PAISLEY V FERGUSON: WHO'S THE GREATESTI've always considered Bill Shankley the best Liverpool manager. It was he that took a club from the second Division and laid the foundations for those that followed him. Without 'Shanks' there would have...
Tactic? Strategy? Div 1,2 or 3...... the best way is to score goals, preferably one more than the opponents. You miss the point. I would have no argument with your view if Pool had forwards who were contributing goals. They aren't. This makes them vulnerable to luck. If you don't score, any result becomes possible, no matter how well the team plays. Luck, good or bad, becomes too important, as we saw in that close result against outplayed Arsenal and earlier against Man U. and a few other games.
4-4-2 is a concept, a theory ,and like any other formation it has no merit unless it works. 4-5-1 did not prove a failure because it is a poor system but simply because Crouch is not the player to benefit from it and he did not get support fast enough. Apart from that (and something you seem not to have noticed) the best sides never have their game dictated by some theoretical concept of formation. They will play 3-3-4 in many pbuttages of the game in the fluid EPL.....or 7-2-1 or any other combination you can think of.
Pools major problem is lack of goals, As scorers they are equal to teams like Boro or Villa. This could prove costly in both the Prem and in the CL so playing the likely source of goals in a position where he is least likely to score is wrong.
It is called common sense, pragmatism, and it will always work better than some concept of formation theory. Cisse is not a great right sided player, but he does a job, and playing him ( or another) there in order to get SG back to where he can win matches gains more than it will lose.
history repeatsTimbo I am not going to argue that point since I did not watch the game. I will say, though, that...
Players strengths must always come first. Ramsey won a World Cup mainly because he understood this above all else. He also did it without a natural wide player, right or left....unheard of at the time.
Use what you have got available! Playing SG wide in a team which needs goals above all else is as negative as playing him at left back.
LC
