boringteacher wrote:Well done Dean. We bossed them in the first half by being strong in midfield. I was crying out for a Morris or Lalkovich to start the game but you've got to ask whether we'd have had the dominance if we'd have been slightly lighter weight in midfield. I also thought his changes in the 2nd half were clever - though we rode our (deserved ) luck a couple of times in the last 15 minutes, the presence of Cook and change of formation meant that we looked equally like nailing them on the break.
To be honest, I wasn't surprised when I saw the lineup. It was the 2 best defences in the league, so it was always going to be tight, no point going all out attack to concede one then face having to get a couple of goals against one of the leagues top defences.
It's the change in approach that is the marked difference to last year IMO. Last season, regardless of the opponents, we'd play the 4-1-2-2-1 system with the 2 inside forwards (Cook, Morris, Forde), however this exposed Taylor who's legs have been showing their age for the past 18 months, and he was struggling to cope with pacy wingers, and it became predictable.
Now, Smith's developed this other tactic - the wing back system 5-3-1-1 - and has used it wisely. The addition of this tactic makes it harder for opposing managers to set up against us, allows Taylor to play (who is still a quality defender), but in a less demanding role, and gets the best out of 2 of the most attacking full-backs we've ever had in Rico and Jason.
Someone mentioned earlier on this thread how unbalance this system is with Taylor playing as centre-back but sometimes drifting to left back - I agree, but I wouldn't say it's unbalanced - it's fluid, and it's one of the reasons the tactic is working well for us. Its fluidity means the back 5 of Demetriou, OConnor, Downing, Taylor and Rico can shift to a flat back 4, allowing Rico to play as a full on winger when needs be, but can just as easily switch back in to a 5, giving us extra protection. If we played Preston instead of Taylor to give us a back 3 of Downing, OConnor and Preston, we wouldn't be able to do that.
Whether this is by design, or luck I dont know - but it certainly fits the squad shape at the moment with Taylor coming to the end of his career and Rico just earning his stripes.
I would now expect Smith to change the system against struggling Chesterfield, to the more attacking 4-2-3-1, and this is the line-up I'd expect:
Etheridge - McGillivray didn't exactly do anything wrong, but I think Etheridge will come back in
Demetriou - Kinsella doesn't deserve to be dropped, but if my hunch is right about the change to a more attacking system, I think Smith will go for more solidity in his back 4, and JD brings that where LK probably doesnt
Downing
OConnor
Taylor
Chambers
Mantom
Sawyers
Lalkovic
Morris
Bradshaw