I don’t claim to be a professional tactician, so please feel free to disagree or point out where I’m wrong.
However, given how much we are lacking up top at the minute, does anyone else think a 4-4-2 diamond with high inside forwards could work?
Nygren is our highest scorer and already drifts in and around the box anyway. Both Yang and Daizen love cutting inside, which is currently hampered by our ineffective strikers crowding the box with defenders.
Nygren could step up to form a 4-3-3 press, or the midfield could flatten out to provide a 4-4-2 press. Ideally this would be when Engles gets back, but even now we could have Chamberlain in the middle.
I just feel we are trying to shoehorn a 4-3-3 system, yet we do not have the strikers to punish teams. With Nygren furthest forward centrally, but not in a traditional striker role, centre-backs will naturally step forward onto him, leaving more space for either Daizen or Yang to run onto.
by NextUp-Analysis
19 Comments
You are crazy, there is no striker in this team.
Honestly, it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.
If nacho man is fit, he needs to start upfront though. He’s a natural striker and is very decent.
No you’re not
Prepared for the downvotes because I’d have Sarrachi over Tierney .
I wouldn’t play Scales, I would play Arthur and Trusty
Love to see two up front, ideally Iheanacho and Cvancara
I wouldn’t start Hatate unless he’s running rings round everyone in training and smashing every 50/50 challenge.
He needs punted in the summer, been shite all season and a shadow of what he could be. He offers nothing in midfield other than that 1 in 10 pass where people get excited and ignore everything else he didn’t do during the match. Been riding that performance when he came on as a sub a while back. Prior to that and after that he’s been shite. Gives a lot of shitty fouls too when it’s just a lazy or petulant foul because someone skint him.
Nygren in a false 9 might no actually be the worst thing I’ve seen
If do a box and drop Yang for Kelechi and play Kelechi and Maeda up top. Saracchi over KT all day.
But otherwise I think a box works best for the players we have at our disposal. Harsh on Yang to drop him when he’s been one of the most consistent players for a few months now.
I actually think that it would work! But like you im no tactician so it’s up to St Martin! Hopefully a few players hit a period of form and we bury the next 6 games
I’d be happy with that, if Nygren doesn’t have to do a lot of running and essentially acts as a target man he’d do well.
I’d maybe say Saracchi over KT as I think KT looks knackered and would keep him for the cup, and games against the top two.
Also wouldn’t mind Arthur being rotated in there as well he’s been excellent.
I dont think it’s crazy man but I would worry about lack of physicality up top. Sometimes we need that out ball. Iheanacho and Cvancara, for as shite as they’ve both been at times, at least you can play the long ball and they’ll have a chance of winning a header or linking up. Maeda and Yang just aren’t capable of that. I actually like the diamond in the middle. Sometimes wonder if it’d be better with 2 up top at times. I’d like to see Maeda and Cvancara together as a 2
Engels makes our team much more balanced, we are so lacking in athleticism without him.
he can’t return soon enough
You’re not crazy, there’s some good points here. However, the issue for Martin and you as well is that we don’t have the players in the squad to make this productive in my opinion. This may help get the best out of Nygren without it being a detriment to the team which is positive (I feel at times that when Nygren is on the team is off for some reason). Ultimately I think our scoring struggles are more of a personnel issue than a tactics issue
This team won’t be able to get the ball out of their own half. You’ve seen how much we’ve struggled with a weak ST this season? Remove that focal point entirely and watch teams press the shit out of us and bully our smaller, weaker attacking players when we have to launch balls up the pitch 😆
Iheanacho’s capable of good holdup play. Cvancara is at least physically big enough to battle with bigger CBs.
We couldn’t play with a false 9 in Scotland unless we had players with game breaking talent and clinical finishing abilities in the other attacking positions.
You could play Daizen up top next to a target forward and I could maybe see that working.
I think this set would also suffer from a lack of service. Don’t think Donovan is good enough going forward and KT benefits a lot from having Daizen or Tounekti in front of him to open up space in which he can operate. I think he gets exposed if you ask him to do too much running up and back. Imo Sarrachi would fit this formation better.
Touch of the Craig Leveins about this line up. 😂
Bad as we are I don’t think changing tactical shape at this late point in the proceedings would be a good idea. Think back to that Frenchman (seriously cannot remember his name at this juncture) to see what happens when poor and average players have to adjust to tactical changes, extreme though they were of course. I think we just need to cling on to Rangers’ and Hearts’ shirts as much as we can for the remaining six matches then get the new guy in and punt half of that team at least before next season.
I think you take away Nygren’s chance to find space by not having a focal point up front.
Would also require a midfielder being prepared to run beyond him which Hatate and Engels don’t do.
If he’s fit, I think it’s Iheancho spot for the season.