The fact we are halfway through a season and don't know our best formation or starting 11 is actually a disgrace for a PL club in my opinion. In not jumping on the bandwagon, but the club have got a few things wrong recently.

I've often thought this as we have had fast full backs who could potentially play wing back in a 352.

Doubt Sherwood would play it as isn't it the formation Hoddle used?

Also walker and rose are fast enough, but apart from that they actually seem to offer little quality in creating chances from out wide

The football manager/Fifa side of me would be interested to see us to play something like this. In reality though I find it highly unlikely Sherwood would play such a technical/untraditional formation.

With the right players 442 can work in my opinion. Yesterday I really felt we missed the presence of Sandro or Capoue in midfield.

ps. btw I think you have Paulinho and Sandro mixed up in your formation

Thoughts?

Wum

Thoughts?

Looks like a rugby formation

It takes one to recognise another Lion. Pointless Thudd.

It is something that has been tried and with the right strategy and style, it could work and put you into that Top 4 position. But who can argue at the minute? 1 defeat in his 6 games as Manager I believe? Not bad. Just thinking home/away against top teams.

"Takes one to recognise another....."

So you're either saying I'm a wum and have also sussed you out to be, or this is a serious article where you think that sandro is an AM?

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They are actually CM's but Eriksen/Lamela do play further forward. Why do you think Dembele is there as well? That is actually a CM position where Capoue/Paulinho are in DM.

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You could potentially drop Dembele/Sandro in with Capoue/Paulinho and put Lamela/Eriksen in that AM slot. You could have you're Wing backs tuck into DM as well but then spread wider should the ball go wide and just hold teams out.

You have plenty of options in midfield certainly, you could swap many players about.

352 would be ok against the bigger teams and away from home, but pointless vs the smaller teams at home.

It also means we lose one of our best weapons, Lennon.

Personally I would stick with 442 at home.
4231 away from home, or at least, if we are to use 442 away from home, 1 CDM and one more combative midfielder (Paulinho/Dembele)

Our results have been fantastic recently playing 442.
Especially the performance at old Trafford.

I dont think the reason we lost yesterday was down to playing 442. Adebayor dropped back into midfield frequently to make a five anyway.

We lost because (i hate to say it) we were playing the best team in the land, we lost because our depleted squad was worse than Arsenals depleted squad, and finally From back to front we were poor, terrible ball retention, Defensive errors, Poor service into the box and Soldado being wasteful.

It was a poor performance but there are some great positives from our performance and results under Sherwoods stewardship.

Its gonna take time, patience and some bloomin players getting fit again.

I dont think losing 2-0 to (arguably) the best team in the country, in their own backyard, with the second goal being a total blunder, is proof that the system does not work.

We didnt play well. We didnt make use of the ball when we had it. We didnt put our chances away. And a few players (including Ade) didnt appear at the races.

We obviously hate losing to that 'orrible lot up the road, but this defeat doesnt prove we cant be successful with this formation this season.

The buck stops with the manager (as always) and we need to think about a Plan B when things arent working out but i'd be happy to keep this formation as a default starting formation - with maybe thinking a bit more to defending when we play the big boys.

Soldado also needs to get up to speed with the game - his shooting is atrocious.