Jayson

He has 4 strikers at his disposal at this point, he has to play two upfront at this point surely. He cant be that stupid if he can leave Butt out.

Havent checked it out, but official site has him down for 7 goals from 9 starts in the last two seasons for Villa. Thats not bad atall if true.

Ill go 7. Hoping he'll liven up our side a bit again

The first couple goals from Brom were down to luck, deflected freekick & the keepers howler. By that time Boro's heads go down & it becomes an easy game. They played well, but cant say theyre the best team in the league yet due to one point. If Hughton stops pissin about with 4-5-1 & actually plays some form of strategy based on actually attacking the opposition id say we've the better players easily.

Thats true, im not making an absolute statement about 4-5-1 being a useless formation. Just that it isnt efficient atall for how we're playing. You need to put out a formation that is most suitable for what you have...& our side becomes far more efficient at 4-4-2 rather than 4-5-1 clearly. We keep the ball more when its hoofed up/crossed in & two big lads will cause any defence in this league problems in that situation. So the formation we choose, is very important for us in determining how well we perform in these games.

Where does the sarcasm begin here? Only with Barton, hes bound to have a class game sooner or later though so im glad he'll likely be playing.

had to happen at some point, may aswell get it outta the way early using only kids. Doubt this will affect confidence much of the main side. Shame for Guthrie, only one game though not to bad. The in form Barton will be able to cover.

We should win easily. Hughton should not play 4-5-1. Hughton probably will. We may get a draw or close win if so.

4-4-2 works better specifically because you put in another lad whos job is to stay upfront which makes up for the lack of support from midfield, Nolan isnt being told to do that. He drops back further & then doesnt have the pace to keep up with play when we play it long, leaving Ranger/Carroll/whoever to deal with it on their own. The odd time Nolan has kept up with play, he often does well with the ball. As i said in another thread, he has been a part of goals in most of our matches so far this season, i would never play him as a striker though. Formation though i would say has a larger amount to do with this than much else.

What are you trying to say though? That we gained an advantage from changing to 4-4-2 later on instead of playing it from the start ? Anyway the result of us playing 4-5-1 for the last few games has largely been garbage, being level pegged by the side bottom of the championship purely summed that up. We did better when we went to 4-4-2 because we play better at 4-4-2. The midfielders generally do not support enough atall when there is only one upfront, simple as that. Guthrie is the only one that sometimes gets up there to. Literally everyone one of our goals this season in the league bar the west brom game has been the result of either a long ball or a cross of some kind. Every single one. So in what moronic world does it make sense to then play one lad upfront to get on the end of these against 2/3 defenders at a time. A waste is an understatement. If we're going to play like that, we may aswell do it efficiently.

He did pretty well in the very few games he played last season when he wasnt crippling the opposition. This is probably the first time ive seen him actually have bad games due to his football rather than his temper. He can perform far better than he has been obviously.

If thats us, the lad in Giggs place would likely have been butt. Then hed either shoot or loop it over everyone out for a goalkick and everyone would hammer Owen for being useless in the game.

class strike

Why does he even go up to the lad in the first place? Doubt he was the innocent little victim being abused really.

I think if anything Bartons always trying to do to much tbh Sounds like hes constantly trying to put in through balls & find one man upfront against 2/3 defenders & in most of these games hes been attempting to do it from the wing. No suprises that hes constantly the one losing possession. He needs to know when to just lay it off to someone else simply & when to go for that kind of pass.

Nice finish from Carroll. Incredibly lucky they didnt equalize with that chance yet again.

3 of those goals have just been horrible mistakes by boro, rather than brilliant attacking of any kind from brom

End of last season he was woeful...this season so far only thing of note was a goal against huddersfield. The other game he played against leicester he had a fairly average/bad game and looked off the pace to me. Didnt look like creating anything, messed up a few passes. Today sounds like hes put in a decent corner. Hed be decent cover if he could sort his passing out.

pen westham

Play as many youth team players/reserves as possible. Pointless risking injuries nor do we need a cup run & the players look to need a break.

Our possession went up about 14% after 4-4-2 also on the official site. Hopefully thats a lesson learnt for Hughton. He does seem to learn, it just takes a very long time.

All over. We scored more goals in 35 mins of 4-4-2 than we have in each of the last 3 games & first half of this one. Bit obvious is an understatement.

Destroying their Gd at the same time, good stuff

Hasnt played in a side with two men upfront since the reading game for us & his style of playing through balls is probably worse effected than anyone elses when theres one upfront. Having said that, how long does it take the lad to learn. Wasting the ball again today, drop him if needed tbh. Needs to be using his brain more.

More of our strikers that get confident in their finishing the better. Really want Ranger to get on the scoresheet.