United's Best XI

[On The Plus Side...]

This has been a rage within other threads, but it would be interesting to see how far apart everyone's ideals are (excluding 1 month loanee Paddy McCarthy).
Personally

----------------------------------------HOWARD--------------------
------------ALCOCK-----McGAHEY----COLLINS----HARRIS
CAMPBELL-RYCE-----WALLACE-----DOYLE----MURPHY
------------------------------------------BAXTER--------------------
-----------------------------------------McNULTY



Please no Ched

 

[blade too long]

whoever Nigel has available and thiinks will do a job

that said some havent shown on match day what they show in training , but its getting there , slowly

 

[Living In a Fantasy World]

For once I will agree with the team selection, I think on current form this is probably the best we've got excluding loans.

 

[blade too long]

clough in tonights star on higdon etc
Clough said: “We had a busy summer in the transfer market and, unfortunately, a few of the lads we brought in didn’t complete proper pre-seasons, for one reason or another, the same as Michael. Jay MvEveley was one of those whereas Ryan Flynn and Stefan Scougall had their ones interrupted by injury. There were a few others as well.

“But, as the season goes on and they get the minutes under their belts, they’ll really improve and feel the benefit.

“We’re talking about important players there. They’ll get sharper and sharper all the time as that process continues.”

 

[Bergen Blade]

This has been a rage within other threads, but it would be interesting to see how far apart everyone's ideals are (excluding 1 month loanee Paddy McCarthy).
Personally

----------------------------------------HOWARD--------------------
------------ALCOCK-----McGAHEY----COLLINS----HARRIS
CAMPBELL-RYCE-----WALLACE-----DOYLE----MURPHY
------------------------------------------BAXTER--------------------
-----------------------------------------McNULTY



Please no Ched

Decent side, looks exciting going forward. Is lack of height an issue, two six footers in the team (gk apart)?

 

[pommpey]

----------------------------------------HOWARD-----------------------------
-----ALCOCK----------McGAHEY-------COLLINS---------HARRIS
---------------------------WALLACE---------DOYLE----------------------
CAMPBELL-RYCE---------------BAXTER-----------------MURPHY
-----------------------------------------McNULTY----------------------------

Think this would give us better attack options and allows us to switch from 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-1-1 as the game changes. As much as I hate to say, I would play Higdon from 60 minutes and either drop McN back into Baxter's place or keep Baxter playing off Higdon.

Scougall and Flynn as midfield options and any 1 from the remainder in defence.

pommpey

 

[On The Plus Side...]

----------------------------------------HOWARD-----------------------------
-----ALCOCK----------McGAHEY-------COLLINS---------HARRIS
---------------------------WALLACE---------DOYLE----------------------
CAMPBELL-RYCE---------------BAXTER-----------------MURPHY
-----------------------------------------McNULTY----------------------------

Think this would give us better attack options and allows us to switch from 4-2-3-1 to 4-4-1-1 as the game changes. As much as I hate to say, I would play Higdon from 60 minutes and either drop McN back into Baxter's place or keep Baxter playing off Higdon.

Scougall and Flynn as midfield options and any 1 from the remainder in defence.

pommpey

Spot on, I think Higdon does a better job as a sub. He does not have the fitness to start, or ever the right physique to play 90 mins. When you get into those vital last 8 minutes, he has lost his effect on the game.

Decent side, looks exciting going forward. Is lack of height an issue, two six footers in the team (gk apart)?

Firstly Murphy and Wallace are nearly 6 foot. But if we get the ball on the floor, we will be taking away the defending strengths of most Division 3 sides and hopefully scoring for fun!

 

[Bergen Blade]

Spot on, I think Higdon does a better job as a sub. He does not have the fitness to start, or ever the right physique to play 90 mins. When you get into those vital last 8 minutes, he has lost his effect on the game.



Firstly Murphy and Wallace are nearly 6 foot. But if we get the ball on the floor, we will be taking away the defending strengths of most Division 3 sides and hopefully scoring for fun!

Yeah, hope so as well, but we still have to cope at defensive set pieces and being under pressure at times. It cost us two points vs Orient. Wallace is decent in the air, I've been pleasently surprised to see that. McNulty could also have the strength to a marking job, and Alcock has a great leap. Murphy is too weak to be a good marker at set pieces. Overall I think that side could struggle against the biggest sides.

 

[Balham]

Yeah, hope so as well, but we still have to cope at defensive set pieces and being under pressure at times. It cost us two points vs Orient. Wallace is decent in the air, I've been pleasently surprised to see that. McNulty could also have the strength to a marking job, and Alcock has a great leap. Murphy is too weak to be a good marker at set pieces. Overall I think that side could struggle against the biggest sides.

That's the thing though Bergs: the "best XI" doesn't necessarily mean 'best XI for all 46 games'. If we're up against a side of giants, then maybe we'd pick something like this:

Howard

Alcock
McGahey
Collins
McEveley

Davies
Basham
Doyle
Wallace
Flynn

Higdon

but in adding the extra height (Basham, McEveley and Higdon) and strength (Davies for Murphy) we'd lose most of the pace out of the side. My personal opinion is that we should be looking to play teams off the park - we've got the budget to buy better players than almost every other side in this division. Whether we actually achieve that is a question of mentality...

My preferred XI is similar to a lot of posters':

Howard
Alcock
McGahey
Collins
Harris/McEveley

JCR/Flynn
Wallace
Doyle
Murphy

Baxter

McNulty

with Higdon, Scougall and Flynn/JCR/Davies offering something different off the bench.