After our latest debacle and the negative formations employed prior to that what should we be fielding Saturday?

Personally I reckon that we need to go for our strongest available defence and a bit of creativity in midfield, and would therefore play Sweeney and Liddle as the fullbacks and put Humphreys in midfield. I know some of you have been a little critical of Richie recently but it's not his fault he's been asked to play left back, even Joel Porter would be getting mugged every game if asked to play at left back and he is arguably our best player.

So the team? Assuming these guys are fit to play?

GK Lee-Barrett
RB Sweeney
LB Liddle
CB Clark
CB Nelson
RM Parker
LM Monkhouse
CM Humphreys
CM Jones
CF Porter
CF Nardiello

Subs? Take your pick, we're not blessed with enough players to make it a real difficult choice.

Thoughts?

I like the idea of Humps in midfield whether Tubby agrees though is another thing!

Boland never had pace but did ok, let's see if Humps can do it too!

Please tell me you are joking......humphreys can't pass for toffee and can not really tackle and his shooting is awful now so doesnt really suit centre of midfield

we all know liddle needs to play full back as he does nothing in midfield


I would like to change it round but no it will never happen....some of the players need a kick up the arse after last week but we know practally all of them are guaranteed to play again

keeper - does it matter, both as bad eas each other, why not give cook a go
Sweeney Nelson Clark Liddle
Jones McCunnie Rowell Monkhouse
Parker/Nardiello(if fit) Porter

Subs - GK (any), Collins, Humphreys, Robson, Parker/Nardiello/Guy/Mackay/Henderson (whoever is fit)

Please do not slag me off because of leaving humphreys out. He has been average (although no worse than most) for a long time now....that loan spell last year gave him a bit of a lift and he performed better...maybe a spell on the bench would do the same

I can't see Nardiello playing. Those returning from injury featured last night and he didn't.

If we want creativity in midfield then we should be playing Jonny Rowell. For some reason Turner doesn't want to play him which is mind boggling considering how well he has played when he has been called upon.

Excellent news.

when it comes to short range quick passing to feet then humphreys is one of the best at the club. Humphreys and jones in midfield is interesting and might just work. It would certainly give it more balance and experience if he played there. People forget how fucking good he used to be as a midfielder. Its a travesty he has to try and play left back. Complete mis-management of a normally very reliable player.

The problem with that is he's never really been a central midfielder, he's a leftsided midfielder/winger. He was very good, however his pace and the ability to beat a man appear to have gone, also he's up against Monky for that spot and now he's got his head on there's no question as to who the better option is.

i can see him doing well in central midfield. Could easily be wrong like. I just think what he has learned about defending will help him in a more central role. He is also very good at link up play, the short stuff. I honestly can see it working and lets face it, we could do with an experienced player in that position. I expect to be heavily shot down but i do think it will work

We want players capable of commanding the midfield, and by that I mean owning the fookin' midfield! not just playing fancy balls (Rowell) or passing back to the goalie every time (Liddle). We can leave all the show-off stuff to the wingers.

I'm sick of seeing teams drive straight up the motorway in a tank towards our goal.
Unfortunately I don't know which uninjured players can reverse that but we have to try. The only player I've seen do it was McCunnie in half of the pre-seaon game against Rotherham, but that kind of game is hardly a yardstick.
Humps surely can't do worse than anyone else we've put there.

Rowell plays fancy balls?

We need some creativity, we've stopped creating chances because we've a lack of spark in the middle. Rowell has that spark.

Good shout that. I would switch Jones to the right and bring in Rowell.

Leave either Nardiello or parker on the bench. With Robson

I wouldnt bother picking any other subs.

Are we non-existent in the middle of the park or what? When did you see Rowell waltz Kaka-like through the midfield as if the opposition weren't there? I've seen Sweeney do that.

and how long ago was that?

Sweeney isn't half the player he was when he scored all those goals in the Cardiff season. He also has a habit of going missing very easily.

I like Sweeney and he is one of the few to take any praise from this season but he isn't the central midfielder he once was.

In Parker, Porter and Nardiello we should have goals in us this weekend if they get some good service and the service these type of players need is through balls which is exactly the type of service Rowell can provide.

ALB
Mccunie (not sure if he is fit)
Clark
Nelson
Humphreys

Monkhouse
Rowell
Sweeney
Jones

Porter
Parker

plenty of creativity in midfield with them 4 and if we still don't create anything with them 4 in midfield then i don't know how we can , also two strikers with a reputation of scoring goals , so if it clicks we could of bag fulls of goals

a midfield of rowell and sweeney would be awful and would be overran easily. We need jones in there for definate. I wouldnt mind seeing rowell along side clark though

we've been trying to balance the midfield with an attacking midfielder with a defensive midfielder all season and it hasn't happend , maybe it's time we tryed an attacking minded midfield , we should especially use this agaisnt the teams who are below us as i think we are a lot stronger than them and can easily overpower them

At the moment our team couldnt overpower a 20 mill dose of Night Nurse.

In a 532 /352 style

Budtz/Wood/Turner anyone but ALB

Liddle Collins Nelson


McCunnie Robson

Clark
Sweeney Humphreys


Porter Parker

Subs Nardiello
Monkhouse
Rowell
Foley
Budtz/ Wood / Turner / a kid out of the crowd

I was just going by what I've seen like. I don't know what Sweeney is like in central midfield now. He's not exactly an old man so he should still have the legs. I was just trying to think back to when Pools regularly did to teams what they now all seem to be doing to us.
In the first play-off leg against Tranmere we were in their faces the whole game in midfield and we won quite comfortably.

Anyway it seems we both agree our central midifeld is pretty dire at the moment. Maybe Jones is what's missing.