De Sciglio, you mean? Yeah, he might need a bench or two. Play Armero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GETJh-QoF4s

I thought it felt like I was talking in this vid. Loved his Bonera and Muntari analysis

Yep, great commentary. Bonera and Muntari, F*CK OFF! I think I'm gonna make this my new sig.

Aside from all the formation talk, I just want to say I really believe Jack Bonaventura deserves a start. We have simply seemed far more enterprising and less cowardly in our play once he is on.

I would even play a flat 4-4-2 to accomodate him.

I see him more as a jack-of-all-trades type of player, who can fill the void whenever we have an injury or suspension in midfield or attack.

That's because you're too obsessed with Honda to accept Bona's actually a better player

Nah being serious he's had two matches, and last night played deeper - guess what, like I said, in the attacking midfield zone he is a serious player.

He has to start in the 3 in the middle IMO. And has to play every match. I'm just gutted MvG is injured.

... If Pippo actually decides to keep playing a 3-man midfield. I have my reservations after last night.

I honestly think it's a toss up atm, I do think he'll use a 4-3-3 vs Cesena again, it's just a matter of whether it works or not, if it doesn't I can see him going for a 4-2-3-1.

And I agree with you Danny Bonaventura looked pretty great yesterday when he was sort of occupying the LAM position rather than a full winger, he was dropping deep, exchanging positions with Poli, even Poli looked so much better than he has in the flat 3-man midfield.

The problem is we don't have anywhere to fit all these guys right now.

Honda imo, is un-droppable atm, when he worked through the centre yesterday he looked like the real deal, and not just someone on the periphery looking in, not to mention he's in great scoring form. Same can be said of Menez and I think Torres will become a crucial cog in our attack, his pace and movement through the channels is just brilliant and we simply haven't had that type of movement from a striker since Sheva.

We could go for something crazy like going 3 at the back with De Jong in the centre of the defence playing the sort of playmaker in the defence like what Bonucci does at Juve



But again, you'd have to leave out SES.

Too bad about Van Ginkel, he looked the real deal in his few minutes on the pitch, he always looked to move the ball forward, he actually looked like he's capable of an actual thought process when on the ball unlike Muntari. Hope he's not out for too long as I think he'd be brilliant in a double pivot. However I read he damaged a ligament in his ankle so that could easily be a few months.

Leaving SES is a necessity right now. All of Menez, Honda and Torres are in very good shape. The only way to play SES would be to go with 4-2-3-1.

Like I said in the other thread though, I am just not a fan of a 3-man back line and think it would be a mistake to use it, especially when our CBs and defence as a team in general has been so shambolic in a system they're familiar with.

4-2-3-1 imo, is the best way to go for us, it would allow us to incorporate our best assets as well as hopefully defending better as a team with De Jong and Poli sitting deep when necessary

SES had a great pre-season and started out well against Lazio, another niggling injury ruined his momentum

Against Juve not only was it clear that he was not fit/sharp enough as evidenced by the cramps in the second half but he was also totally isolated with a complete inept midfield which was simply incapable of getting the ball to either him or Honda

I think the main point that has come out from the above talks is that flat 3 man midfield cannot work. I completely agree with that. If we must play the 3 man midfield, we shall have to do something like this>


--Abate---Rami---Alex---Armero--
-------------De Jong--------------
-----Jack/MvG-------Poli/Jack------
------Honda-------Menez(Free)-----
-------------Torres------------------


So basically, I hate to admit it, but now I've become Pep Guardiola coz this is so his style and his formation. I could even draw lines to indicate what each player should do. Ugh!

The Pep style WAS a flat 3. The difference was each of them could cover each other but primarily you had the DM, CM, then AM.

In our case DM De Jong, CM Van Ginkel, AM Bonaventura.

Except an individual game can't prove anything. If they could, SES proved to be a terrible, terrible player for probably 23 of his last 25 performances.

With Barca, you could see Iniesta, Xavi and Busquets were forming a triangle. It was a staggered midfield, with one slightly higher than the other with Busquets deepest. Iniesta was the furthest forward, almost a skewed 4-2-4.

With Bayern, it's more like a 4-1-4-1 that morphs into a 4-2-3-1 when defending. , but I call it a 4-3-3 triangle coz Schweini stays back while Alacantara and Goetze/Ribery advance, while not being as advanced as Robben or Muller.

That looks good, I agree with your choices, only that with MvG out injurd I'd have Poli on the right and Bonaventura on the left. And I wiuldn't use Honda on the wing like Pippo does. Give him a more central position, like Seedorf's position in the post-Sheva Christmas tree.



Just one game? 4 goals against Parma, terrible performance against Juve and now this. Anyone who gets one thing or teo about football could have seen that NdJ-Poli-Muntari would never work.

And are you perhaps implying that Bonera and Muntari are not terrible?

I thought of Poli on the right too. But he was almost reborn when he played on the left against Empli. I'm thinking perhaps left side is his strong side.

Maybe on the right, he isn't as effective. We're fortunate that playing on the right of centre happens to be Montolivo's favourite position.

Does it really make that much of a difference whether you play on the right or left of CM? Maybe he looked better cos the whole team was better in the second half, know what I'm sayin'? And besides, LCM is Bonaventura's position if Pippo will play him there.