Jones Breakthrough?

For me last night marked a significant turning point in our season, just as it did last year when we beat Leicester at home! For months ive been harping on about the benefits of playing 451, especially when teams who played that system against us consistently out play us and waltz through our midfield. The two times we have played that system this year we beat Doncaster 4.0 and Portsmouth 2.0.

Last night Leicester played 451 against our 442 and in the first 30 minutes they ran rings around us, just as Burnley did the week before with the same systems. I wasnt holding my breath for Jones to do anything about it but low and behold he changed it straight after the break! Taking Chops off wasnt a popular choice as he is scoring goals and working hard but the system is more important than individuals and as soon as we went to 451 we dominated! Not once did Leicester break through our midfield, or create a chance, and we created plenty going forward as all of a sudden Ramsey was the spare man and could get on the ball more! Credit to Jones, he spotted that we were getting over run and did something about it! If we set up like this for the rest of the season we will be very hard to beat and i can see us going up automatically, if however we continue to play 442 in all of our games then i can only see play offs! For me the second half last night was the best we have looked all season!

Agree....but we need to replace Ramsey in that kind of floating midfield role. McPhail looked very good alongside Ramsey and Oli. Whitts may be ok playing the floating midfield role mind

People say this shit every time we win a game convincingly.

People say this shit every time we win a game convincingly.

please feel free to look at my prior posts! ive slated DJ this season based on how he has set the team up in a rigid 442 no matter the opposition! For the first time in his Cardiff career he actually adapted his formation last night to counter the opposition and it worked! Its been a long time coming but its better late than never! In the 3 games we have played that formation we have scored 8 goals and conceded 0! Rambo will of course be a huge blow but we can play Whitts in that position with Macca sitting alongside Oli! Obviously Whitts is no Rambo but its time we chose the shape over individuals!

Whats pleasing to see is that Jonesy is starting to use his sub tactically, rather than wait 60 - 70 mins and hope.
Fingers crossed its starting to work!

Who have actually played 5 in midfield a few times earlier in the season and from the start of games, it worked in some but mainly failed. Last night though he got the formation right and most importantly at the right time

We used to play Drinks Oli Whitts as a three.

After Leeds that kinda went out of the window. We were 2-0 up last night playing 4-4-2 so your argument isn't that valid, even though I agree :p

We have only played 451 three times this season, Doncaster, Portsmouth and the second half last night! Please correct me if im wrong but im pretty certain of this! Nearly all of the teams to beat us this season, or get a draw, have played 451 against our 442! Ive been watching the systems since the start of the season and its unbelievable how many times this has happened!

Granted we were 2.0 up last night when we switched but our goals were completely agianst the run of play and Leicester still looked very dangerous and had out played us. When we switched to 451 they did nothing! We crushed them! Finally we have a plan B and I just home Jones uses it more often! Some games call for 442 but it all depends who we play against. Its done my nut in this season that no matter who we have played we have lined up 442 and have failed to adapt. When Burnely were killing us last week we should have switched to 451 then as it would have stopped Eagles getting on the ball, pulling strings, and could have released Rambo!

I have said all along that 4-5-1 is the ideal system given the players we have.

The first, most important job of any team is not to concede. You CANNOT win
if the other team scores more than you, so by stopping them scoring, the odds
on you actually WINNING go up dramatically.

You dont NEED to have a tough tackling midfielder anymore, you just need a
formation where there isnt a big gap between midfield and defence. It denies
the opposition space. We have the skill levels to pack the midfield and be
patient. Barcelona are amazing at it. We have got the players who can do it
at Championship level.

Get a five man midfield, the defence is protected, and we WILL score goals
with Bellamy/Burke/Whittingham/Oli/Bothroyd/Parkin/Ramsey.

And watch McNaughton fly

Absolutely spot on! We will tear this league apart if we play that formation! We protect our back 4, deny the opposition space and we have unbelievable options going forward!

I don't get it, we didn't tear anyone apart with 4-5-1 Tuesday. Whereas we beat a team playing 4-3-3 2-0 for 60 minutes.

People say this shit every time we win a game convincingly.

please feel free to look at my prior posts! ive slated DJ this season based on how he has set the team up in a rigid 442 no matter the opposition! For the first time in his Cardiff career he actually adapted his formation last night to counter the opposition and it worked! Its been a long time coming but its better late than never! In the 3 games we have played that formation we have scored 8 goals and conceded 0! Rambo will of course be a huge blow but we can play Whitts in that position with Macca sitting alongside Oli! Obviously Whitts is no Rambo but its time we chose the shape over individuals!

I do apologise. I am quite ignorant/lazy when it comes to reading posts. I often reply solely to the threadtitle.

People say this shit every time we win a game convincingly.

please feel free to look at my prior posts! ive slated DJ this season based on how he has set the team up in a rigid 442 no matter the opposition! For the first time in his Cardiff career he actually adapted his formation last night to counter the opposition and it worked! Its been a long time coming but its better late than never! In the 3 games we have played that formation we have scored 8 goals and conceded 0! Rambo will of course be a huge blow but we can play Whitts in that position with Macca sitting alongside Oli! Obviously Whitts is no Rambo but its time we chose the shape over individuals!

I do apologise. I am quite ignorant/lazy when it comes to reading posts. I often reply solely to the threadtitle.

ha ha

I don't get it, we didn't tear anyone apart with 4-5-1 Tuesday. Whereas we beat a team playing 4-3-3 2-0 for 60 minutes.

we were battered but scored 2 goals completely against the run of play! When we went 451 they didnt have any chances and we created plenty! Leicester really went for it but we looked so comfortable where when we played 442 they were breaking through our midfield at will, just as plenty of other teams i.e Burnley and Reading have done playing 451 against us recently! I wish I coulg get hold of the stats for Tuesday's game to show just how dominant we were playing 451 compared to 442!