Well, looking at the formation he put out yesterday...

I'd have gone with Gallacher; Drury, Doherty, Shackell, Colin; Etuhu; Eagle, Hughes, Robinson, Croft; Dublin.

Of course, Dublin up top on his own means that Eagle and Croft need to put the work in to get up and down to support him - or Robinson / Hughes to push on and get on the end of flick-downs - or else it's not going to work (as was proved yesterday).

Why he dropped Eagle and Gallacher after good performances at Port Vale I've no idea, and to change a back-four that's kept three clean sheets in a row seems very odd. There was obviously a plan in playing the 4-1-4-1, but Grant got the personnel wrong on the day.

Another option could have been a basic 4-4-2 with Gallacher; Drury, Doherty, Shackell, Colin; Eagle, Etuhu, Robinson, Croft; Dublin, Thorne - keeps height in the team to compete with Stoke and would provide an extra man in the box to try and get on the end of crosses from Croft and Eagle.

There's two ways to play against Stoke - pass around them, threading balls through (which we didn't have the personnel for on the day), or directly compete with them. We went for that, yet sacrificed a front-man for it. With only Dublin up front we were always going to struggle for opportunities in front of goal.

Posted By: Declan, Oct 29, 12:49:32