Well i was convinced he would have gone in the window along with a few others who havnt, if Zheng gets fit could him and bailey play together? could he be the missing link. I personally have never seen what is so specail about him to be honest he never has wowed me, but parky and some others on here seem to think he could make a huge difeerence to the team, a midfield 3 of Racon defensive, bailey war dog and Zheng the creation will this work.. would mean playing one up front tho if we use wingers or use basey and murty as wing backs so that frees up a another striker.
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One conventional winger, hugging the touchline. 3 CM's strung across the erm..... middle, with the outer one playing 'narrow' not hugging the line - thus providing a channel for a decent buccaneering fullback overlapping, which he then drops back to cover behind the run.
See, easy ....... 3 CM's playing in a 4-4-2.
Curbs was a tactical genius, eh OohAah?
thats what we pretty much did last night!!
A midfield of Zheng Racon Bailey Sam could be good, though Parkinson will want to fit Soares and Spring in there, and we still have Shelvey, Ambrose and Wright.
With Soares only being a short term loan, that's got to be our strongest midfield. No room for Holland any more, and we need him as centre back cover. Semedo can go to right back when he's fit.
And of course if we want to play 4-5-1, Shelvey or Ambrose can be the extra midfielder in the middle.
Funny how fans know more about football than managers.
It's ever been thus, lol
No ones saying that but we've barely played well for 3 years, didn't exactly end Curbishley's last season with a good run remember. On our decline of course fans are going to suggest things.
There's only a handful of games we've lined up with a midfield like that and it used to work well for us. We've been trying to fit in two inconsistent wingers for a few years now with little success.
A midfield of Zheng Racon Bailey Sam could be good, though Parkinson will want to fit Soares and Spring in there, and we still have Shelvey, Ambrose and Wright.
With Soares only being a short term loan, that's got to be our strongest midfield. No room for Holland any more, and we need him as centre back cover. Semedo can go to right back when he's fit.
And of course if we want to play 4-5-1, Shelvey or Ambrose can be the extra midfielder in the middle.[/quote]
[quote][cite]Posted By: Oggy Red[/cite]There we are - sorted.
Funny how fans know more about football than managers.
It's ever been thus, lol[/quote]
it's just that the fans know more about football than our current manager and our last few managers :-)
Actually, Sco ........ in his last 18 months (after losing to Palarse in the League cup, if I remember right), Curbs switched for the 1st time to 4-5-1 with Bartlett leading the line on his own - the match, 3-2 win at Spuds, Bartlett scored twice (and got sent off after making that fabulous 'save').
More often than not, he persevered with variations of 4-5-1 that year, turning into 4-3-3 when attacking during the next season's 'miracle' start with Benty up front, Murphy, Smertin and Kish in the engine room, flanked by the enigmatic Rommedahl and Thomas.
So by then, the Curbs trademark 4-4-2 with 3 CM's wasn't used nearly so often, if at all.
Curbs priority in the Prem, of course, was not to get beat at any cost, hence my moniker
for him at the time, Alan Cautiously.
But credit where it was due - he played to the qualities and strengths of his players, and his tactical systems and game plan recognised that.
If only his successors had done that.
Noticed that, other than the fact that his contract is up in the summer, the fee we paid his Chinese club was £1.25m plus 750K dependent on appearances
He made 45 including 4 as sub last season and 1 so far this season. Lets hope another payment isn't due on 50, as we may only see him play for us 3 more times given our current financial situation :-(