442

LeonC

Well-known member
A lot on here shouting out for 442 and I can understand why but who would you drop or pick to facilitate this as the back four:

Ballard, Hutchinson, Cooper, McNamara, Malone, Leonard, Pearce or Murray

My thoughts are this could only work with following:

Leonard RB Hutchinson CH Cooper CH Murray LB

That would be harsh on Ballard, McNamara and Malone. No way can Ballard play right back or as proven could you drop Hutchinson for Ballard. Hutchinson as seen already is the organiser and when he didn’t play through injury we were at sixes and sevens with Jake leading the line.

You could put McNamara at RB and Malone at LB but I fear we would get caught out defensively.

Unfortunately my fellow Wall we are stuck with 3 or 5 at the back, whichever you want to call it. The only way I see us playing a flat four would be if we are chasing a game like Saturday or GR decides to go for it with 20 minutes to go.

Be careful what you wish for.

COYL
 
Why would you not play Danny at rb? That is where he plays.

Malone has come out and said he likes to get forward, don't mean that he can't play left back though, although he is better at attacking, you can also have M.Wallace at left back.

The centre backs have to be Hutch and Cooper, they have a good partnership.

Leonard done very well when he was moved into central midfield, but I think Saville is a better player with only 2 in the middle, with Mitchell as his partner, Jed on the right with Mahoney on the left, and Bradshaw and Smith up top.

If Smith don't play then change out Mahoney for Ojo or Bennett who have more pace, and Afobe/Bennett for Smith.
 
When Lennard was put in to midfield and Dutch came on to partner Billy for me that was the best midfield trio I have seen this season If Rowett changes that he is off his trolly They grafted their nuts off You will not see Saville do that
 
The dilemma, of our most consistent players, 5 out of 6 are defenders, Bart, the three Centre backs and Malone, so I can see GR problem, how about this, Ballard is too good not to play, and as we saw Saturday adapted to temporary right back, what if he played as a defensive mid, in front of Cooper and Hutchison, instead of Evans, he is clearly comfortable on the ball and mobile, try this line up

Bart
Danny Coops Hutch Malone
Ballard
Billy leonard
Jed Bradshaw Ojo

Midfield/Forward dependent on form
 
Why would you not play Danny at rb? That is where he plays.

Malone has come out and said he likes to get forward, don't mean that he can't play left back though, although he is better at attacking, you can also have M.Wallace at left back.

The centre backs have to be Hutch and Cooper, they have a good partnership.

Leonard done very well when he was moved into central midfield, but I think Saville is a better player with only 2 in the middle, with Mitchell as his partner, Jed on the right with Mahoney on the left, and Bradshaw and Smith up top.

If Smith don't play then change out Mahoney for Ojo or Bennett who have more pace, and Afobe/Bennett for Smith.
As pointed out many times and I have been one of them at times I would like us to play 442. To do that would meaning dropping certain players at the back.

I don’t disagree that Danny is supposed to be a RB but he’s WB, as is Malone. Defending is secondary to what they do.

I have no problem people wanting 442, just explain how we do that with the current playing staff, who gets selected and who misses out.

The bottom line is I think it’s only possible to do during games but not from a starting 11.
I would equally bet that both Arsenal and Liverpool have clauses in the loan agreements that both Ballard and Ojo start a certain amount of games.

A multitude of things come into play here. As stated I thought the midfield with Billy, Leonard and Keif looked at it’s best this season in the 2nd half, still goes back to only selection of 10, outfield players and formation.

GR would argue 1 loss in 10 and his boss JB would say well done.
 
If we go 4 at the back then it won’t be 442 but 4231. Kief will play to protect the back 4 and won’t get to far forward. With a holding midfielder in the team then we could play more attacking right/left backs. Would be more entertaining but the results may suffer
 
We’re getting our message across 👍😉
 
Dropping players to the bench is not a problem. That means we have fresh legs to bring on. After all football is a team game.