02 Jan 2015 07:18:38
Yes - Guidetti is getting enough service.

We are dominating possession and creating most games, its this bluddy 1 up front embarrassment that's more of an issue.

{Ed001's Note - so do you feel there is not enough movement around him to create the space for him to score then? Or do you feel he is simply not good enough in the role?}

1.) 02 Jan 2015
Ed our side is weak and easy to mark our few creative players, or runners never mind playing with one striker.

We also don't have intelligent players somethings Commons is albeit not a player blessed with pace etc. The movement around Guidetti and Guidetti himself is predictable.

{Ed001's Note - so is it the formation, the tactics or just a lack of quality that is the issue then? I mean one up top is not necessarily defensive, so long as you have players joining the attack from midfield and providing runners from deep and bodies in the box when it is crossed. So I really don't know why people moan about it. Formations are pretty much irrelevant really, I mean players are always moving about the pitch, so it is little more than the starting point for them to move from. Tactics are far more important. I just don't understand this obsession with people moaning about one up top, Liverpool dominated Europe in the 80s with one up top, Dalglish was playing the role we now consider an attacking midfielder. Barca dominated with one or even none up top, Real Madrid only play one out and out striker, Chelsea too. Very few teams play with two strikers in recent years, really Man City are the only one that do of top sides, and they struggle in Europe because of it.}

2.) 02 Jan 2015
Iv had the same argument consistently in here edd. It's like by playing 2 strikers up front we will wave a magic wand and be brilliant. And when I say that the formation we play is potentially a more attacking formation than 4-4-2 nobody has an answer. Or ask whe we go with 2 strikers and are all of a sudden 1 man short in midfield how will we cope with that, again nobody can answer. Why not throw 4 strikers on if that theory works lol. Markie

{Ed001's Note - it is weird how 2 strikers is seen as some kind of magic number. Maybe Mike Bassett is more influential than people realise? He was a tactical genius to be fair, it is hard not to be influenced by men of such a high calibre.....}

3.) 02 Jan 2015
4-2-3-1 is my preferred formation. We don't quite have the quality of individual or movement of the '3'. Guidetti's finishing has been a bit below par lately though as has all the teams. We've actually been creating enough chances statistically.

4.) 02 Jan 2015
Ed its not just about movement alone though, its how they use it, I'm not a fan of the headless chicken movement routine.

Dalglish - I know we're benchmarking the team against the best but one of his biggest attributes was his ability to read the game? We don't have that at all and as I said our most intelligent player is probably Commons (which says a lot). This is why is looks like Forrest, Izzy etc can't cross a ball - even though they can. We are often playing like strangers, not all the time before I get the 5-0 scorelines thrown at me.

Forrest is probably our biggest threat for pace and movement alone but is constantly injured. Johansen and Brown can often do a lot of running about like headless chickens but other than that we have nowt to take us to that next level. Stokes has been good in his role this season - which also says a lot.

Since the Hearts game, Guidetti has missed a few sitters which is not good and his own movement is not the best either. With one striker, all these teams have great all round players in their teams and midfielders who like to and will get you goals - we don't and one striker is too easy to mark.


That Salzburg game was horrific, we only got back into the game because they took their foot off the gas at 2-0 not through our own ability. Yet again, we had chances to make the scoreline 2-2 but ended up losing the game 3-1.

5.) 02 Jan 2015
02 Jan 2015 12:16:21
the problem I see is that the players don't seem to be doing what RD is saying, weather his tactics are wrong or he is not getting his point across, something needs to be done. if I hear we are progressing one more time I'll scream, we have made no progress in my eyes, and look lacklustre. We are very predictable and no team is worried about playing us. With celtic playing on Monday and A/deen and Dun utd playing well we will most likely be sitting third when we play Killie which puts extra pressure on, so really need to start showing this progress and getting things right.

6.) 02 Jan 2015
I just wanted add my bit to this as I am not a fan of the current system

On a domestic front there are at least NINE teams coming to parkhead to play "anti-football" or "park the bus" a rest my case with this with one team playing at HOME against us deploying a 6 - 4 system! this IMO is the most difficult to break down! It is far to easy to nullify the threat of 1 striker & a think this is why RD is stood perplexed in the touchline, from the league he has come from circa 4/5 teams ARE capable of winning it IMO and to win it the all obviously have to be "offensive" he has never ever encountered such as anti-football

The teams we are mentioning here that play 4-2-3-1 are all able to purchase a much higher calibre individual than we are!

Our league has had the "football purist" manager's the John Barnes, the Tony Mowbray and even Paul le Guen! SADLY and a mean that it never worked for any of them and at this juncture it is not working for RD

ATVB JB7

7.) 02 Jan 2015
I think 4-2-3-1 works, as long as the right players are in the team and midfield pushes forward. We don't have the right players just now, this transfer window I can see ( hoping) a few players in who will be the right players.

8.) 02 Jan 2015
Ed, you have just put in writing my thoughts about formations . To me formations are just a vehicle to alow pundits to prove how little they know and take a long time to prove they know nothing. As you say Ed formations change continuously throughout .
I have never seen Gudidetti or anyone else for that matter left alone, without supporting players . Whatever the reason we are not scoring, it certainly cannot be because we are not getting enough players into a scoring position .

9.) 02 Jan 2015
Of course formations change throughout a game, that much is a given. There are different formations though so let's just not disregard them as a factor to success. With our current set up we're playing with four attackers, four attackers who are struggling for goals. Utd played 4-2-3-1 and hit Dundee for six, they look a lot more comfirtable in that system though. RD is right we need the correct players. The most important in this set up a natural CAM to replace Commons, to score and create for the ST, LAM and RAM. Then a proper anchor like Wanyama was.

10.) 02 Jan 2015
Anya and Armstrong for me would make our team better. Drop Biton and McGregor or whoever plays on the right. Stokes has impressed me this year with work rate and I was never his biggest fan, I think he will improve more as he gets used to the role.

Don't know any CB that CFC could sign hopefully others can make suggestions.

11.) 02 Jan 2015
@DN if you remember I said at the start of the season we didn't have the players for this system yet you lambasted me for it.

12.) 02 Jan 2015
@Rayman Was the debate at start of season not to do with squad that was available and not injured in respect of sluggish start?

13.) 03 Jan 2015
No there were no injurys of note except tampon and Forrest probably lol. My point at the time before a ball was kicked I saw no place for Commons. Been proved right, now whether Commons is as good as he was is neither here nor there. At the time he was our best player.To play this system you need Suarez< Sterling Strrudige type players. All of whom are capable of switching, scoring and have pace. We play Guidetti (goalscorer yes) Forrest/McGregor (Either injured or average and can't score) Stokes (Clearly not happy out there though done a decent job) . As I have said in previous posts we lack goalscorers in our team. We now think that havin SJ runnin around like a headless chicken is good. Why? peter grant used to get cheered for doing this.

{Ed007's Note - Scott Brown was injured for the start of the season, he didn't play until mid-September.}

14.) 03 Jan 2015
Rayman lustig and Matthews were out as well. I think there's more to the story as to why commons is not getting game, contract wise.

I hope he gets the players he needs, cause there has got to be a clear out of sub standard players. Never thought I'd say this, but it might of been worth giving samaras a years extension. When he was on his game, he was on fire. 4-2-3-1 suits his style

15.) 03 Jan 2015
@ DN remember these sub standard players got us to the CL. Won us a league at a canter.Yes there were bad results in cups but cups are 1 game and your done. Overall the standard was much higher up front and defensively and we were playing much superior teams in CL.

16.) 03 Jan 2015
Nonsense like the team played 4-2-4
Or 4-2-3-1 or whatever are used in football management or on match of the day pundits, trying to impress they know somethink .
I just laugh when I hear head-the - balls debate these formations in the pub after matches