4-3-3

aye your right, coz mogga will put samaras on the RW we should stick to the 4-4-2

 

4-3-3 can be quite effective from a defensive standpoint as well. It gives you a 3 vs 2 advantage in central midfield and if you allow your 3 attackers to stay forward it pins the opposition's full-backs in as well.

I remember Barcelona doing that to us at Parkhead. They left their 3 men up front so our full-backs couldn't go forward and it also meant they could pressurise our back 4 when they had the ball. The end result was we kept giving the ball away and couldn't get out our own half. So 4-3-3 does have defensive plus points too.

 

thats barcelona mate if works well if you have the players for it me personally i would like to see it sick of the same boring 4-4-2

 

Barcelona had better players than us.
We have better players than most teams in Scotland.

I think it could work for us.

 

the difference is that barcelona is among the best teams in the world in terms of protecting their possesions. they are the best passers in the world and they're not playing on the quality of pitch that you'd find at falkirk or motherwell. we are playing our away games on polo grounds with midfielders who at times can't connect on a 5 yd diagonal pass.

i agree with what you're saying theoretically but i just don't see it being practical in scotland. the 4-3-3 opens up the possiblity of getting stuck on our own end because the midfield can't take away possesion and deliver the ball upfield to the forwards consistently or efficiently as needed. plus, our back four isn't good enough to be left alone or untended. perfect example is the aberdeen game of a fortnight ago

 

i agree it works well if you have players the caliber of barcelona's

teams in britain or anywhere else really dont play the 433, they play 442 and evolve into different formations as the need arises.

we'd be advised to get the 442 formation right and be comfortable at it !!! before embarrasing ourselves further experimenting on an seldom used 433 formation

 

but it's not a relative comparison. you also have to take into consideration whether the players we have are good enough at certain functions to make this work (which i don't think we have) and you also have to consider how poor almost every pitch in scotland has been. in europe with a perfect pitch and a quality back four, this would be workable but we don't have either of those

 

Obviously we don't have the quality of player Barca do but 4-3-3 isn't a formation that is exclusive to teams full of quality players. Tony Mowbray was successful using it at Hibs, they were playing the most entertaining football in Scotland playing 4-3-3, and Mark McGhee also used it very effectively in his first season at Motherwell.

My belief is that if you have superior players to your opponents(which is more important than comparing our players to Barca's) then 4-3-3 should be a formation you can have success with.

I agree with you that our back four aren't reliable but I actually think they'd maybe get MORE protection if we played 4-3-3. Having 3 central midfielders sitting in front of our central defence instead of 2 might actually make us more solid. The key to making it work would be having 2 full-backs who can handle the opposition's wide players 1 on 1.

 

The pitch will be the same no matter what formation you play. The pitches never stopped Mowbray's Hibs team playing nice passing attacking football.

 

you might be right here m8 but I just can't see it. the essential fact that makes this tough for me to see is exactly what you've stated here. our fullbacks are not strong enough defensively and that limits what we can do going forward as well. it leaves us too exposed on the counterattack where a less talented side, like say an aberdeen can have a much easier time scoring goals because our midfield doesn't maintain possesion enough and the fullbacks are a bombscare when they're pressured. braafheid looked dizzy after that game

 

my point regarding the pitch is that much of the passing will be done on the floor which complicates things when the ball is running through trenches and divots. fortune doesn't have the greatest first touch anyway and when the ball starts bouncing it becomes very unpredictable and next thing you know, you give up possesion and you're defenders are getting spun

 

I understand the point you're trying to make. It's pretty * difficult to play good football on pitches that are in the state Fir Park, Pittodrie and Falkirk's pitch currently are.

However, we play half our matches at Celtic Park which is like a bowling green and most of the other SPL pitches are of an acceptable standard.

 

i went for 4-3-3 but dont know if it would work without keane so a would say 4-3-3 for this season then we will need to see who is still here next season

 

Some of these pitches are in a state and do hamper our performances but we cant make this an excuse,compare them to years back.

We should be able to cope under any circumstances,maybe they need to take a step back,start and do a bit of work in parks or even beaches
that will do the trick get those legs working

Then again some of the passing on great pitches like CP is just as bad

 

i'm not making the quality of the pitch an excuse for the lack of results, i'm just sayin its not condusive to a 4-3-3. i doubt pep guardiola would play it if his barca side were playin at motherwell. don't think it's a bad idea to train on some tougher playin surfaces though. force players to be more creative

 

I think if we are going to play a match on a poor surface then it's the team selection that needs to be a bit more creative. Players like McGeady and Samaras who like to run with the ball a lot should be dropped imo.

 

I agree.

In fact we should go the whole hog and train with a total frothing hun as the referee, giving two penalites a match against you, and allowing opposition thugs to decapitate yr players at will. That would give some added realism.

 

post of the century here mate.

 

bang on m8.

 

Not too sure would probably go for a 4-3-3 and see how it goes the rest of the season.

Btw, just a comment about the pitchs.. is it me or can you watch a great game between Celtic and say motherwell,falkirk,etc and think it looks pish then u can watch a boring game on the premiership and think it looks good just because the pitch looks so good and makes the game look more open and fast? Yet our game away against whoever of the above could be a cracker but looks dull and boring due to the pitch?