Forget defending deep...get hold of the midfield

[Chippy_boy]

For me, Ireland has to start. The say attack is the best form of defense and with Ireland we have much more of an attacking threat and we can keep them on the back foot far better. Without him we get drawn deeper and deeper and end up hoofing long balls forward which 99% of the time come straight back at us. Ireland gives us the chance to link midfield with the front man and for us to hang on to the ball better.

Playing Sweep, Ireland, De Jong, Barry and Bellamy across the middle, we will completely outrun them in the middle of the park as all of the above are real grafters and we have plenty of bite with De Jong and Barry. And With Tevez fizzing around up top, Ireland WILL find him with some cleaver through balls.

We will score at least a couple of goals if we do this in my view. Which would mean they need to score 3 just to get to extra time and 4 if they don't want to lose in extra time (on away goals).

We aren't letting 4 in. Job done :-)

 

[Rammy Blue]

bit of a tangent but did anyone notice that at the start of the second half yesterday Bob had us set up in a diamond formation, not sure if it came across on TV but he definitely went to....

........................Ibrahim.........................

...........Ireland..................Sylvia.............

.........................Robbie.........................

.................Benji..........Rigsby.................

shows that Bob is working on some new stuff.

 

[1961_vintage]

We also need a Plan B for when we only have 10 men on the field coz you can be sure of one thing - world-wide will not need too much encouragement to tip the balance in their favour!

 

[m27]

Bizzbo. What he actually did was change things after 25 minutes against United so our midfielders pushed on and stopped defending the edge of the box. And that's what got us back into the game. He reversed that after our second and we lost it again.

I've read the North article and that is my concern. That game plan will not be effective against Man United. We need the game played higher up the pitch or Rooney will murder us. Even the likes of Giggs and Scholes can pick their passes in that situation and our back 4 are not disciplined enough. Boyata is a kid (I hope he doesn't start) and the others are all prone to not getting tight enough at times.

Project, I nearly mentioned the 4-3 in my post because you're right, it was just the same there. When we got at them they didn't like it and they allowed out midfield to get on top. We must do the same again in my opinion.

If it's back to the wall we'll go out.

I'd like to see it all again, but my reading is that we started with dejong and zab deep barely infront of the defense, barry and swp further up, bellamy and tevez up front. afterwards, there were a line of three midfielders slightly further forward, but deep enough in our own half to protect the back four. we stopped defending the 18 yard line, pushed them wider, further up the pitch, cut out the balls to the wide players. rooney hardly got a touch in the rest of the half, they had the time to pick passes but the tight net of defensive midfielders were able to cut them out. after the second the big change for me was benjani for tevez... tevez was pressuring the fullbacks and midfielders just enough.... benjani just wasnt.

so yeah, maybe we are saying roughly the same thing.... win the midfield.... but I think we win the midfield in our own half, not in the centre circle, not in their half. let them stroke it around, 9/10 they will end up out wide, we can deal with that. like you say it's rooney that poses the problem, but he needs service to feet, and a little space. with the deep line of midfielders you make it hard for them to find him, and you reduce the gaps he likes to work in.

I just think we have an advantage. the onus is on them to score, twice. make them commit forward and take advantage on the break. their midfield is much more technical than ours. I don't see that we can compete if it comes down to who can hold the ball for longer.

I wish I shared your confidence mate. The flanks are a big worry for me.

 

[bizzbo]

bit of a tangent but did anyone notice that at the start of the second half yesterday Bob had us set up in a diamond formation, not sure if it came across on TV but he definitely went to....

........................Ibrahim.........................

...........Ireland..................Sylvia.............

.........................Robbie.........................

.................Benji..........Rigsby.................

shows that Bob is working on some new stuff.

yep.

petrov can take up three or four different positions in one half, when things are going well. mancini has changed it around for nearly every game, and then changed it again during the game, and then you have individual players switching for 10-15 minutes at a time.

while we keep winning, it looks very clever indeed, can't be easy for any watching manager to gauge how we will approach the next game.

 

[FEEDHIMGARY]

he started in a very defensive 442 at home with zab on the left of midfield. however, what was also noticable was how central tevez and bellemy stayed, as if mancini had told them to leave the channels alone...

he then changed to a 4-5-1 (433 when attacking) with zab as the front of the 3 midfielders.

2nd half swp played in that role with zab on the right..

point is, mancini has already shown that not only is he happy to change personell and systems, but also has a variety of gameplans to work from... ive seen 3 variations of the 442 so far...

i trust he will no doubt have something else up his sleeve for wednesday...

 

[i8rags]

bit of a tangent but did anyone notice that at the start of the second half yesterday Bob had us set up in a diamond formation, not sure if it came across on TV but he definitely went to....

........................Ibrahim.........................

...........Ireland..................Sylvia.............

.........................Robbie.........................

.................Benji..........Rigsby.................

shows that Bob is working on some new stuff.

we should go for the win irellavant
of formations. we will go out to to score first and then the formation will change again, dont be surprised to see the alamo formation near the end. either way you cant out tactic bacon face and we need to do things out of the ordinary and i have every faith in bob.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

he started in a very defensive 442 at home with zab on the left of midfield. however, what was also noticable was how central tevez and bellemy stayed, as if mancini had told them to leave the channels alone...

he then changed to a 4-5-1 (433 when attacking) with zab as the front of the 3 midfielders.

2nd half swp played in that role with zab on the right..

point is, mancini has already shown that not only is he happy to change personell and systems, but also has a variety of gameplans to work from... ive seen 3 variations of the 442 so far...

i trust he will no doubt have something else up his sleeve for wednesday...

That's how I saw it too. He went 4-3-3 after 25 mins and we got back into the game.

Rammy, I couldn't make head nor tail of Sunday's formation from the telly - you rarely can unless you're there.

That's a formation where you can use Ireland and TEvez in the same team.

.................................DE Jong...........................

....................SWP........................Barry.............

................................Ireland............................


............................ADebayor...Tevez.....

Tougher to get Bellamy in that team of course.

 

[Rammy Blue]

bit of a tangent but did anyone notice that at the start of the second half yesterday Bob had us set up in a diamond formation, not sure if it came across on TV but he definitely went to....

........................Ibrahim.........................

...........Ireland..................Sylvia.............

.........................Robbie.........................

.................Benji..........Rigsby.................

shows that Bob is working on some new stuff.

we should go for the win irellavant
of formations. we will go out to to score first and then the formation will change again, dont be surprised to see the alamo formation near the end. either way you cant out tactic bacon face and we need to do things out of the ordinary and i have every faith in bob.

love the "alamo formation".

 

[ytic04]

Keep Rooney and Fletcher quiet the rest will take care of itself
Simples!!!!!