BazWainwright
Member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2025
- Messages
- 307
- Reaction score
- 723
It's the 64,000 question and everyone had their own opinion.
We know how understrength and somewhat disorganised the team is and how we play for midfield possession and rarely move forward, if we do we overplay it and waste the initiative gained. It's been like that really for some time ... we suffered from it during the failing run in to the playoff final and last season even when Wilder returned and we had Gus and Brooks.
So what actually is the answer?
I am a big fan of midfield playmakers and think they make the game. At the moment we don't have dynamic enough players in the middle of the park and that does not create chances. For me if we have a layered midfield, a defensive layer and an attacking layer we become better placed to capitalise on numbers and movement, something Saturday's game showed we lacked.
Going back to one up front be it One or Bamford and having Cannon and Campbell as options if leading, we could reform the team into the 'Christmas Tree' 4-3-2-1 or even 3-4-2-1 if we have Souttar and Anel back. With the current team that gives us:
--------------------------------------Cooper---------------------------------
Seriki-------------------Tanganga------------McGuiness-----------Burrows
-------------Peck---------------------Philips-------------Riedewald---------
------------------------Donvan-----------------O'Hare-----------------------
-------------------------------------Bamford----------------------------------
This can go 4-3-3 when attacking and 4-5-1 when defending but if we remember the heady days of N'Dyaie and Gibbs-White, they both attacked from those positions and worked well with the midfield behind. At the moment it seems 'options whilst on the ball' are almost non-existent when the likes of Peck of Rothwell were in possession.
We also need to stop this 'first ten minutes, we're well on top - next thirty five we look clueless and out of ideas' habit. It just brings the opposition into the game. We just look out of ideas after giving it the big one in the first ten or fifteen.
What do people reckon?
We know how understrength and somewhat disorganised the team is and how we play for midfield possession and rarely move forward, if we do we overplay it and waste the initiative gained. It's been like that really for some time ... we suffered from it during the failing run in to the playoff final and last season even when Wilder returned and we had Gus and Brooks.
So what actually is the answer?
I am a big fan of midfield playmakers and think they make the game. At the moment we don't have dynamic enough players in the middle of the park and that does not create chances. For me if we have a layered midfield, a defensive layer and an attacking layer we become better placed to capitalise on numbers and movement, something Saturday's game showed we lacked.
Going back to one up front be it One or Bamford and having Cannon and Campbell as options if leading, we could reform the team into the 'Christmas Tree' 4-3-2-1 or even 3-4-2-1 if we have Souttar and Anel back. With the current team that gives us:
--------------------------------------Cooper---------------------------------
Seriki-------------------Tanganga------------McGuiness-----------Burrows
-------------Peck---------------------Philips-------------Riedewald---------
------------------------Donvan-----------------O'Hare-----------------------
-------------------------------------Bamford----------------------------------
This can go 4-3-3 when attacking and 4-5-1 when defending but if we remember the heady days of N'Dyaie and Gibbs-White, they both attacked from those positions and worked well with the midfield behind. At the moment it seems 'options whilst on the ball' are almost non-existent when the likes of Peck of Rothwell were in possession.
We also need to stop this 'first ten minutes, we're well on top - next thirty five we look clueless and out of ideas' habit. It just brings the opposition into the game. We just look out of ideas after giving it the big one in the first ten or fifteen.
What do people reckon?