Not Sitting On Defence

Yes our central defensive unit was pretty well dire yesterday, and Fabio, though great coming forward, still leaves a lot to be desired on defensive duties. However, what I saw yesterday was reminiscent of our problem last season. Far too often we got overrun in midfield and too much pressure was placed upon the defenders. Although it is admitted we are unlikely to meet anything in the forthcoming season with as much quality as Wolfsburg, I believe we Ole needs to address the midfield problem as a priority.

I hope Cala and Connolly wont be our regular Centre Back pairing and I'm sure Ole will bring in another Centre Back anyway. But the midfield as it was set up yesterday is far too unbalanced and lacks bite. I believe we might have to consider having two balk winners a la Digakoi and someone else, maybe Gunnarsson so as to help relieve pressure on the defence. In a 4-4-2 formation, given Daehli is a shoe in that only leaves one midfield slot. I know this may find disagreement with many but I think Whittingham and Kim are too lightweight. Granted Whittingham scored a good goal yesterday but his contribution is always patchy. Kim flatters to deceive sometimes, but his penetrating runs can be effective.

On a 4-4-2 for the opening game, injuries permitting and ignoring new signings, I would suggest:

Marshall
Brayford
Turner
Hudson
Fabio
Digakoi
Gunnarsson
Eikrem
Daehli
Jones
Le Fondre

Good post mate! I feel the defenders gets so much shit, some of it justified but some of it is a bit unfair.
We are short of a good CB but we are also short of a defensive midfielder with quality.
Yesterday, especially in the first half there was a massive gap between midfield and defense that Wolfsburg could easily exploit. It was a similar problem against the russian side, central midfield gets overrun and the other team controls the match.
A player like Dikgacoi is crucial to readdress the balance in the team. Gunnar is not quite good enough in my opinion.
He may have been good enough under Malky but the kind of football ole wants to play places different demands on the players.
He will loose us the ball and that will break the flow in attack so i wouldn't put him in the team over Whitts
Whitts was pretty good yesterday as the game went along and was instrumental as we got back in the game. He is one of our potential match winners.
I want to see him play alongside Dikgacoi in central midfield.

Great post mate, the midfield was weak yesterday.

Good to read a couple of sensible posts rather than the doom and gloom some seem to enjoy writing.

I think we need to set out our team at away matches on the basis not to loose and agree with the Ops team within this thread.
I believe at home we can be a lot more adventurous and attack minded.
What worries me is that a lot are placing their faith on Dikichoi without showing any sort form too date.

If we are playing with 4 attacking players the balls needs to get to them, correctly. Whitts gives the ball perfectly, Eikrem looked good as well, but that was in a preseason friendly.....

We need some dog in there, but Gunnerson runs all around the place and gets caught out of position too often. He is a traditional box to box midfileder, but that looks a little old fashioned now. Good player, wrong system.

I hope Ole goes with a 5-3-2

Marshall
Brayford
Cala
Hudson
Connelly
Fabio
Whitts
Daehli
Gunnar
Macheda
Le fondre

Yes our central defensive unit was pretty well dire yesterday, and Fabio, though great coming forward, still leaves a lot to be desired on defensive duties. However, what I saw yesterday was reminiscent of our problem last season. Far too often we got overrun in midfield and too much pressure was placed upon the defenders. Although it is admitted we are unlikely to meet anything in the forthcoming season with as much quality as Wolfsburg, I believe we Ole needs to address the midfield problem as a priority.

I hope Cala and Connolly wont be our regular Centre Back pairing and I'm sure Ole will bring in another Centre Back anyway. But the midfield as it was set up yesterday is far too unbalanced and lacks bite. I believe we might have to consider having two balk winners a la Digakoi and someone else, maybe Gunnarsson so as to help relieve pressure on the defence. In a 4-4-2 formation, given Daehli is a shoe in that only leaves one midfield slot. I know this may find disagreement with many but I think Whittingham and Kim are too lightweight. Granted Whittingham scored a good goal yesterday but his contribution is always patchy. Kim flatters to deceive sometimes, but his penetrating runs can be effective.

On a 4-4-2 for the opening game, injuries permitting and ignoring new signings, I would suggest:

Marshall
Brayford
Turner
Hudson
Fabio
Digakoi
Gunnarsson
Eikrem
Daehli
Jones
Le Fondre

No Whitts

I think we need to set out our team at away matches on the basis not to loose and agree with the Ops team within this thread.
I believe at home we can be a lot more adventurous and attack minded.
What worries me is that a lot are placing their faith on Dikichoi without showing any sort form too date.

Not placing all my faith on dikgacoi. But he is a better enforcer than Gunnar. Always thought we should have bought one more holding midfielder in case dikgacoi don't get going.

I think the problem with playing 4-4-2 is with other teams playing different systems like 3-5-2, 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 we're always going to be outnumbered and most likely overran in centre midfield.

I cant see him doing it but Id prefer us to go with a 4-2-3-1, sacrifice a striker and give us more balance in midfield. I personally dont think you can go with 2 central ball winners in a 4-4-2 because we'll lack any spark or creativity from the middle of the park.

It's going to be interesting to see how Ole's philosophy comes together, so far it's pointing towards an entertaining season.