[spireitematt]

Route One should only be played if you are the underdogs and looking to win the 2nd ball. I watched a documentary about Wimbledon (Crazy gang) and apparently they would water Plough Lane to make it difficult for bigger teams to play on and Wimbledon would play Route one and win games.

Long ball football can work especially if you have a target man who can knock the ball down for another player to have a shot at goal also it can force the opposition to make mistakes but its not easy on the eye if its being played all the time. Football fans like to be entertained and like to see attractive, attacking football.

Playing the ball from the back is good as long as you can hold onto possession and build up a an attack and you would also need at least 2 playmakers in the midfield to look for an overlap and thread the ball through to the strikers in the box. I would say Charlie Carter is our playmaker but unfortunately he's out injured currently. I think you also need at least 2 defensive midfielders especially if you are playing a 4-2-3-1 formation for example or a 4-1-4-1 formation with the defensive midfielder moving into the midfielder to make a 5 when attacking but also moving into defence to make a 5 when defending.

I think a 4-2-3-1 is a good formation especially if you play two players in the three as wingers who can attack and support the lone striker. Also 4-3-2-1 would be interchangeable also.

Attacking we need to go 4-2-3-1 and when defending we need to go 4-5-1. Southgate showed at the World Cup that 3-5-2 can work as long as you have 2 wingbacks in the 5 who can track back into defence with the central defenders. I think its one of the reasons why the 3-5-2 formation didn't work when Caldwell was manager because we didn't have any wingbacks but we also didn't have any wingers either for other formations.