Freshening things up

If there's one thing I've noticed this season, is that everything seems stale. Here I take a look into what I think we need to do to freshen things up.

The playing staff

The obvious one is the players. Is our squad good enough? Does it have enough depth? We've been heavily linked with centre midfielders, and back up forwards. In a previous blog I mentioned Frimpong and Maynard (the former could well be on his way here in January) but what we really lack is out and out pace, all over the pitch. I think we need one most urgently at centre back, and a really explosive winger would be another position I'd look at. 

Nedum Onuoha has been made available by Roberto Mancini, while looking for a speedy winger is a bit harder. We do have Kightly coming back, but I'm not sure him, Hammill or Hunt have the pace we need on the opposite wing to Jarvis. Albert Adomah of Bristol City is pretty rapid, very direct and positive. A foreign player may be the option, someone unheard of to give us something different.

The coaching staff

Crap pundit, good coach

When you look at our coaching background we have Terry Connor as assistant, at Mountain for the keepers and then Tony Daley for fitness. While lower numbers will create a tight-nit unit and a great spirit, I think we need some new ideas to help out. Is it possible that the players are bored, or lack motivation? Someone new, or a well respected face could help out big time. Someone like Sammy Lee, or Ray Wilkins are both coaches available with fantastic experience and great reputations as coaches.I still believe Mick has what it takes to take us forward, but I think he needs more help.

The System

In modern football, you don't get many teams nowadays who play 4-4-2, and get a huge amount of success from it. Even Manchester United have struggled lately and with the quality of their players, it shows that when you don't play it right, you give yourself problems. The two in the middle are key, and that's where we seem to be weakest. Karl Henry does a great job of tracking, battling and tackling but he's not the best on the ball, which is fine because it shouldn't be his job. We need two dynamic players in the middle, and our closest pair to that is Henry and O'Hara, both players who like to come deep to get the ball. They are two of our most important players, and we need to start using them better.

In my opinion, our best form has always come when we have gone with a more fluid 4-5-1/4-3-3 with two attacking wingers. The three in midfield give us enough to protect the back four and also give us impetus going forward.

Mick's biggest problem is, what do we do with Doyle and Fletcher then? Fletcher is too much of a goal machine to leave out and Doyle, when in form, is superman. The closest to a solution Mick has come to has been at Old Trafford when he shifted Doyle out wide. Play him and Jarvis as more forwards than wide midfielders and it gives us the pace and power we often lack when we attack.

I would suggest a midfield and attack of this:


Edwards
Henry
O'Hara

Doyle
Fletcher
Jarvis