Barky

[Hitman31]

Exactly. If we want to get the best out of Barkhuizen as an attacker he should be on the left. Perhaps the best option for the right on Saturday would be Clarke at right-back with Burke in front of him. Fisher for whatever reason is looking very insecure at the moment.

I do understand your thinking, Ernest, but Barkhuizen isn’t a left-sided attacker, Clarke isn’t a right back and Burke isn’t a right-sided attacker. Perhaps the inclination we have to try these things out tells us that our squad is not balanced enough to support the system Neil wants to play. I don’t think we need to panic but if that is the case then it’s not really clever management at either board level or from Alex Neil himself.

 

[Nishtar36]

I do understand your thinking, Ernest, but Barkhuizen isn’t a left-sided attacker, Clarke isn’t a right back and Burke isn’t a right-sided attacker. Perhaps the inclination we have to try these things out tells us that our squad is not balanced enough to support the system Neil wants to play. I don’t think we need to panic but if that is the case then it’s not really clever management at either board level or from Alex Neil himself.

Ernest loves shuffling players into their unnatural positions. The squad is well balanced, imo. Just missing 1-2 up front.

 

[Dreyfuss]

Exactly. If we want to get the best out of Barkhuizen as an attacker he should be on the left. Perhaps the best option for the right on Saturday would be Clarke at right-back with Burke in front of him. Fisher for whatever reason is looking very insecure at the moment.

Safe to say that apart from the fact he had already started Vs Morecambe and Stoke, that Burke was omitted for his diabolical work in allowing Stoke to lash in the first half equaliser on Saturday.

We had just gone 1-0 up yet he found himself in a centre forward position from our own goal kick. Stoke played a simple ball down the line, Burke failed to track back at all so when it's swung over Fisher gets blamed for not marking two guys!

Clarke & Burke would be a suicidal combo down the right. Never gonna happen.

 

[ernest]

Ernest loves shuffling players into their unnatural positions. The squad is well balanced, imo. Just missing 1-2 up front.

Burke played on the right on Saturday and looked good there. Barkhuizen has often played on the left again to very good effect - he can cut in and shoot or just use his raw pace to get past the outside of the defender and play deft little crosses with the outside of his foot. Clarke I agree is a makeshift right-back and lacks mobility but maybe his composure would serve us better at the moment than Fisher's rashness. Yes a really good striker would be a great asset but if we had had such a player last night I doubt they would have made much difference - the root of last night's debacle was in our flat midfield in which only Pearson was being played in a way that got anything like the best out of him.

 

[Nishtar36]

Burke played on the right on Saturday and looked good there. Barkhuizen has often played on the left again to very good effect - he can cut in and shoot or just use his raw pace to get past the outside of the defender and play deft little crosses with the outside of his foot. Clarke I agree is a makeshift right-back and lacks mobility but maybe his composure would serve us better at the moment than Fisher's rashness. Yes a really good striker would be a great asset but if we had had such a player last night I doubt they would have made much difference - the root of last night's debacle was in our flat midfield in which only Pearson was being played in a way that got anything like the best out of him.

Burke in reality played very central against Stoke.

 

[ernest]

Burke in reality played very central against Stoke.

The thing about the 3 in the 4.2.3.1 is that it is very fluid and in fact the more creative player in the 2 often gets in the mix as well so yes he played from the right to the centre. When we have four players play in that flexible mobile way with Pearson as the anchor behind them we can be very effective. Last night we played a flat rigid formation like one of those table football games. If there was one good thing about last night it showed definitively that that formation does not work for us and it will hopefully now be junked.

 

[Tino]

Played and flogged last season when ill and off form yet others (Harrop, Horgan) given odd minutes here and there to impress. It certainly rings true that Neil has a few favourites who play pretty much every game regardless.

 

[SuffolknWhat]

Played and flogged last season when ill and off form yet others (Harrop, Horgan) given odd minutes here and there to impress. It certainly rings true that Neil has a few favourites who play pretty much every game regardless.

AN played Barky to do a job i.e.protect Fisher.
Favourites have f-all to do with it.

 

[Dick Dastardly]

Of course managers have favourites. Fans have too. You’ve only to read the opinions on here. Fans opinions don’t count only the manager’s. It doesn’t mean he’s always right though, and let’s hope he learns from his mistakes. Derby’s manager Lampard is just learning the ropes and I fancy AN to get the better of him this Saturday and then all will be forgiven......for another week!