Is it time to chuck the 4-3-3?

Barbarossa

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With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?
 
I actually think against the sheep that they basically ignored our midfield and left them with space, purely because they knew our midfield 3 werent suited to the role. In effect, the sheep doubled up on our wide players as they knew that was our only danger. The other night should have been a midfielders dream to play in, but without Arfield (who makes the 433 tick), we are devoid of ideas.
 
Thought that from early doors. Arfield could be the man to 'break lines' or Dorrans if he can get a sustained period without injury
 
Nothing wrong with the formation, the issue is our lack of quality in the midfield positions. For instance, we have nobody in the squad capable of making that killer pass to one of our forward players.
 
Thought that from early doors. Arfield could be the man to 'break lines' or Dorrans if he can get a sustained period without injury
Don't think there's any point in even mentioning Dorrans in posts like this. Pretty unlikely we see him again this season I would say.
 
Rangers need a 6'2" mobile, physical, playmaker in order to play a three man midfield.

Can we find someone at a price to carry out this role?

Otherwise, all you will see is good teams who are organised, disciplined and physical, park the bus and nullify the team by forcing us wide. If Tavernier, Candieas, Middleton or whoever, i.e. Kent, can't provide decent service from crosses then the whole thing breaks down like it did the other night and against Kilmarnock at Ibrox.
 
The formation is irrelevant. Until we get midfielders who can do more than just one midfield task, games like Wednesday will always happen. We need midfielders with drive, dig and an abortion to score goals.
 
With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?
We don’t play 4-3-3 we play 4-5-1
 
The team in the OP is no different to how we actually play on the park to me.

We always want an alternative to how things play out, there is little wrong with how we are playing thus far this season - we are doing well, we have hung on in the title race on the back of 1 transfer window - we have come a long way in a short time we don't need to shit our pants here...
 
With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?

Isn’t that more or less what we play now?

Candeias and Kent are wingers so will push up on either flank leaving you with a 4-3-3.
 
The formation is not the problem, it’s the underperforming so called creative players.

We need more from Ejaria.

Candeias works like fück but he seldom takes a player on to create more movement ahead of him.

We badly miss Kent on the left.

These guys are in positions which should be the “match winners” but they are not performing to their full potential.
 
With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?

That’s no different to how we play at all.

We need to have Arfield as part of the 2 beside a sitter. Then the player behind the striker needs to be one of Grezda or Kent, someone a lot more creative and forward thinking than Arfield.
 
Nothing wrong with the formation, the issue is our lack of quality in the midfield positions. For instance, we have nobody in the squad capable of making that killer pass to one of our forward players.

The lack of quality in midfield makes 433 the wrong formation for us to go
 
With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?
Like the look of that ,particularly for the difficult fixtures,much stronger in the middle
 
Should be 3-4-3 at home when teams leave only one player up...ALL big teams with a lot of possession work hard on what to do with all that ball. You can't just line up same as usual...it needs tweaked , and it's not anti-Gerrard to say so. The other night we had 4 defenders and 2 holding mids while Aberdeen had no-one up front.
 
Nothing wrong with the formation, the issue is our lack of quality in the midfield positions. For instance, we have nobody in the squad capable of making that killer pass to one of our forward players.
There's nothing wrong with any formation though mate if you've got the correct players to play in it.
 
With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?
For me I’d go with this but change rossiter for jack. Jack has been terrible and doesn’t know how to play a forward pass
 
It's a formation I don't think we have the quality to play. We need 3 midfielders that would cost money way out our budget to make it work. I think it needs changed. I always thought we would go to a back 3 as well but after murderwell away that hasn't had a look in.
 
For me I’d go with this but change rossiter for jack. Jack has been terrible and doesn’t know how to play a forward pass

Agree, I would like to see both Rossiter and McCrorie in the centre ASAP to see what they can offer, the current players have had plenty of chances and aren't delivering

Assuming fully fit I'd like to see this team get a run of games:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Rossiter
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Morelos


Obv with Morelos and Arfield out for Sunday, stick Lafferty up top and maybe Grezda through the middle and I suppose Middleton in Kent's place since he's unlikely to start
 
With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?

In what games have our midfield been overrun?
 
I actually think against the sheep that they basically ignored our midfield and left them with space, purely because they knew our midfield 3 werent suited to the role. In effect, the sheep doubled up on our wide players as they knew that was our only danger. The other night should have been a midfielders dream to play in, but without Arfield (who makes the 433 tick), we are devoid of ideas.

Pretty damn close to the truth.

Maybe should have gone 3-5-2.

Two central defenders high up the pitch and Jack alone in front of them.

Middleton, Grezda, Ejaria, Candias and Tav across the middle.
 
With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?

A 4-3-3 is a 4-5-1 is a 4-2-3-1 depending on the phase of play. Apart from Barisic and Kent due to injuries, that's the same team we line up with almost every week.
 
The 4-3-3 works well IMO. The problem is having both Coulibaly & Jack in there.

They are defensive mids who offer very little in the final 3rd. That was combined with Ejaria, who can play neat football but very little of it is incisive and breaks lines so we were just going sideways all night.

I think we definitely need another midfielder in the mold of Arfield to play alongside him, with Jack in behind covering the defence.
 
I actually think against the sheep that they basically ignored our midfield and left them with space, purely because they knew our midfield 3 werent suited to the role. In effect, the sheep doubled up on our wide players as they knew that was our only danger. The other night should have been a midfielders dream to play in, but without Arfield (who makes the 433 tick), we are devoid of ideas.

I would like to see us playing 3x5x2 and move as a unit going forward, and the 2 wide men dropping back when were under pressure.
I just don't think our system at the moment is working, as our midfield is failing us, owing to the fact that there's not a leader and we lack grit, when things get tough.
And we need a special creative type player who can dictate the play, and spray passes about, something were sadly lacking.
 
Not sure why people think Aberdeen ignored our midfield. They man-marked them all over the pitch until they went down to 10 men.

We're having a good season overall. Our style of play is the biggest reason for that. The 4-3-3 is best for this squad of players.
 
Not sure why people think Aberdeen ignored our midfield. They man-marked them all over the pitch until they went down to 10 men.

We're having a good season overall. Our style of play is the biggest reason for that. The 4-3-3 is best for this squad of players.

Exactly this. we are three points behind the unwashed (if they win their game in hand) and have progressed far further in Europe than most of us imagined. Yet apparently we are being over-run in midfield. That is absolute nonsense; the sheep offered no threat on Wednesday apart from the goal. Our problem was lack of creativity, guile and imagination from both midfield and the wings.

The last league points we dropped (before Wednesday) were against Killie where we were all over them for most of the game and failed to take chances.

Gerrard is getting it in the neck from a fair percentage of fans for rotating the team and making too many changes, and yet others are wanting McCrorie and Rossiter brought in.Drop two thirds of your midfield while second top of the league. Yip that makes sense.


442 attack for me

When every other team is playing one up front and three in central midfield THEN you will be over-run in midfield.
 
I would like to see Barisic play with Grezda as they both speak the same language and know each other's game. Similar to Tav and Candieas but Candieas has to cover for Tav which sorts of rules him out as a winger. I think that we should give young Dallas a go as striker and see how he fares, Kent is back as well so:

Shagger

Tav Goldson McAuley Barisic,

Candieas Rossiter McCrorie Kent

Dallas Grezda
 
I’d play a narrower front 3, with the width coming from Tav & Barisic. We need to get more options and link up play in the middle of the park, we need 2 more creative mids and drop Ejaria & Coulibally. Wouldn’t mean a drastic switch from a familiar formation that the players are comfortable with.
 
With a return to our 4-2-3-1 of last season?(with some better players)

The midfield 3 are being overrun by SPFL cannon fodder. Stop our wingers playing and we have absolutely nothing in the middle at times. We need to start dominating the centre and it is a worry going into the Bheast game.

I’d start with this team in the next few matches:

McGregor

Tav
Goldson
McAuley
Barisic

Jack
McCrorie

Candeias
Arfield
Kent

Lafferty/Morelos (when back from suspension)

Thoughts?

No it is time to adapt against the opposition when required though!
 
442-343-451-442, it doesn’t matter, all these formations work. It’s the personnel that’s the issue. I honestly don’t think we have enough winners in the squad. Mentally we seem fragile at times. Bottlers.
How many big games have we won?
 
Ive said many times that we should be flexible.

It depends on who is fit and who we are playing.

One problem for me the past few seasons and even at times this one is we can be very predictable
 
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