Songs And Things

1st September 2011

Video

(This became a long tactical ramble. If you’d like to learn more about how I’d line up the West Ham team post-deadline day transfers and my love of 5-3-2, please continue. If not, thanks anyway.)

Ah, remember this? I wonder if he’ll actually be any good at West Ham.

I don’t think we did too badly yesterday. Scott going is a gut wrenchy, but was expected. I’m more concerned about the sale of Stanislas to Burnley, to be honest with you, as I’d always rated him quite highly. But with David Bentley and Henri Lansbury coming in we’ve bolstered out midfield further. I still think we’re lacking a strong centre back, with Faye out with his groin injury I think we lacking one extra signing there. Does this Guy Demel fellow play centre back? I thought he was a right back, if my foggy memory of the World Cup serves me right (was he the one who squared up to Ronaldo when Ivory Coast played Portugal? Answers on a postcard). Seems a bit unnecessary to sign him, with Joey O’Brien doing so well, but I suppose he’ll be a good reserve. whufc.com says he can play across the back four, so maybe he’ll over extra cover down the left and at centre back too. Also, I haven’t said anything on it yet, but Sam Baldock is a good signing for us, having seen him a couple of times in ventures to Stadium:MK with Rosie and her family he’s looked pretty handy, and should do well for us up top. Yeah, I’m pretty happy with our business this summer. Hopefully now we can actually push on a bit. Just got that nagging feeling that our defence will get undone a couple of times a game at the moment. But we’ll see. At least we never have to face off with Max Gradel again.

I’m interested to see where Allardyce takes us formation-wise now. I imagine we’ll continue to play this 4-3-3 he’s been implementing recently, but I’m not sure that really suits our new signings as much, especially with Baldock, who I don’t think can play as a lone striker (unless I’ve missed something in watching him). We might need to go to two up front to get the best from him, and have him playing up top alongside one of Carew or Cole (fuck Piquionne, just fuck him), which means a shift in the midfield or defence, either to a 4-4-2 or, my favourite, the 5-3-2. I’m a big proponent of the latter, and you don’t really see it used that much now. In my mind, we’d line up something along the lines of:

Green; O’Brien, Faye/Demel, Reid, Tomkins, Taylor; Collison, Nolan, Noble; Cole/Carew, Baldock

O’Brien and Taylor are our wing backs - O’Brien has shown a pretty good attacking side of his play in our 4-3-3 formation, and Taylor is a natural forward runner, but has played this sort of position before so wouldn’t be out of his depth. Both are good runners and often look as if they could go all day some weekends. Most importantly, they’d put the opposition wingers on the back foot, and with the support of the back three and the ‘sweeper’ there’s always somene back thereto come over and cover should there be a counter attack. Reid slots in to be the ‘sweeper’ - I think he’s a slight bit quicker than Tomkins, but also he seems to be the less strong of the pair, and that plays into him dropping a bit deeper, with Tomkins and then Faye or Demel playing as traditional centre backs, and probably man marking the opposition forwards. Centre of the park stays as it was against Forest - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it - and then Baldock comes in up front to play slightly off of the bigger man, whoever is chosen to play there. I actually lean slightly to Carew on this one, if his fitness is there, as I feel he has the marginally superior first touch and finish. Anyway, that’s a classic Heskey/Owen-esque partnership, one for the ages, doesn’t really need an analysis here. This formation would mean dropping Ilunga (no big deal, as he supposedly wants out and we want him out too, plus he’s a sack of shit) and Faubert (arguably the bigger loss, as his wing performance at the weekend was pretty good) - both of those would be suitable replacements or reserves for the two wing back positions. It also means there is no direct place for Bentley, who doesn’t really fit in to this system - arguably, that’s the biggest downfall of these tactics, as we’re presumably paying some of his wages, but he’d be surplus to requirements. Lansbury could rotate with Collison for the third central midfield role, or be cover, along with Diop, for injuries or suspensions.

Of course, the other option is the 4-4-2. This means some meddling with the central midfield, which is arguably our strongest department, but does retain the two up top. I think we’d likely see the following if we went 4-4-2;

Green; O’Brien, Tomkins, Faye/Reid, McCartney; Faubert/Bentley, Noble, Nolan, Taylor; Cole/Carew, Baldock

I won’t go into as much detail on this one, suffice to say that McCartney would bethe better choice at left back, Reid would most likely be the player to miss out in central defence due to his strength deficiencies, and then most likely Collison misses out on the central midfield spot, benching him next to Lansbury as cover, with Faubert or Bentley working down the right. To be honest, I’m not as keen on this as a formation, the only real benefit I see in it over what we’re playing now and against the 5-3-2 is that we get the two up front that benefits Baldock. As I said, I like the 5-3-2 - I think for us it brings greater protection in defence, which is probably our weakest area.

All in all, we’ll likely continue with the 4-3-3 (hell, I’m not Allardyce, and have no control over him) but if this was me, on a laptop playing Football Manager 2012, I’d certainly be looking at that 5-3-2 in training and seeing how it worked for us.

(The bulk of this post was brought to you by someone who has played too much Football Manager, and would like to think he knows a thing or two. He doesn’t. He knows nothing. Probably)

Tagged: West Ham UnitedDavid BentleyGuy DemelHenri LansburySam BaldockTransfer Window