With the addition of Diagouraga, Evans seems (on the evidence of an apparently excellent team performance last week) to have hit upon a good formation. He's got two experienced and mobile holding midfielders and is deploying Cook in a more creative role which he seemed to relish, with Dallas and The Duke stretching them out wide.
However, I think such a formation only seems to work away from home, or against the top teams at home who think they can win so attack us. When the other team are pushing forward, we have a good base with which to defend, and then when we win possession we have space to counterattack. The formation doesn't work, though, against the poorer teams who come to Elland Road looking for a draw primarily (with a win an outside possibility) by flooding the middle third. This is exactly what Preston & MK Dons did in two dire games I watched over xmas, and I'm guessing it is what Brizzle did as well. We don't seem to quite have the quality of player needed to work the ball successfully through a midfield packed with enthusiastic pressurising opponents. So which approach will Forest, as an upper-midtable team who really need wins at this stage of the season, adopt? If the latter, can Diagouraga (and Antenucci, who hasn't had much of a look-in in home games, at least from the start) add enough quality on the ball to make a difference? _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER
