I'm probably going to be controversial again

and I've said this before so it IS a bit boring.

I think a lot of our midfield problems came down to the fact that we were usually outnumbered there with our 4-3-3 formation (most teams have 4 or 5 midfielders), which means we had 3 players who can't tackle (Hucks/Earnie/Croft) and only 3 (at best) who could.

This is why I think as a team we are better off with Hucks as one of 2 strikers with 4 proper midfielders (which includes Chadwick, who seemingly can tackle but not Croft, who can't) behind them - one of whom should be adept at getting into the box (Francis like).
Ideally the other striker up with Hucks would be a target man (like Iwan & Crouchy in the 2003/4 season).

Unfortunately at this point it doesn't look like we're going that way, so I expect midfield to be a problem again unless we make some positively miraculous acquisitions.

Posted By: mr carra, Jul 18, 11:20:36