16-08-2015, 18:04
Haven't started a thread in a while but after a bit of thought and reading what some fans have said on other forums I feel this is something worth discussing. Up until this morning I have been 100% against selling Saido under any circumstances, however, after the way we have played in the first two matches and looking at our squad I feel that we just can't play 442 at this level. Lets look at the teams in the league:
Teams who play 4231: Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Palace, Norwich, Swansea, Man United, Newcastle, Villa, Watford, Tottenham, Stoke, Everton, Southampton, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Leicester, West Ham
Teams who play 442: West Brom
Sunderland played 4231 against Leicester and switched to 442 against Norwich
Most matches in this league are won in the midfield, therefore if we play 442 we are going to be outnumbered in every single game, bar potentially Sunderland. This means we are going to have another 36 games like the first two, with about 35% possession and being forced to play a narrow midfield made up of mainly central midfielders to make sure that we don't leave any gaps which will get exploited.
Therefore I'm coming round to the opinion that we should take the most money we can get for Saido (£25m+) and play the formation that actually suits the squad we have and the league we play in. Use the Saido money to get in a quality winger and a quality central attacking playmaker. We already have three targetman strikers we can play as the lone frontman (Rondon, Lambert, Anichebe). Personally if we do sell Saido, I would like to see:
As I say, only my opinion and up until today I would have preferred to keep Saido, but I really don't think we can play 442 in this league, and Saido would be wasted on the wing as goalscoring is his main strength.
Teams who play 4231: Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Palace, Norwich, Swansea, Man United, Newcastle, Villa, Watford, Tottenham, Stoke, Everton, Southampton, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Leicester, West Ham
Teams who play 442: West Brom
Sunderland played 4231 against Leicester and switched to 442 against Norwich
Most matches in this league are won in the midfield, therefore if we play 442 we are going to be outnumbered in every single game, bar potentially Sunderland. This means we are going to have another 36 games like the first two, with about 35% possession and being forced to play a narrow midfield made up of mainly central midfielders to make sure that we don't leave any gaps which will get exploited.
Therefore I'm coming round to the opinion that we should take the most money we can get for Saido (£25m+) and play the formation that actually suits the squad we have and the league we play in. Use the Saido money to get in a quality winger and a quality central attacking playmaker. We already have three targetman strikers we can play as the lone frontman (Rondon, Lambert, Anichebe). Personally if we do sell Saido, I would like to see:
New GK
Dawson - Chester - Lescott - New LB
Fletcher - Yacob
Gnabry - New AM - New LW
Rondon
Dawson - Chester - Lescott - New LB
Fletcher - Yacob
Gnabry - New AM - New LW
Rondon
As I say, only my opinion and up until today I would have preferred to keep Saido, but I really don't think we can play 442 in this league, and Saido would be wasted on the wing as goalscoring is his main strength.
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