Is 5-3-2 / 3-5-2 Working For Us?

[Kmcalpin]

Is SK's preferred 5-3-2 / 5-3-1-1 / 3-5-2 / 3-5-1-1 working for us? More often than not its some variation of 5-3-2 as we rarely have more possession than the oppostition. Do we have the players to play it successfully? To play that system successfully you need one or two fast wing backs and we only have one in the form of Kaleta (came on in 77 minutes on Saturday), who hasn't featured much. I can't comment on Koutroumbis, as we've never seen him. Such a set up also needs pace elsewhere for it to work successfully and the only other quick players we have are Vale, who is injured long term and Maswanhise (introduced on 61 minutes on Saturday). Another relevant factor is that many of our goals this season have stemmed from set pieces. Anyone who was at Fir Park on Saturday would testify to the chronic lack of pace and laboured pedestrian build up.

Now its impossible to be 100% certain of course, given our long, but nevertheless still increasing injury list, but this does point to recruitment failures.  Players might not necessarily be poor acquisitions individually, but they have to gel together as a side to complement each other's weaknesses and strengths.  At the moment, even with injured players being unavailable we do seem to have an unbalanced squad. The team is unquestionably not greater than the sum of its parts.

[joewarkfanclub]

35 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Is SK's preferred 5-3-2 / 5-3-1-1 / 3-5-2 / 3-5-1-1 working for us? More often than not its some variation of 5-3-2 as we rarely have more possession than the oppostition. Do we have the players to play it successfully? To play that system successfully you need one or two fast wing backs and we only have one in the form of Kaleta (came on in 77 minutes on Saturday), who hasn't featured much. I can't comment on Koutroumbis, as we've never seen him. Such a set up also needs pace elsewhere for it to work successfully and the only other quick players we have are Vale, who is injured long term and Maswanhise (introduced on 61 minutes on Saturday). Another relevant factor is that many of our goals this season have stemmed from set pieces. Anyone who was at Fir Park on Saturday would testify to the chronic lack of pace and laboured pedestrian build up.

Now its impossible to be 100% certain of course, given our long, but nevertheless still increasing injury list, but this does point to recruitment failures.  Players might not necessarily be poor acquisitions individually, but they have to gel together as a side to complement each other's weaknesses and strengths.  At the moment, even with injured players being unavailable we do seem to have an unbalanced squad. The team is unquestionably not greater than the sum of its parts.

I do wonder about this.

It seems to me the players are grinding out results despite the system rather than because of it (Saturday excluded).

I think on the whole recruitment has been decent and we are undoubtedly suffering because of the injuries to Paton, Slattery and Nicholson who would all improve our midfield.

But as you have said previously, there was still time to address that in the window and we didnt.

Our big problem last year was conceding soft goals and on the whole we have been much better on that front. As you have also said, however, a better defensive midfielder than Davor wouldnt hurt.

I think SKs biggest problem is that he puts so much faith in senior players it then becomes very hard to drop them without upsetting the changing room.

For me we just shouldnt be starting with Halliday and Davor in the same team. Neither have the legs or physicality to deal with what they are being asked, so you need to pick one and ask them to do less and put Miller back in his best position where he can actually dictate the pace and flow of the game to our advantage.

I think if we are sticking with the same personnel we need to go 4-2-3-1  and get our pace and attacking options with Maswanhise and Tavares as wide players in the 3.

But that would mean dropping one of the centre halves.

If we are sticking with 3 at the back we definitely need to play Kaleta and either tell Wilson to get pushed right up or try Seddon in there.

Up front its Stama all day long, although, I think Watt could do a better job holding play up than Robinson is able to (despite his lack of fitness).

In short, we have the players to be playing better football than we are at the moment, the question is, would that necessarily transfer to better results?

 

[wellwell91]

If we’re going to play 3-5-2 you need the 2 wingbacks to supply the width and delivery into the box. 
SODs and Wilson are steady but neither supply this option which means the supply to the front 2 is limited.

Hindsight is great after the event but dropping SODs back into Mcginn’s position would IMO been a better balance to the team.

Davor couldn’t pass water and it was obvious against Hibs that the midfield was much better balanced when he was replaced Think it should be either him or Halliday but not both. Miller had possibly his worst game of the season but the boy played the full 90mins in both the U21 with a fair bit of travelling thrown in.