Posted by unregistered user: Denton Davey
BiscuitBarrell: “We have the personnel to set up for attack, or to defend, but not both at the same time. This is a consequence of square pegs in round holes, a lack of legs in midfield and an absence of midfield creativity (which Kagawa may partially address).”
Well, I disagree insofar as the place where there are “square pegs in round holes” in the central midfield – and, really, the problem there is that there is no suitable partner for Michael Carrick whose “shielding game” needs either an energetic water-carrier or else two other guys to prevent him from being over-run.
To my way of thinking, Michael Carrick is this team’s key player for two reasons:
First, what happens if he’s injured and can’t play ? and,
Second, playing him alongside TheGingerNinja doesn’t really address the issue you point out – “a lack of legs in midfield”.
Michael Carrick isn’t going to change his game so the question is how does the team get built around him, not only to protect him from harassment but also to provide him with support in moving the ball from defence to attack.
The worst answer is to have TheWayneBoy wander all over the pitch. The best answer – to me, at least – is to have three guys (say, KagawaBunga and/or YoungTomCleverley somewhat behind two inside forwards like, say, Nani and Ashley Young [or Lucas Moura ?] ) – who move “between the lines”.
Given that footie is a game of continuous movement, formations don’t really capture a fluid, interchanging approach but – at the cost of contradicting myself – some version of a 3-5-2/5-3-2 seems the best way of taking pressure off Michael Carrick and NOT playing with just one striker.
Will it work ? I don’t see why not. Like I wrote earlier, the Italians used it against Spain and could have/should have won the match but they were let down by an inability to finish their chances.
For the hidebound conservatives, the only feasible option is to get Michael Carrick a partner who is part-man/part-monster like Keane-o or Daniele De Rossi. BUT since that ship seems to have sailed, persisting with the 4-4-2 seems to me to be quite a bit like Einstein’s description of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again in the hope that it works”.
