Life Without Luka (4-2-2-2/4-2-3-1)

[Ringer7]

With Luka sulking about and trying to force his way out, it's inevitable that we'll start to think about what life would be like without him. Over the past few weeks we have also been linked with Scott Parker and Lass Diarra, the former looking to be close to a deal. If we bring in Parker and/or Lass, we can switch to a 4-2-2-2 or a 4-2-3-1 and play two holding mids out of Huddlestone, Sandro, Parker, and Lass. All have the ability to get in for tackles (to varying degrees) and all have shown that they can get forward in attack. While they wouldn't replicate Modric's creativity, they would aid our defense in a way that he does not and provide some veteran leadership that we sorely need. Bale, Kranjcar, Van der Vaart, Lennon, and Pienaar (when he comes back) would all compete for the attacking mid spots, which would force them to step up their games. The addition of another attacker like Bryan Ruiz could benefit this competition. So, here are some potential formations we could see if these things come to pass, and which I actually could see resulting in success. Of course some new strikers would aid this further, but I'll stick with Adebayor, Defoe, and Pav for the examples.

4-2-2-2

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Walker------Gallas---------Dawson---------BAE
--------Huddlestone-------Parker--------------
Van der Vaart------------------------------Bale
---------Adebayor---------Defoe--------------

OR

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Corluka------Dawson---------King---------Rose
------------Sandro----------Lass--------------
Lennon--------------------------------Kranjcar
-------Pavlyuchenko---------Defoe------------




4-2-3-1

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Walker------Gallas---------Dawson---------BAE
--------Huddlestone-------Parker--------------
Lennon----------Van der Vaart-------------Bale
-------------------Adebayor-------------------

OR

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Corluka------Dawson---------King---------Rose
------------Sandro----------Lass--------------
Ruiz----------------Kranjcar------------Pienaar
---------------------Defoe--------------------

I think you get the idea - any combination of players in a particular row could be pieced together. I honestly think that a shift to these formations would aid us on both ends of the pitch. Only time will tell if Modric goes and if Harry has the tactical sense to try something like this out.

[S.L.R]

Yeah, just to play on your themes there:

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Corluka------Gallas---------King---------BAE
------------Sandro----------Lass--------------
Ruiz----------------VDV------------------Bale
------------------Adebayor--------------------

Something like that. I know, the CB pairing is even less likely than Ruiz on the right. I am not going to entirely endorse Ruiz, it would be wrong as I've only seen him on Youtube. But he does seem to possess a level of skill which evades Lennon. We've been waiting years for Lennon to figure out what to do when he gets in the box.

But yeah, basically, without Modric, we are going to suffer - it's impossible not to suffer the loss of the most talented player.

[USpur]

4-2-3-1

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Walker------Gallas---------Dawson---------BAE
--------Huddlestone-------Parker--------------
Lennon----------Van der Vaart-------------Bale
-------------------Adebayor-------------------

I would be happy fielding this squad but I would hope the Modric money would be reinvested in the squad.

[SweSpurs]

Im a big fan of Hudds, I hope this will be hes best season

[gazza]

Thudd is much better than Diarra we do not need him. Sandro and thudd is an excellent team, sandro will just get the ball and give it to thudd for a random pass because his pass is excellent. also sandro can do a random dribble sometimes because he is of brazil.modric can learn from both

[Reserrved]

i agree 4-2-3-1 is the way to go

[Ringer7]

4-2-3-1

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Walker------Gallas---------Dawson---------BAE
--------Huddlestone-------Parker--------------
Lennon----------Van der Vaart-------------Bale
-------------------Adebayor-------------------

I would be happy fielding this squad but I would hope the Modric money would be reinvested in the squad.

Me too of course. I'd love to see Levy splash the cash on another striker and someone like Ruiz who can give Lennon some competition. I don't feel it's entirely necessary to try and "replace" Modric though, as in find someone with a similar style and skill set. I think Van der Vaart in particular would play better as a part of one of these formations, especially if he had someone like Kranjcar or Ruiz parallel to him. That is, after all, how Holland plays (although I realize we probably won't be bringing in Sneijder and Robben).

[Stig of the Lane]

I hate to disagree with you Gazza as you're a total legend, but I think that we do need Diarra. You cannot compare Diarra to Hudd as imo Hudd is not really a DM. The more accurate comparison is Sandro and Diarra, with Diarra being slightly better than Sandro at this stage (although Sandro will be a better player once he has had time to reach his potential). With Sandro injured and palacios being sold our need for a quality DM is very apparent, and Diarra is one of the best available to us.

As said before I would then play Hudd next to Lass in the 4-2-3-1 suggested above, with Lass sitting deep, wining to ball and covering the defence allowing Hudd to concentrate on his strengths which are his passing and getting forward to link play and shoot from range. I also agree that we need to see competition/a replacement for Lennon coming in, which will probably by all accounts be Bellamy. If not him I'd like another versatile forward (i.e. Ruiz) who could play as a second striker in a 4-4-2 or cover of Ade if he gets a knock.

[leazy92]

I'm just gonna put it out there, because I've been wondering if it's a possibility for days and what people would think about it - but what about a Man City-style 4-2-3-1 (with inverted wingers)? Something like this:

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Walker------Gallas---------Dawson---------BAE
--------Huddlestone/Parker-------Diarra/Sandro--------------
Bale----------Van der Vaart-------------Bellamy/Kaka/Lennon
-------------------Adebayor-------------------

Obviously us signing Kaka is very wishful thinking, but I think this could really suit our style - yes, it's great that we play with traditional wingers, but we've been shown up to be too one-dimensional in the past season and a bit. We have no versatility, no fluidity, no dynamic ability to change our line-up. Furthermore, we don't have enough defensive midfield support - of course, yesterday, that was 'Arry's fault entirely in playing Kranjcar/Modric in midfield, but the point still remains that when Modric plays, we lose a lot of defensive structure. IF we were to sign Kaka, or more likely Bellamy, we could chop and change those 3 attacking mids quite a lot - Bale can play left and right, VdV centre and right, Bellamy left and right, Lennon left and right, Kaka could play all across the 3. They could rotate throughout the game, much like City's players did yesterday. Our full backs could provide us width, and they could get up and down the line a lot more than usual, with the defensive mids providing some cover - and there's not many better in the EPL at playing an offensive full-back game than Walker and BAE. At the moment, we are just too stagnant and our formation is too stale. Yes it's nice and neat and traditional, but I think that's what is really stopping us from achieving what we could do.

What do you guys think?

I forgot to say, too - obviously Kranjcar and Piennar would provide added cover for, again, any of those 3 attacking midfield positions.

[mrtncooke]

Certainly away games against the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal a back for with say Sandro and Parker in front is a good idea, even home games you could make the back four more attacking with Walker and Bale as wing backs and still keep the two anchor midfielders. Why does everyone keep putting Dawson in the favoured line-ups? Time to move on, the guy isn't good enough as his showings against Manchester have proved.

[Ringer7]

I'm just gonna put it out there, because I've been wondering if it's a possibility for days and what people would think about it - but what about a Man City-style 4-2-3-1 (with inverted wingers)? Something like this:

--------------------Friedel--------------------
Walker------Gallas---------Dawson---------BAE
--------Huddlestone/Parker-------Diarra/Sandro--------------
Bale----------Van der Vaart-------------Bellamy/Kaka/Lennon
-------------------Adebayor-------------------

I think part of the beauty of the 4-2-3-1 is that we certainly have that option. The wingers can even swap sides during the flow of a match to play with that possibility.

Also, I know everyone here seems to prefer the 4-2-3-1 to the 4-2-2-2 (I do too), but speaking of inverted wingers it is almost more advisable to play that way when you're in a 4-2-2-2 because the two attacking mids have room to come inside behind the strikers and get narrow if needed. I think this is why Van der Vaart could work well on the right side in that formation, as could Bale. Perhaps I shouldn't have paired the two of them together in my example.

[spurs17]

thanks god we kept our best player . get us in the top 4 mods

[Rev John Ripsher]

AS Luka is not going anywhere I think I can close this thread .