Strategic dilemma?

[Hab]

Just a thought I had, and I'm wondering what the Talk Soccer gurus have to say about it. I see a large strategic problem facing Alex Ferguson when it comes to his 4 center forwards. Which ever way you shape them (in my books), Alan Smith, Van Nistelrooy, Rooney, and, to a lesser extent, Saha would all serve us best as out and out forwards. In the Milan game the mess of players he had out there after the substitutions in the second half, running around in unnatural positions didn't ever look like it was going to work in my opinion.

My comment is this. Given the look of players in our midfield (and the fact that we don't have a one man superstar anymore to cover all of the pitch by himself like a young Roy Keane), a 4-5-1 seems to be working. About the only place that players like P. Neville, Darren Fletcher, John O'Shea (and maybe Quinton Fortune as well) seem to fit is sitting deep giving Keane some assistance. In fact, if we don't get a reasonable replacement for Roy, I would say that our best chance at having any kind of presence in the center of the pitch would be having these players (Fletch, Neville, etc) pair up on the defence side of things while letting Scholes play the offensive center. This set up is also obviously very condusive to giving Giggs, Ronaldo (and even Heinze at times) a little bit of extra freedom to push forward on the wings.

See my question? What do we do with 4 excellent center forwards (plus Rossi and Ole possibly next season) if we play with only one up front?

What do you think would suit United best and what do you think Ferguson will settle on in the years to come to best suit the players he has?

[hanuma]

he will go to a 4231 because he (quite rightly) loves RVN.


.....................howard
neville...ferdinand...silvestre...heinze
...............keane.......scholes
ronaldo...........rooney............giggs
........................RVN



keep this formation on strict counterattacking and you can beat milan, will be one of your greatest european achievements though.

[MUFC]

That formation aint bad but i still think we need a bit of defensive metal alongside keane.

[hanuma]

in that idea i was thinking scholes as a deep seated playmaker like pirlo.

he doesnt have the pace to play in rooneys position, as above.

[adz-a-fella]

Scholes, although you always want him on the pitch, so we are fucked here, cannot tackle, and hasn't the mental ability to not get pissed off, IMO. He loses his temper a lot, but doesn't go over the edge.

.....................howard
neville...ferdinand...silvestre...heinze
...............keane.......scholes
ronaldo...........rooney............giggs
........................RVN

That will porbably work, but we're not going to win on the night, therefore not the fixture, either. I prefer Brown, tbh.

[hanuma]

brown for next season imo.


o'shea as the replacement for neville?

[Salf]

When fully fit Wes Brown was a far better defender than Rio. Clearly the mass of problems he has had over the last seven years have set him back a long way, but he is showing signs of returning to the old Brown. He is still young enough to reach the full potential providing his body can cope.

Personally I'd now make him a fixture in the team to catch up on his lost playing time. If he stays healthy we'll be a hell of a lot better off in a year or two, and if he breaks down again I think we can pretty safely write him off permanently as unable to cope with the demands of the game.


Adz, your PM box is full mate.

[Johnson]

ive said for a while now, brown is better than silvestre, i do have a feeling micky will be off this sumer

[hanuma]

agreed, but i dont think fergie will sell silvestre unless he complains about not being in the starting line up.


its not worth selling silvestre because he can play all along the back line, just like oshea.

[MUFC]

Silvestre passing and relation to the goalkeeper is a lot better then Brown. Its still questionable who is better as there both prone to make errors from time to time, i also like silvestre because he has pace to track back.

[adz-a-fella]

I think Brown is very pacey, I wouldn't call him slow anyway. Brown, IMO >>> Silver.

Salf, I've deleted 'em, I hope you can just re-send rather than re-write....sorry.

O'Shea as the permanent Neville replacement, sure, why not.

[hanuma]

oshea looks top top class potential to me.


he has everything and the mistakes he has made are only because of inexperience.


he can get forward defend, head tackle has pace.


the ultimate defensive utility player.

[adz-a-fella]

I agree.

[fahmee]

BROWN, just doesnt inspire much confidence in me, even on games he has played well, he didnt looked composed, assured, aware. He may turn out fine as he is always touted to be, ( only game he rocked, was against DEPORTIVO away ) but it still seems a long way off. Sometimes you can just know, wether a player will turn out to be fine. ( in this case, its still opague ).

[ebbe268]

here is one for you

..............................howard

.............brown......ferdinand......heinze

ronaldo..........scholes......keane..............g iggs

................................smith

.........................RVN ........rooney

i think this team would beat any one....this is my dream team