The squad, 3-5-2 and new management

[JackSUFC]

How do a new management team move away from Wilder and Knill's 3-5-2 system that is so ingrained in this squad's DNA?

For starters we have no out-and-out wingers at the club, no natural 'number 10' and the likes of Bash who define the term 'system players'.

Don't all of our youth teams set-up the same way too? That means Heckingbottom isn't going to any radical experimenting. How could he with the players he's inherited?

It's going to be a massive task for whoever new coming in to change our style of play - if they want to.

 

[Ginger Gnome]

Just let Heckingbottom get on with it, and play his more attacking variant of 3-5-2 using some of his players to pad out the midfield.

We need another centre back and a midfield overhaul in the summer anyway, so bringing in the right players to have the option of some variant of 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 as well as 3-5-2 (a winger who can play as a 10 basically) should be on the shopping list.

 

[Geordie Blade]

They’re professional footballers. They’ve all played at different teams and would adapt quickly. Some of them (Berge, Brewster, McBurnie, Burke, Osborn, Freeman) don’t ‘fit’ our system anyway. Some, like Bash and Stevens, who are well suited to it are getting towards the end of their peak (some will say Norwood here too). Egan, O’Connell, Baldock, Fleck and McGoldrick are good players and should work well in other systems.

That said, I’m a big fan of the system and think it has been our biggest asset, more so than any individual player. The big problem is that never developed a proper alternative. I’m simplifying a bit here, but our system is particularly effective against weaker opposition. It allows us to turn the screw when we accumulate possession (as we often did in the promotion systems). The overloads out wide helped carve out opportunities against teams parking the bus. Against top PL sides, it needed a Plan B, ideally based around quick counter attacks, with fast midfielders and only one up top.

 

[MalmoBlade]

Put Ndiaye in the Duffy role

 

[FMBlade1]

4-4-2

Ramsdale
Baldock
Basham
Egan
Stevens
Bogle
Berge
Fleck
Osborne
McGoldrick
Brewster

Injuries aside etc.

 

[Mesut Özil's Lawnmower]

They’re professional footballers. They’ve all played at different teams and would adapt quickly. Some of them (Berge, Brewster, McBurnie, Burke, Osborn, Freeman) don’t ‘fit’ our system anyway. Some, like Bash and Stevens, who are well suited to it are getting towards the end of their peak (some will say Norwood here too). Egan, O’Connell, Baldock, Fleck and McGoldrick are good players and should work well in other systems.

That said, I’m a big fan of the system and think it has been our biggest asset, more so than any individual player. The big problem is that never developed a proper alternative. I’m simplifying a bit here, but our system is particularly effective against weaker opposition. It allows us to turn the screw when we accumulate possession (as we often did in the promotion systems). The overloads out wide helped carve out opportunities against teams parking the bus. Against top PL sides, it needed a Plan B, ideally based around quick counter attacks, with fast midfielders and only one up top.

Obviously assuming we kept them, which probably isn't looking that likely at the minute

4 at the back with your two centre halves being Egan and JOC is hardly the worst thing in the world

And the benefit of having a really good left footer in JOC means it wouldn't be that hard to find a decent Bash replacement either if we stuck with 3 CBs

For me, regardless of who is in charge next season, it's more important we keep the pair of them.. I'd be very sad to see someone like Berge leave but right now he's much more dispensable

 

[Toronto Blade]

How much money does the Prince have left after he used the tv money.
Will he have enough left to keep JOC,Egan,Bash .
He has to pay off Wilder and his management group. The Prince just bought Chateauroux bottom club in French Ligue 2,for 2.8 mill.“We have seen that there is a possibility of relegation, but we have the possibility of recovering quickly, and in a few years, we will be at the highest level in France”, hopes Prince Moussaed. Where will all this cash come from.

 

[BarcaBlade]

The footballing gods final act in this chapter is a meeting between the players, all fiercely loyal to Wilder. As a group, they hand in their transfer requests en masse, with the exception of one man. John Lundstram.

The team to take the field against Leicester will consist of this one brave soul.

(Satire as therapy, or something like that)

 

[Nagima]

Just let Heckingbottom get on with it, and play his more attacking variant of 3-5-2 using some of his players to pad out the midfield.

We need another centre back and a midfield overhaul in the summer anyway, so bringing in the right players to have the option of some variant of 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 as well as 3-5-2 (a winger who can play as a 10 basically) should be on the shopping list.

Spot on. We need that flexibility when needed. And we have to look to play through the centre not just down the sides.

 

[MalmoBlade]

How do a new management team move away from Wilder and Knill's 3-5-2 system that is so ingrained in this squad's DNA?

For starters we have no out-and-out wingers at the club, no natural 'number 10' and the likes of Bash who define the term 'system players'.

Don't all of our youth teams set-up the same way too? That means Heckingbottom isn't going to any radical experimenting. How could he with the players he's inherited?

It's going to be a massive task for whoever new coming in to change our style of play - if they want to.

The U-23 and U-18 sides do play the same way as the first team, but the system as it was, PRIOR to going to a flat midfield 3.

U-23 play with a Duffy-esque No. 10.

 

[Snowflake]

How much money does the Prince have left after he used the tv money.
Will he have enough left to keep JOC,Egan,Bash .
He has to pay off Wilder and his management group. The Prince just bought Chateauroux bottom club in French Ligue 2,for 2.8 mill.“We have seen that there is a possibility of relegation, but we have the possibility of recovering quickly, and in a few years, we will be at the highest level in France”, hopes Prince Moussaed. Where will all this cash come from.

Surely not Basham. He and his family are settled in the area , he is nearing the end of his career and is not obviously a Premiership target.
Another few years in the Championship on good money would suffice ?