The System we are using

[Socrates]

Pretty crap I'd say.

I'm not saying Hughes out, eventhough I think this will be his final season in charge. Let's face it, the system he insist on playing will never get us consistently results on places like this and to get where Sheik is aiming that is a must. He made all the excuses last season and promised to deliver this season. I see individually better players in system Blackburn were using. Absolutely no creativity in the middle of the park. The distances between attack and defence are constantly too long. And now that we got Santa Cruz there, it was clear why he was bought.

I'm sure the usual happy clappers will be here telling what a massive result this was and had it not been ref/Barry Ferguson/ McLEish's dog we would've won.

I hoped we were wrong about Hughes but I'm starting to fear that the original analysis was accurate :O(

Our good start is keeping us up there but can't help feeling we are 4th by default and that we need to see a huge improvement to keep us there.

Hold on hold on.... you STARTED to fear from the moment you were born I reckon. The only time you show up on here is to grace us with your "my fears are coming true", "it turns out I was right all along".

No mate, you are wrong AGAIN. The facts are that although we haven't yet fully shaped as a team, we are fourth with a game in hand. That is completely the truth.

The rest is just total BULLSHIT from doom and gloom muppets.

Utter cobblers old chap, I've always been a natural optimist and always will be. Doesn't mean I cannot manage a rational analysis though. 7 points in 6 games and a few drab performances indicate that we are very unlikely to maintain 4th place for long. I hope I am wrong. Sadly, I rarely am!

Mate you've been wrong with pretty much every prediction so far. We'll play like the butchers of Blackburn? We won't draw big names under hughes? Our academy is ruined?

I agree, we've had bad performances, time to get some form going.

there, now THAT's rationality in its finest form.

We are getting more like Blackburn by the game! Hoofing the ball to Santa Cruz = Hughes reverting to his comfort zone. He needs to come back out of it sharpish.

[Grob]

Ive struggled to see much pattern to our play for a while. The shape barely hints at any sort of formation. I dunno whether Tevez has played upfront or in midfield for the last couple of games.

When your main striker plays as woefully as Santa did yesterday then the rest of the attacking unit is going to struggle. If the focal point isnt doing its job, the designed pattern of play will not work.

Santa Cruz should probably have been withdrawn at half time. Hughes should have been a little proactive for a change and reorganised to give Birminghma a diffeent look. We produced nothing in the first half. Changing playing patterns during play isnt easy to do when alot of the team is fair new to each other. Hindsight is a wonderfull thing but Hughes seems to have little bottle when it comes to doing something drastic to change the course of a match.

I can see where the Blackburn mark 2 stuff is coming from sadly. The 2 deep midfield players may have worked when his attacking options were Jason Roberts and Matt Derbyshire but now we have some of the leagues best players we need to be set up to win games rather than not lose games. Sure, more attacking line ups may see us slide to the odd defeat to the birminghams and stokes of this world, but it will convert more of these draws we are having into wins at the same time and surely picking up 2 more points here and there is better than losing the odd one.

De Jong out, Ireland in. Santa out, Ade in. That might help.

[DoomMerchant]

Ive struggled to see much pattern to our play for a while. The shape barely hints at any sort of formation. I dunno whether Tevez has played upfront or in midfield for the last couple of games.

When your main striker plays as woefully as Santa did yesterday then the rest of the attacking unit is going to struggle. If the focal point isnt doing its job, the designed pattern of play will not work.

Santa Cruz should probably have been withdrawn at half time. Hughes should have been a little proactive for a change and reorganised to give Birminghma a diffeent look. We produced nothing in the first half. Changing playing patterns during play isnt easy to do when alot of the team is fair new to each other. Hindsight is a wonderfull thing but Hughes seems to have little bottle when it comes to doing something drastic to change the course of a match.

I can see where the Blackburn mark 2 stuff is coming from sadly. The 2 deep midfield players may have worked when his attacking options were Jason Roberts and Matt Derbyshire but now we have some of the leagues best players we need to be set up to win games rather than not lose games. Sure, more attacking line ups may see us slide to the odd defeat to the birminghams and stokes of this world, but it will convert more of these draws we are having into wins at the same time and surely picking up 2 more points here and there is better than losing the odd one.

De Jong out, Ireland in. Santa out, Ade in. That might help.

why would you want De Jong out and not Barry? i could see an argument for either, but what's yours?

cheers

[Grob]

Ive struggled to see much pattern to our play for a while. The shape barely hints at any sort of formation. I dunno whether Tevez has played upfront or in midfield for the last couple of games.

When your main striker plays as woefully as Santa did yesterday then the rest of the attacking unit is going to struggle. If the focal point isnt doing its job, the designed pattern of play will not work.

Santa Cruz should probably have been withdrawn at half time. Hughes should have been a little proactive for a change and reorganised to give Birminghma a diffeent look. We produced nothing in the first half. Changing playing patterns during play isnt easy to do when alot of the team is fair new to each other. Hindsight is a wonderfull thing but Hughes seems to have little bottle when it comes to doing something drastic to change the course of a match.

I can see where the Blackburn mark 2 stuff is coming from sadly. The 2 deep midfield players may have worked when his attacking options were Jason Roberts and Matt Derbyshire but now we have some of the leagues best players we need to be set up to win games rather than not lose games. Sure, more attacking line ups may see us slide to the odd defeat to the birminghams and stokes of this world, but it will convert more of these draws we are having into wins at the same time and surely picking up 2 more points here and there is better than losing the odd one.

De Jong out, Ireland in. Santa out, Ade in. That might help.

why would you want De Jong out and not Barry? i could see an argument for either, but what's yours?

cheers

Barry has more ability than de jong in my opinion. He could play the holding role how hamann used to sucessfully play it only with more mobility. De jong gives nothing going forward, too one dimensional. Form is temporary, class perminent etc.

[Twobob]

We NEED TO USE A 4-3-3!!

4-4-2 just doesnt suit city! We have attacking players and they can not benefit from a 4-4-2. With 4-3-3, We will be able to have 3 front men moving around wanting the ball. We can have two wide strikers e.g. Bellamy, Robinho, Tevez, Roque? Hopefully when they have the ball at there feet they will be able to put in a DECENT cross to our Target man Ade or Roque who can hopefully head it in. IT IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE lol.

The thing which i am starting to get worried about is that we dont have a provider that is capable of crossing a ball past the first man. Petrov is a good crosser yes but isnt really in Hughes's plans for first team at the moment. Weiss can cross yes but he isnt getting a chance to show what he can do!!

If i was Hughes i would have a sit down and think about playing 4-3-3 and what players would fit that formation and pick players that will be able to make an impact!! Have barry,ireland and de jong in midfield, That would be a solid midfield and they are capable pf covering the 2 full backs. Give bellers, ade and tevez a go again and have tevez and bellers cutting inside and supporting Ade.

The next thing is that at times we do not look creative. We sit back knocking it about looking for an opening and then when we are in our own quarter we have to boot it all the way upfield and we have to start again!! We need people to use the flanks to make runs and creative runs through the middle that will eventually catch out there defense!

Any comments?

Lewis in, Leslie Out

The only tweak is I'd have Kompany playing the holding role with Barry and De Jong, Ireland to come off the bench for the strikers

Haha cheers pal, I would gladly take the role lol.

You make a fair point. I just think to myself, Have we got anything creative in midfield?? To me that looks like a bit of a defensive midfield. A great midfield to use if we are playing against a big team e.g chelsea but against the likes of hull,burnley, blackburn, e.g e.g, We need Ireland on so he can spark up the midfield and support the strikers!

We'd get torn a new ar$e hole - often the best form of defense is attack and three Holding midfielders is suicide and lame.

As for the formation - Agree that this 442 isnt fluid enough nor does it suit the players we have, question is - have we reverted to this formation due to injuries/fitness worries with key attacking players?

I do not like the two holding midfielders either one should be adequate with a quality defense ... but the attacking options have to be able to keep hold of the ball and threaten more ...

I dont think we've actually set the world on fire at all yet this season and yet we've won games and are in a great possition - in 90 minutes we see some great movements but then 5 minutes later seem unable to string two passes together ... with any formation we've played.

[Dronny]

I posted this team in a different thread and I know that injuries don't permit it yetbut here's my suggestion

Given

Zabs Toure Lescott Bridge

Stevie De Jong

Bellers Robby

Tevez

Ade

Subs : Bazza, Petrov, Vinnie, Neds, SWP, RSC, Richards, Taylor

Yo've got this option home or away, you can have true movement from the top 4 from Bellers/Robbie and Tevez swopping or Bellers/Tevez dropping back to help out Stevie and De Jong as needs be.

With this fluidity oppo defender's and midfielder's will be pulled all over the place. I believe that the subs bench pretty much cover's all options as well

[edge275]

I posted this team in a different thread and I know that injuries don't permit it yetbut here's my suggestion

Given

Zabs Toure Lescott Bridge

Stevie De Jong

Bellers Robby

Tevez

Ade

Subs : Bazza, Petrov, Vinnie, Neds, SWP, RSC, Richards, Taylor

Yo've got this option home or away, you can have true movement from the top 4 from Bellers/Robbie and Tevez swopping or Bellers/Tevez dropping back to help out Stevie and De Jong as needs be.

With this fluidity oppo defender's and midfielder's will be pulled all over the place. I believe that the subs bench pretty much cover's all options as well

Here's mine, injuries permitting.

-----------------------Given-------------------------

Zabaleta-------Toure-------Kompany--------Bridge

----------------------Barry---------------------------

----------------------Ireland-------------------------

Tevez---------------Robinho---------------Bellamy

---------------------Adebayor-----------------------

[Dronny]

I posted this team in a different thread and I know that injuries don't permit it yetbut here's my suggestion

Given

Zabs Toure Lescott Bridge

Stevie De Jong

Bellers Robby

Tevez

Ade

Subs : Bazza, Petrov, Vinnie, Neds, SWP, RSC, Richards, Taylor

Yo've got this option home or away, you can have true movement from the top 4 from Bellers/Robbie and Tevez swopping or Bellers/Tevez dropping back to help out Stevie and De Jong as needs be.

With this fluidity oppo defender's and midfielder's will be pulled all over the place. I believe that the subs bench pretty much cover's all options as well

Here's mine, injuries permitting.

-----------------------Given-------------------------

Zabaleta-------Toure-------Kompany--------Bridge

----------------------Barry---------------------------

----------------------Ireland-------------------------

Tevez---------------Robinho---------------Bellamy

---------------------Adebayor-----------------------

Essentially the same system, I suppose I'm potentially open to a touch of hypocrisy but I'd rest Bazza as I think he has not lived up to his blistering start to the season and I'd still keep with Lescott (here's the hypocritical bit) because I do think he and Kolo need more time together. I still think that top 4 would give all the prem defences nightmares, shame we haven't seen it yet, but I hope we soon do.