maguskwt » Sun Aug 02, 2015 4:14 am wrote:Kenny Kan » Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:55 am wrote:ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:33 pm wrote:Personally I would have preferred to have seen us stick with the 3, that way we not only get to field an extra man in the middle of the park (which is an area where we are particularly weak imo) but a back 3 also allows us to shoehorn Can into the starting XI too.
I'm not sure Brendan will pick him ahead of Milner or Henderson as a midfielder so I fear unless we go with a back 3 Emre is going to spend most of this upcoming season on the sidelines and considering he was one of the few positives from last season that would be particularly ironic.
Anyway wether we play with a back 3 or 4, based on form, Lovren shouldn't really be in the team.
If you play 3 at the back you actually lose a man in midfield, you don't gain one. I remember we played three at the back away to Newcastle last season, or the season before. By having 3 at the back we had no outlet to pass to further up, as Newcastle had enough numbers back to limit our passing. The extra third defender takes away a position from either central midfield or attacking midfield.
If we're playing 3 CB's, we're playing with wingbacks and wingbacks contribute more to the attack than fullbacks. Essentially becoming a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 depending on how you want to set up up front. That's how we played (3-4-3) for the unbeaten stretch after the Christmas fixtures last season. It wasn't only against Newcastle. And the formation did allow us to field more of the better players we had. But of course some numpties would claim that BR plays wing players out of position as wingbacks.
Yep, spot on mate, 3 at the back allowed us to get more of our better players into the line up and not just further up the field either, it was 3 at the back that turned Can into a regular.
It's not as if shifting to a 3 hurt us defensively either, in fact quite the opposite, we went from a team that had been shipping goals at an alarming rate for the previous 18 months to one that broke a long standing club record for consecutive away games without conceding a goal that had stood since the days of Ron Yeats!
When you play with a back 4 your CM's have to stand on their own two feet, that's okay if you have Souness and McDermott or Alonso and Mascherano in there but we don't, we have Henderson and Milner.