Front Three

[Cammo Toe 2]

Kyziridis.       Braga.        Chesnokov. 


Kyziridis.        Shankland.      Braga.


Kyziridis.       Shankland.       Chesnokov. 



Hate players out of position. But how can you not play both Shankland and Braga?

[CritchSmile]

[King Kebab]

We need a front 2 partnership, but we don't have anyone to partner Braga.

[Groot]

When Shanks and Cammy are back Del will play a front two as he won’t be worried about the midfield being able to take the slack

[Big Physical Acey]

Front two of Shankland and Braga sounds good to me. 4-4-2 becoming a 4-2-4 when attacking.

[Cammo Toe 2]

I get it.

But.

A 4 4 2 then means likely both Shankland and Braga up front. Kyziridis and Chesnokov wide.

Only 2 CMs.

Either two DMFs or we include Ageu to get forward.

I'm torn. We can't have five attacking players. Can we?

[Mikey]

Frear - Gnanduillet - Kastaneer

[Currahee!]

Frear - Gnanduillet - Kastaneer

I just shivered.

[Del-icious]

Mckay Boyce Woodburn

[Zizou]

Frear - Gnanduillet - Kastaneer

We've come a long way

[Cammo Toe 2]

At the risk of dragging this out.

If we play a 4 4 2 - with Kyziridis and Chesnokov wide. Then with two CFs in the box, their job as wingers is to hit the line and put crosses in. Primarily staying wide. But. That's not the type of winger that either is. Both wingers prefer getting inside, cutting in, getting onto their shooting foot, and almost playing between a single CF, and a traditional winger position. Additionally, we have a lefty on the right and righty on the left. Which again negates crossing and preferences cutting in.

Additionally. If we play a 4 4 2 - it means only playing with 2 CMs. And we get back to whether we play 2 DMFs from McEntee, Beningime, Devlin and Leonard. Or choose one and add a AMF, like Magnusson, or Spittal. McInnes when playing 4 4 2 at Killie used box to box CMs like David Watson. I don't think we have many / any as adept as a Watson at this role.

Added to this. A 4 4 2 with two traditional wingers would mean both full backs hold back. But, we've two raiding full backs in Milne and Altena whose strengths are getting forwards, overlapping the wingers who like to cut in, and putting in crosses themselves.

The point of all this? Kyziridis and Milne down the left, and Chesnokov and Altena down the right, are suited to a 4 3 3 where the wingers are more inside winger / forwards beings overlapped by outside wing backs. This is all supported by 3 CMFs, usually 1 defensive and 2 box to box. I think this would be ideal for say Beningime and then Ageu and Leonard, were it not for injuries. The strength of Motherwell, that we're missing, is this CMF passing ability and blend of Just, Slattery, Watt.

The problem with above and a 4 3 3? We end up having to choose from Braga and Shankland as it only accommodates 1 CF. And both players are undroppable when fit. But for me, that's what we need to do going forwards is commit to a 4 3 3 as most of our players' strengths are in this formation. The greatest challenge though is finding that central MF 3. Motherwell have cracked this, I don't think we have. And if we only played one CF, given the goals of both Braga and Shankland, we'd need to find an AMF that's chipping in with 10-12 goals a season at least.

Anyway. Longer term discussion. We've 10 games left and I suppose just need to do what's mostly worked for McInnes so far. But - we've road our luck in a lot of games with mid performances, so something isn't working as it should. But it's 4 3 3 going into next season for me and making sure we've especially a MF 3 that works as per Motherwell who frankly have been a far better team than us in large parts of the season.

[Shteve]

6 paragraphs, Six. That's insane.

[Cammo Toe 2]

6 paragraphs, Six. That's insane.

Sorry mate. You in a rush?

[Groot]

4-4-2 with inverted wingers was McInnes preferred formation at Aberdeen, we’ve been waiting to do this for a while why you acting surprised about it as a concept?