals from wide areas. What happened to full backs showing them down the line? I thought that was the first thing a full back was taught at seven years of age?

In the Swansea game, Ki was shown inside, that's criminal! Arfield danced inside at Burnley and Fer was caught ball watching against United. This is basic stuff, let's be honest and we're getting done with it far to often.

Isla and Yun need to force the attackers down the line and let Caulker/Dunne/Ned deal with it, which they will 9 times out of 10.

Obviously some players are good enough to skip inside, players like Hazard and Robben but it's happening far to often against bang average players.