I mentioned this yesterday, our midfield just doesn't work without him. He's still around 3 weeks away isn't he?

Supposed to have started training so maybe not that long, although the last thing we need is for him to come back too early and break down.

I'm with Nuneaton, I'd rather we wait until after the "winter break" to bring him back (Wolves away). There's been talk of him being back for the Villa 2nd leg match, but given our form at the moment it's more important we think about the rest of the 2nd half of the season.

And on a tangent, the Brentford FA Cup match on Saturday is now essentially a write-off. Send out the kids.

comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 50 minutes ago
I'm with Nuneaton, I'd rather we wait until after the "winter break" to bring him back (Wolves away). There's been talk of him being back for the Villa 2nd leg match, but given our form at the moment it's more important we think about the rest of the 2nd half of the season.

And on a tangent, the Brentford FA Cup match on Saturday is now essentially a write-off. Send out the kids.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We have to be careful that results don’t start to compound in a negative way though.

If we don’t beat West Ham, lose to Brentford and then go out of the league cup semi - it could very quickly spiral into a full on crisis of confidence

Fact is we need to get back to winning games - and we need to put out teams that can do that. Agree with not bringing Wilf back too soon, but don’t agree that Brentford should be a write off.

Only at the end of the OP did I realise you weren't talking about Zaha, lol.

How long is Ndidi out? Papers seem to indicate quite soon

Rumoured that he's in contention for our League Cup second leg match next Tuesday. But the original prognosis pre-operation was a few weeks longer than that.

Problem for us is, Mendy was poor in his position against Burnley and Choudhury was worse there against Southampton. So there's a lot of focus on his return.

At least he's back soon then, you guys are still in a fantastic position for the end of the season

Maybe we just need to play both of them, Mendy and Choudhury, bit defensive but that middle looks terribly exposed when either plays there on their own.

It's a tough one, because the last couple of matches we haven't really had any control over the matches in possession either.

We're missing an in-from Ndidi and an in-form Tielemans; Praet is tidy but doesn't really compare.

Would have thought you’d have been drooling over Denis Dunge? Sideways passing? Bit of backwards passing and an eye for a nice diagonal ball?!! He’s the Belgian Joe Allen surely?!

You'd think that, but no. Not enough nostalgia.

I’ve maintained for some time now that Ndidi is one of our best players.

It’s scandalous to think about how poor he and Bardy were under Puel.

However, I think the answer is simple. We can cope without Ndidi, but not if we try to play 4-1-4-1.

Ndidi is unique in the ground he’s able to cover in that role, and strangely unique in that he struggle when he’s given more support in a 4-2-3-1. So I think we’ve now seen that our midfield does not work in that formation without him.

As we have seen though, the switch to a back 3 and additional player up front looks more more balanced without Ndidi. So with this in mind, I’m sure we could adapt with the right formation, whether it’s 3-5-2 or 4-4-2. What looks clear, is that 4-3-3 and 4-1-4-1 (variants of the same thing) haven’t worked without him.

I would go 3-5-2 against West Ham and being drunk Chilwell back and just go for it with Madders and Tilly pulling the strings in a more narrow 3. We need to get back to a confident display. That also means the bonus of dropping Perez.

I don’t think it’s about formations, we just haven’t got the personnel in the middle of the park to put the fires out the way he does for us. You could put Mendy and Choudhury in front of a back 4 and that 2nd goal on Saturday is still scored

We need to be putting chances away at the other end though and doing far more with the ball. Vardy and Maddison misfiring isn’t helping us to ride out the N’didi problem

Incidentally, how are we missing this opportunity to consider the phrase:

"Who's afraid of the big, bad Wilf?"

comment by Brown Starr: The rusty sheriff of 606 (U12353)
posted 2 hours, 54 minutes ago
I don’t think it’s about formations, we just haven’t got the personnel in the middle of the park to put the fires out the way he does for us. You could put Mendy and Choudhury in front of a back 4 and that 2nd goal on Saturday is still scored

We need to be putting chances away at the other end though and doing far more with the ball. Vardy and Maddison misfiring isn’t helping us to ride out the N’didi problem
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I agree and disagree BS. Yes we should have beat Burnley, but I think our chances are falling to the wrong people in the main.

Formation change will help us get Vardy in more goalscoring positions more often. We have to aim to be doing that and not assuming he will always take his one chance in a game.

Barnes and Perez are hopeless in front of goal, and Maddison is not getting a clear sight. We need to be making teams like Southampton and Burnley think more about how to stop us rather than how to affect us.

For me we have to get back to causing teams problems. That means Tielemans and Maddison central. Then only way that works currently is is with Mendy or Choudhury in a 4-1-4-1 which looking shakier than and arthritic dog having a poo, or switch formation.

You see I think you’re too obsessed with formations. Formations don’t win games - players win games. There were 2 clear chances for Barnes to thread Vardy through on goal - clean through against pope, and he dithered on the ball and played an alternative hopeless pass to someone else.

Vardy is making the same runs he always makes and if the likes of Barnes and Perez made better use of the ball we would have come away with 3 points. Should have been wrapped up at half time

Play whatever formation you like - if the final ball doesn’t get better then Vardy is going to continue not scoring

Think we’ll have to agree to disagree that a formation doesn’t allow players to play at their best.

However I agree that individual decisions are costing us at the minute. I watched the highlights back aim MOTD2 and actually, we weren’t as bad as we have been recently. The highlights made us look good in fact.

You’re totally right in suggesting that the wide service to Vardy is pishh at the minute. That’s why I’d change it to remove Perez and Barnes for a bit.

A narrow midfield 3 of Praet, Tielemans and Madders feeding Nacho coming deep and Vardy stretching play appeals to me.

It does rely on Chilwell for width though, which takes us back to square 1!

So whilst the formation doesn’t win a game, it is critical to getting the best out of your most dangerous and best players. Puel proved how a formation and tactics can get good players playing rubbish. What more evidence do you need!!

I agree that the formation needs to allow the players to best express themselves or set up defensively in the right shape - but that wasn’t the issue on Saturday. We didn’t lose the game because of our formation.

The two goals we conceded were nothing to do with the formation. A headed goal from a corner and a rare mistake from Evans. It really was individual decision making that cost us and it’s been creeping in a lot lately

I’m not saying formations aren’t important, but to be honest every time we don’t win a game, it’s your go to argument.

I’m not sure it is. Don’t I normally blame Perez first?

You feeling better now Brown Starr sweetie?

comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 5 hours, 34 minutes ago
I’m not sure it is. Don’t I normally blame Perez first?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Rumours now that The Big Bad Wilf (I'm running with this for now) could even be back for tomorrow.

Seriously, I hope the club aren't rushing this out of desperation.

comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 31 minutes ago
Rumours now that The Big Bad Wilf (I'm running with this for now) could even be back for tomorrow.

Seriously, I hope the club aren't rushing this out of desperation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Little chance that would happen in today’s game I think. Players are incredibly valuable assets to clubs and they won’t risk long term injury just for the sake of 90 mins of game time.

Managers nearly always manage fans expectations by overstating a players length of time on the sidelines and I think that’s what Rodgers initially did.

It's what Solskjaer has done with Rashford though.
I hope we wouldn't do it but it's not without precedent, even at the top level.