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Ali McCann signs 4 year contract (Confirmed)

Another impressive performance. Ledson doesn't deserve to be dropped though. He's been very good this season.

McCann's time will come and it won't be far off with suspensions and injuries and then its up to him to make it his shirt to lose.

And in the meantime what a great option to have on the bench. Worthy of the last 25/30 minutes of any match.

And keeping the pressure on our other midfielders to perform well.
 
Iversen
Sepp - Bauer - Hughes - Earl
McCann
Whiteman - Ledson
DJ
Riis - Maguire

No - Earl is going from strength to strength as a wing-back. Let him continue to develop there. Hughes has also found his ideal role on the left of a back three - again leave him there.

We have five players as front line options for the three central midfield places - Ledson, Whiteman, Johnson, Browne, McCann. That is a good set of resources. They will all get used over the course of the season.
 
No - Earl is going from strength to strength as a wing-back. Let him continue to develop there. Hughes has also found his ideal role on the left of a back three - again leave him there.

We have five players as front line options for the three central midfield places - Ledson, Whiteman, Johnson, Browne, McCann. That is a good set of resources. They will all get used over the course of the season.
Hey, I'm not advocating for the change but it is certainly something that could be looked at going forward, no use not thinking of other ways to play moving forward, line up can obviously be changed but I just threw in any names, main point was the diamond
 
Not like the idea of completely shifting the team around from a formation that has worked, neutralising our two biggest threats in the process and dropping Storey who’s been excellent recently
Unless the shit hits the fan it will be 3-5-2 every game….Frankie has had his fingers burnt tinkering with other formations and didn’t enjoy it.
 
Frankie is a brave man if he is to drop Ledson, Whiteman or DJ to fit in McCann but he'll only get better when surrounded with quality.

Shame he can't fit all four of them into a side as the incumbent three have done nothing wrong IMO
Can if we go to a back 4 and McCann pays the DCM screening

Cause some headaches on the left though
 
Can if we go to a back 4 and McCann pays the DCM screening

Cause some headaches on the left though
Think that causes us more issues than anything. Earl isn't great at left back defensively and would mean Hughes playing in a two and dropping Storey, or dropping Hughes and playing Storey when I think all the usual back five are currently undroppable.

Only tactical tweak he could make to fit him in (in my eyes anyway) is to go box midfield like we did last 15 minutes at Sheffield United with playing two 10s behind Riis but then that would lose that presence of two up top.
 
His first start and I already know he maybe the most talented player we have. The golden light in what has been a very very poor recruitment period this summer.
 
We know Frankie also likes a diamond, don't suppose you think we can go to something like this?
Iversen
Sepp - Bauer - Hughes - Earl
McCann
Whiteman - Ledson
DJ
Riis - Maguire
@Thracia notes the Frankie diamond has been shit, I agree, but IF this could work it's much more attacking, but you'd have to give the fullbacks a lot of licence or expect them to get forward. Basically it'd have to be very tactical and fluid for it to work but if we could bring it together think it'd be a revelation.
 
Frankie is a brave man if he is to drop Ledson, Whiteman or DJ to fit in McCann but he'll only get better when surrounded with quality.

Shame he can't fit all four of them into a side as the incumbent three have done nothing wrong IMO

He can, and I'm sure he will, but not yet and only in certain games, most probably away games when we're not going to have much of the ball.

McCann looks the sort who can play in any of the midfield positions. Thought Whiteman was very very good last night as well.
 
He’ll get his chance sooner or later with the impending suspension of Ledson or Whiteman. It’s then Ali’s job to make himself undroppable. That should also make the rest of the midfielders think twice about picking up unnecessary bookings.
 
He’ll get his chance sooner or later with the impending suspension of Ledson or Whiteman. It’s then Ali’s job to make himself undroppable. That should also make the rest of the midfielders think twice about picking up unnecessary bookings.

Ledson is only on 3 bookings.

Whiteman probably the first to miss out.
 
@Thracia notes the Frankie diamond has been shit, I agree, but IF this could work it's much more attacking, but you'd have to give the fullbacks a lot of licence or expect them to get forward. Basically it'd have to be very tactical and fluid for it to work but if we could bring it together think it'd be a revelation.

There's a big correlation between Earl playing wing back and Earl playing well.

I think if we are playing a back 4, then realistically Greg has to be in the left back slot.
 
There's a big correlation between Earl playing wing back and Earl playing well.

I think if we are playing a back 4, then realistically Greg has to be in the left back slot.
I get it, that's why I said in my first post the left side is the problem

Yeah but were falling into the trap of playing a formation just to fit say earl in, where I think if we had a more dynamic and tactical approach it could be accommodated - I think.
We've got to try and evolve towards getting to a back 4 with attacking fullbacks imo, noting how popular back 5s are at the moment too, but if we can think it'll make us more dangerous.
 
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