BosnianDiamond said:
IMO, we need a traditional 4-4-2 with plenty of wing support from Silva and Johnson. I'm just not sure if Yaya and De Jong are sufficient in the middle.
........................Hart......................
Boateng....Kompany....Toure....Kolarov
Silva.....Yaya.......De Jong......Johnson?
................Tevez........Dzeko.............
They are more than sufficient.
The insistance on playing NDJ, Barry and Yaya altogether leaves us exceedingly one dimensional. Yaya is only running forward because nobody else can do it from midfield. It's not his natural game. NDJ and Barry cannot pass a ball forward nor do they have any turn of pace. To be successful, one of these has to be ditched and that has to be Barry at the moment.
Whilst it may be sad to see Silva so wide, we need width on both sides and we need our full backs to defend.
A few weeks ago, I could never envisage us going back to 4-4-2 but to get the best out of Dzeko and Tevez, then that is the only way.
For me, with 4-4-2, we have more options, we can go round teams instead of trying to walk through them, and walking through them when you have no turn of pace in midfield and little in the way of upbeat tempo, isn't going to work very often.
Dzeko is a great player and can play as a lone striker or as one of a front two. However, if we play 4-3-3 I can see what happened on Saturday happening too often, Dzeko drifting wide, losing confidence and going downhill.
I look at our players and I see better results coming from a 4-4-2. Some may see it as old fashioned but we have to play to our strengths. We have two of the best strikers in the world at the moment so let's see them both in the box, not covering every blade from one wing to the other. Let's see Silva and Johnson giving them supply and with De Jong protecting the back four, they have all the protection they need. Yaya can get up and down the field or he can add extra protection to the defenders if needed, after all that was his position at Barca.
Let's try it and give it a few weeks. I'm absolutely positive that it will yield more points than the current set up.
If Mancini keeps playing the midfield anchor trio, it's going to destroy the confidence of both our strikers, who will both end up getting little service, and Tevez will end up firing off for sure when we don't make the Champions League as a result.
