Will Fergie ditch 3-5-2?

[Paul Miller]

Has he been in this league before?
Give it a few games with his own players ffs

Yes with Peterborough, got them promoted then into the championship the following season..

He inherited players like George Boyd, Craig Makail-Smith and Aaron McLean in Division 2...I would have got them promoted...he also had millions of pounds of backing from his chairman..

[drfchound]

Dickos, no we didnt.
After Dickov and Jones had had a go Ferguson came in with his wing back style.
At first we had Mattioni and it appeared to be a good system.
We picked up some good results up to the Southend game then it all went wrong (still playing with wing backs).
Far too late Ferguson went to a flat back four when we brought in McSheffrey and Rowe and started getting points again.
By the way, McSheffrey and Rowe added experience when Ferguson had previously relied heavily on youngsters, very much like he is doing now.
Had he brought in the two players a few games earlier and ditched the 3-5-2 i have no doubt we would have stayed up.
You continue to defend Ferguson through thick and thin (mostly thin) despite only two or three wins in the last 25 or so matches.
Last season DF continually wrote off the bad results with his explanation that the squad wasnt his and yet it was him who deployed the tactics and he brought in a succession of players.
The three matches this season give many of us no hope that things are likely to improve from that.

[Pancho Regan]

I think the players need to up their game regardless of formation.  They are pros aren't they?

Didn't we play 4-6-0 under SoD sometimes?

Yes, particularly when defending a corner ....... 

[dickos1]

We will agree to disagree, most of the games last season we played 4 at the back,
He had every right to say it wasn't his team last year, cause it wasn't. Now it is he obviously needs more than 2 games before he's judged

[BillyStubbsTears]

Of course Ferguson inherited Dickov's squad, but he also added Alcock, Gooch, Mattioni, LeCygne, Calder, Matthews, McSheffrey, Neal and Rowe, so it's a little disingenuous to just write off last season's failure.

Point being that having a start like we're having inevitably puts him under pressure. If we're not picking up by the end of the month, that pressure will get very intense.

[Avsuptem]

My view is that it's time everyone stopped making excuses for Ferguson. It's abundantly obvious that he has lost the plot or rather that he never had the plot. The same miserable results that got us relegated are continuing thanks to the same misguided tactics. A good manager gets the best out of his players and builds to the team's strengths so that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. Ferguson does the opposite, in my view this is due to his arrogant demeanor, lack of motivational skills and inability to make the correct tactical calls. I sincerely hope that the next few games show a reversal but if they don't he has to go otherwise it's non - league obscurity that beckons.

[Sammy Chung was King]

We have lacked any real idea, since he took over, what style he is trying to achieve. Dickov was the same, week after week trying to work out what he was trying to do.
He doesn't seem to be able to organise a defence, that's been the case most of his career. His teams don't look well organised, even at peterborough, they were relegated time and again, through his inability to create a defensive back line that worked, well enough.
If he took his head out of his a..e, and stopped being stubborn, he could still be successful with us. Pick a formation that suits what you have, decide who are your best players, and play them every week, until they give you a reason to be dropped.

Get a specialist 'defensive coach' in a couple of times a week, get the players as fit as they can be, work on concentration levels, and playing as a team not individuals. Tell the players what you expect, if they don't deliver, there must be consequences.
Don't work on what your players can't do skillwise, look at utilising each players best strength, to make the whole system better. Press as a team not in dribs and drabs.
Tell the goalkeeper, you could have signed many keepers, but you chose him, as he is the best keeper in the league, and to start showing it. Get back to basics defensively, get defenders defending, nothing fancy. tell houghton his job solely is winning the ball for coppinger, rowe etc. Tell the wingers no matter what you want crosses into the box. Tell rowe his job is to pull defenders out of position, and you expect shots on goals. The strikers don't overcomplicate it, when you see the goal shoot, in the box relax and make the time to finish.

[BobG]

I like that Sammy. No doubt the footballing cognoscenti will think it's simplistic bu it would be a good place to start from for sure.

Cheers

BobG

[DearneValleyRover]

It's not just the results but the abject performances that go along with them. I have yet to see anything different to last season, players continually being caught out of position, lack of movement and pace, sloppy passing, lapses of concentration, no leadership and unforced errors leading to goals, in fact our new keeper has made two errors leading to goals which are no different to the ones the BFG made who was put out in the cold. I can't see how any of this can be defended our explained away. We have been served up dire, insipid, life draining fare for 3 years.

[idler]

On Saturday in the first half Crawley were playing themselves out of trouble simply with triangles that we couldn't cope with.
They were pushing this tactic in the 40s and 50s. It's so simple

[DonnyBazR0ver]

However we look at it, we had enough chances to win the game on Saturday. As long a we dominate possession, win more corners, get crosses in to the box then he has no reason to change.

[drfchound]

At last he has ditched the 3-5-2.
Back four with Houghton in a Keegan type role and what a massive improvement.

[GazLaz]

Improved no end for playing a back four. Amazing that.

[DearneValleyRover]

Who'd have thought it, hey!

[MrFrost]

Lets hope he doesn't go back to it. Tonight was a big improvement

[Campsall rover]

Looked like a football team tonight. No coincidence that he played a back four. Just hope he sticks to it.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Assuming then having switched, his managerial credentials have improved and he's no longer clueless?

[RoversAlias]

Let's not forget he only switched because Mason got injured. I'd put money on him going back to it once one of the centre halves gets fit.

[dknward2]

Tbh in the warm up it was a 352 but 442 in the match

[dickos1]

In the first half there were times when it was 3-5-2,
Lund butler wright were the centre halves

[pib]

Well it looked like a back four to me.

Much better tonight. Just need to start burying some of those chances.

Blair focused on being a winger... lo and behold he beats his man and whips one in for Marquis to nod in.  Lots to be said for playing people in their best positions.

[del boy]

In the first half there were times when it was 3-5-2,
Lund butler wright were the centre halves

Well u went to a different game to me as the one I watched was definitely 442

[BillyStubbsTears]

Go on then, I'll give my two pennorth.

I reckon we were switching between 5-3-2 when pushed back and 4-4-2 when we were on the front foot. Garrett was an out and out left back with Rowe mainly taking up the centre/left midfield position, but on the other side it was more fluid. Blair was a winger when we were going forward, with Lund in a conventional right back position, then Blair slotted in as a slightly advanced right back with Lund moving inside 10 yards when Cambridge were on top.

[IDM]

I agree - and I think it is right to be flexible with formations during a game..

[Sammy Chung was King]

They are his two formations, it will change depending on whether defending or attacking. I always think that if you are not getting the results, simplify things, 4-4-2, is as simple as it gets.
With what we have 4-4-2 as a start point, suits us, who would have thought, us fans are not as cracked up in the loaf, as many might think?.
At this level you can rarely go out and play silky football, all the time, the basics have to be right, then you work from there. I don't think cambridge were anything special, pretty limited, low on confidence, but we did more than enough to win.

They just came to be solid, and try and nick something, we have had problems with teams like them before. They look as though they badly need a striker, otherwise it's going to be a long season.
Still a lot for us to improve, we need to take more of the chances, and hopefully a bit of understanding between the centre backs, will remedy the shakiness at times. Garrett looks a good solid left back, not great going forward, but a proper full back.

[dickos1]

I agree - and I think it is right to be flexible with formations during a game..

Definitely,
We certainly played both formations today throughout the game, Blair seemed more flexible today he was in the middle, out wide right and even out on the left for a spell