Find our Front 3 asap

[Guest HillsboroughOwlNI]

To be honest, doesn’t matter who our front three are, if we’re going to keep tapping it around the back. We have plenty of pace up top, if you’re going to utilise that then you need to get the ball out to them quickly.

[CircleSeven]

I think a settled starting front three just isn’t going to happen this season. We are totally set up for rotation, particularly of the wide two. This will either be a raging success as a succession of fresh players keen to make their mark rip teams to shreds, or a flop as each successive ‘three’ look like strangers each game. Probably somewhere between the two I suppose. 
As for the midfield we can’t do three ball playing midfielders again. It just didn’t work. Two of Wing, Byers and Bannan and one of Luongo, Adeniran, FDB at home, one of the first lot and two of the second away. Maybe even one of each group and Paterson if we feel a nasty physical player to add some bite and shîthousery is called for and he isn’t in the front three. 

We have found out pretty quickly what the standard in L1 is, and it isn’t a ‘pub league’ by any stretch. We haven’t played any rubbish teams yet. The players in this league are not miles behind their championship counterparts, they are fit, skilled and highly motivated to make the step up to the next level. We have to be taking every team and every game seriously!

[Dutch McLovin]

2 hours ago, Holmowl said:

Well I’m going to disagree with the first few repliers.

 

We’ve scored 5 in 7. We haven’t looked like adding to that. By contrast, only because Adeniran was injured did we get overrun (is Dele even close to being good enough?) on Saturday.

 

Its a forward-line we need. 

Im concerned by both ! 

 

Midfield is full of lovely footballers but only in the game where Luongo has played has it been disciplined and on top. This is a cause for concern.

 

However your right the front three is different every week and that cant help. We lack goals. The midfield dont look like contributing to that which is another issue but were very much a 451 rather than a 433 side. Tactically or Players i dont know what the issue is but that again is a cause for concern.

[Holmowl]

20 minutes ago, Dutch McLovin said:

Im concerned by both ! 

 

Midfield is full of lovely footballers but only in the game where Luongo has played has it been disciplined and on top. This is a cause for concern.

 

However your right the front three is different every week and that cant help. We lack goals. The midfield dont look like contributing to that which is another issue but were very much a 451 rather than a 433 side. Tactically or Players i dont know what the issue is but that again is a cause for concern.

Sadly I think Luongo might be a bit part at best. Such a shame as he’s not only a fine player but important in our squad. However, I do think Adeniran adds even more than Luongo, and hopefully his absence is short-lived.

[Dutch McLovin]

1 minute ago, Holmowl said:

Sadly I think Luongo might be a bit part at best. Such a shame as he’s not only a fine player but important in our squad. However, I do think Adeniran adds even more than Luongo, and hopefully his absence is short-lived.

Unfortunately I agree about Luongo. To be honest if he was fit he'd be first name on the teamsheet in midfield for me.

 

Adeneran for me looks good but as ive put in another post his physical attributes and workrate are second to none. However his footballing attributes like touch passing and finishing need to be worked on IMO. 

[davetherivelinowl]

We haven't had a settled front three because we haven't found one that works. No point sticking to one that is failing.

But we should have learned by now that Johnson and Brown are not front three players.

I too was optimistic that a Windass Gregory Berahino front three would be exceptional at this level but Berahino yesterday looked miles off being match-ready. Let's hope that changes.

Meanwhile, of the other options Theo looks the most promising. Despite his lack of pace, at least Paterson offers a goal threat and might be the one most likely to give Gregory some support. Sow and Shodipo haven't impressed me yet but we need to keep trying one of them (not necessarily from the start) at least until Windass gets back. Roll on that day.

 

I agree that our current tactics of having two wide forwards leaves Gregory isolated. At least one of them needs to come off the touchline and give Gregory more support. Windass, Paterson and Berahino would all do that more naturally than Theo, Sow and Shodipo 

 

[Holmowl]

Worth pointing out that despite having fewer options last season, Moore chopped and changed his forwards game after game. Even after wins he changed it left, right and centre.

 

It was as if he never felt he’d found the right formula, even when it worked. 
 

This season’s forward options are far far far greater. Be interesting to see if that’s a good or bad thing.

[Ian]

The issue for me isnt which 3, its the fact that 4-3-3 is more often than not 4-5-1

 

Even if we do have 3 up top, the way we play means that the 3 are too far apart and easily isolated......1 on each touchline and 1 down the middle is always going to be easy to deal with........if it must be 3 up front then I'd prefer a lopsided 2 down the middle and 1 out wide

Edited September 13, 2021 by Ian

[Dutch McLovin]

8 minutes ago, Ian said:

The issue for me isnt which 3, its the fact that 4-3-3 is more often than not 4-5-1

 

Even if we do have 3 up top, the way we play means that the 3 are too far apart and easily isolated......1 on each touchline and 1 down the middle is always going to be easy to deal with........if it must be 3 up front then I'd prefer a lopsided 2 down the middle and 1 out wide

Very true. Or just play 442

[SwellOwl]

Options available up front, I would like us to experiment with 2 upfront and see if we can form a pairing.

[sheffield_dave]

Said this before, but I don't think we will know what our core "first team" is until November.

 

And by that I mean a clear idea of what the first 11 is, and who the 3-4 most trusted are to come off the bench to change a game or fill in for injuries and suspensions. 

 

Until then we're going to see some unexpected and experimental combinations while we figure things out. Have to remember that we signed 14 new players over the summer, with the bulk of those arriving in a very short window of time before the season started. I've also said before on here that we didn't have any right to be sat on top of the league without conceding a goal, and unfortunately the last two games have "proven" what should have been expected as a more realistic start to the season.

 

I think by December we will have a real idea of what this team looks like and may even have room to see some departures in January without effecting our season. But the OP is right. At some point between now and then we are going to HAVE to decide what our optimal front 3 is. Depth is one thing, but rotating 10-11 players across 3 positions in 7 games - with other still waiting to feature and one even originally signed to play left back - isn't sustainable, isn't for the benefit of the team and can't really go on.

[Lord Snooty]

3 hours ago, yeadonowl said:

I agree with you on this. We didn’t get over run on Saturday, we had 62% of the possession. Add to the 67% possession we had at Morecambe and we still couldn’t score

 

The issue is clearly up front. Whoever is playing as the central striker becomes isolated very quickly due to the fact that neither wide man gets anywhere near to him. Then add in none of the midfield support the attack. We quickly end up with 1 up front

 

Possession starts can be a bit misleading though, much of that possession was between our 18 yard box and our side of the centre circle. 

[Andrew_Owl]

Think Patterson needs to be involved a bit more

[ThaiWife]

Based on what we’ve seen so far, when everyone is fit our best front three is Windass, Gregory and Paterson. Reason being all three are strikers, and they might actually get close to the box. Saturday (and other games) Gregory was totally isolated with absolutely no support. We’ve got nobody close enough to feed off the scraps. 
 

Paterson looked better down the right than anybody else has this season. Anybody who says otherwise hasn’t seen the games. 

[SiJ]

Atm, I'd probably go with Patro, Gregory and Brown.

[Drewswfc]

3 hours ago, davetherivelinowl said:

We haven't had a settled front three because we haven't found one that works. No point sticking to one that is failing.

But we should have learned by now that Johnson and Brown are not front three players.

I too was optimistic that a Windass Gregory Berahino front three would be exceptional at this level but Berahino yesterday looked miles off being match-ready. Let's hope that changes.

Meanwhile, of the other options Theo looks the most promising. Despite his lack of pace, at least Paterson offers a goal threat and might be the one most likely to give Gregory some support. Sow and Shodipo haven't impressed me yet but we need to keep trying one of them (not necessarily from the start) at least until Windass gets back. Roll on that day.

 

I agree that our current tactics of having two wide forwards leaves Gregory isolated. At least one of them needs to come off the touchline and give Gregory more support. Windass, Paterson and Berahino would all do that more naturally than Theo, Sow and Shodipo 

 

I think Sow as looked pretty decent, especially at getting himself in the box. Even Saturday first half he seemed to be the one trying to get in the box. 

[Ian]

1 hour ago, ThaiWife said:

Based on what we’ve seen so far, when everyone is fit our best front three is Windass, Gregory and Paterson. Reason being all three are strikers, and they might actually get close to the box. Saturday (and other games) Gregory was totally isolated with absolutely no support. We’ve got nobody close enough to feed off the scraps. 
 

Paterson looked better down the right than anybody else has this season. Anybody who says otherwise hasn’t seen the games. 

Make your mind up....so anyone who disagrees with hasnt seen the games?

 

But you say Windass is one of our best 3 "from what we've seen so far" despite the fact that he hasnt played a single minute?

[McRightSide]

We haven’t created enough good chances and we haven’t scored enough either - part of this IMO is a lack of cohesion with our front 3, so I agree with the OP

 

FWIW I think we’ll end up with 

 

Shodipo

Gregory

Berahino

 

Corbeanu, Sow and Windass will be change players off the bench 

 

Kamberi isn’t good enough and will rarely feature

[McRightSide]

5 hours ago, HillsboroughOwlNI said:

To be honest, doesn’t matter who our front three are, if we’re going to keep tapping it around the back. We have plenty of pace up top, if you’re going to utilise that then you need to get the ball out to them quickly.

GERRIT FORWARD

[Guest HillsboroughOwlNI]

2 minutes ago, McRightSide said:

GERRIT FORWARD

Exfuckingzactly!