Thread: the interchanging of VDV/Kranjcar

@MagnaThor - Sure, City would be devastated if they lost Kompany, Lescott, and Toure to injury at the same time. But the fact is they haven't. In fact, they haven't had any key players miss more than a month due to injury that I can recall. Tevez may have missed a month and a couple days last year (don't remember exactly) but besides that their fitness record is pretty incredible. Silva is never hurt, De Jong, Barry, Toure, and Dzeko are never hurt, Hart is never hurt... really remarkable.

Spurs on the other hand... where do you start? Daws misses time every year, King misses more than he plays, Gallas almost does the same, Hudd is hurt a lot, Bale gets hurt a lot, VDV gets hurt a lot, Defoe gets hurt a lot. Unfortunately for us, the only player who seems to never get hurt is Pavlyuchenko. So yeah, Gallas, Daws, and King is a great group of CBs. But all three of them miss lots of matches, which leaves us playing either Bassong/Kaboul or trying to slot Huddlestone, Sandro, or Corluka into that CB role. Yikes. That's why I say Dann or Johnson would even have been worth a shout. If we had pulled in Samba or Cahill, well you slot them into the starting 11 right away, most likely. You wouldn't do that with Dann or Johnson, obviously. But do you play one of them ahead of Bassong or Kaboul? I think you probably do.

Originally Posted by rossdfc

Niko is playing really well on the right.....Lennon could find himself only used as an impact player this season IMO with VDV and Kranjcar fighting for the starting spot.

Will depend on injuries etc though - one of Defoe/Ade gets injured an it'll be back to 4-4-1-1 I expect..

Personally, I would sacrifice Niko (and Defoe for that matter) by adopting (as I've said elsewhere) a 4-2-3-1 system so that I could have Parker and Sandro playing behind Modric. Parker for me is a good box to box player who can also do the deep lying playmaker role if required. He can also break up the opposition's play, as can Sandro, who for me is a classic midfield destroyer in the Dieter Eilts mould. He has potentially more to his game than Eilts ever had though.

Much as I like Niko I see him, like Thudd, as a luxury player, who will start some games but won't be a regular.

Of course, I'm not the manager and 'Arry will probably stick with 4-4-2.

Here are my thoughts on the situation:

'Arry has said that Sandro and Scott Parker will partner each other in the center of midfield, a dominant pairing but one lacking a bit of creativity and flair. I assume he then means to play Modric, Bale, VDV, Niko, Lennon, GDS, and maybe Pienaar in the 3 positions behind Adebayor (sadly Defoe misses out for now)

So it will be something like...

-------------------Friedel------
Walker-Gallas/King-Kaboul/Dawson- BAE noting that Gallas and King, usually one will be out- when Daws gets back he and Kaboul may play together more.
-----------Parker---Sandro--------------
--VDV--------Modric---------Bale This is the hard part- VDV and Modric will probably switch and Bale may as well- I'm envisioning it and getting happy
--------------Adebayor------------

Now, we can put Lennon in for Sandro/ Parker, push modric back to CM and then we have the 4-4-1-1 that we envisioned working with a lone striker like Adebayor. Or we could put Niko in for one of them and give him the free role- he and Modric work very well with each other.

IMO, Niko and Lennon are going to get a lot of playing time this season but not necessarily starts. For it to work, they need to realize that we are a team and there are 6 players for 3 spots (could be more once players come back) and someone will miss out.
**Disclaimer- most important thing that needs to happen for this to work**

I think 'Arry needs to really work on player rotation too- Van der Vaart has as much right to be benched as anyone else on the team, as does Bale, Modric, and even Adebayor.

This could be great- a creative interchange with a blend of power, pace, skill, and creativity that would challenge any defense in the world. Or, it could become an egofest of non-gelling players and it may crash and burn. We'll see how it goes.

I think that the more options we have the better - and using Niko and/or VDV wide right gives us another option!!!!

The more selection problems that Harry has, so much the better!!!!!!!

@MagnaThor - Fair point on the injuries with other clubs. Guess I hadn't thought about how lucky City has been. (Though I do wonder how much is luck and how much is buying a top class training/medical staff.)

@AmericanHotspur - I think your post is spot-on. When most our team is fit we can play 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1, and 4-2-3-1 fairly comfortably, depending on our personnel. This is a parallel that I've seen others make around here, but I think this point esp. underscores it. Amongst the elite of Europe there's two different mindsets in regards to squad-building and tactics. Chelsea, City, and Barca all have a pretty well-defined tactical philosophy and they fit guys into that tactical approach, rather than fitting the tactics to their players. City plays 4-2-3-1 and uses those advanced midfield players to create space and set up their striker or to take on defenders on their own. Barca plays tiki-takka, Chelsea plays their own spin on the 4-3-3. (Interesting thing is that even as they move from the brute force of Terry-Lampard-Drogba to the speed and finesse of Luiz-Meireles-Mata-Ramires-Torres they still operate in a 4-3-3 and still focus their attack around a talismanic striker leading the line.) Madrid and United go about it differently. They build a squad of players that are tactically flexible and play several different formations throughout the year. (I think this is largely a function of having SAF and Jose as managers.)

So if you look at United and Madrid, you don't name a preferred 11 so much as a preferred 15-17 and then you pick 11 based on the situation. I think that's what we're headed toward (which isn't surprising to me given Harry's friendship with SAF and Mourinho). With our squad, you can plug and play based on what you're going up against. You don't have to be a purely counter-attacking side, or a purely wing play side or an old-school 4-4-2. Actually, it reminds me of this Run of Play piece that anticipated Liverpool's midfield being this way (in hindsight...LOL). The main diff. between us and those two obviously is size of the club. Park Ji Sung, Fabio Coentrao, Danny Walbeck, and Xabi Alonso are all more apt to take a role player spot with those squads b/c a) they get higher wages and b) they have CL. Seeing as we can offer neither, keeping a squad like that together could be tricky. That said, a) if there's a manager not named Ferguson or Mourinho with the man management skills to make it work, it's 'Arry. b) Given the choice between this approach or the money bags approach of Chelsea and City, this is what we have to do. We don't have the funds to construct sides built around a single style b/c buying the requisite players is out of our budget.

One other thought, given a bit more reflection: The other huge difference between us, Madrid, and United is that all of our flexibility hinges on one player - Adebayor. All of our formations fall apart without a strong target man leading the line and right now we only have one of those. Obviously that doesn't mean we need to find another Adebayor. We won't for the price we can afford to pay. But we can find players that can fill in when needed. Leandro is obviously the best case scenario, but I think someone like Kevin Doyle would be worth a shot if Wolves ever get relegated. It doesn't have to be a big money signing, just someone who can slow play down, distribute the ball, and finish in front of the goal.

Couldn't believe Redknapp was complaining about injuries a week or so ago. We seem to have options everywhere (apart from upfront, but that's nothing to do with injuries anyway).

The only risk with having someone like Van Der Vaart given what amounts to a roaming role, nominally on the right side of midfield, is clearly how much it exposes Kyle Walker defensively.

At this level, Walker's still better going forwards than defending, although with two sitting midfielders the beauty of that system is that one can always shuffle across to offer protection on either wing.

Yeah, we should keep him at right back because of the overlap that he brings. If we didn't have BAE I would prefer Bale as a LB as well. I like the blinding speed and overlap from a lb/rb and then more technique from our rw/lw.

Our midfield is packed with quality Niko Modric Andros and VdV can play everywhere, Lennon Bale and GDS can play on both wings and in central positions Parker Hudd and Sandro and witch ever combination you choose it will be better then 70% prem midfields.

Originally Posted by TehLondoner

VDV doesnt have the pace for the right striker position in a 433. Defoe would be better there.

It's not just about pace, he's more effective further up the pitch and with Sandro behind him on the defense he would necessarily have to track back that much. However, he's best position is in behind the striker or playing the right wing nowhere else.