What's new

Keane and the 'free role'

Rupstoh

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2006
3,649
456
Jol has had the team playing the most penetrative football when Keane plays behind the likes of Berbatov and Defoe/Bent so far. He seems to be playing a 'free role' position when this change is made, causing a lot of mayhem.

4-3-1-2 or 3-4-1-2

I see these formations as the future for the rest of the season.

:grin:
 

BorjeSpurs

Well-Known Member
Jun 29, 2007
3,163
18,001
Jol has had the team playing the most penetrative football when Keane plays behind the likes of Berbatov and Defoe/Bent so far. He seems to be playing a 'free role' position when this change is made, causing a lot of mayhem.

4-3-1-2 or 3-4-1-2

I see these formations as the future for the rest of the season.

:grin:


I actually belive this could work..

Robbo
Chimbonda Dawson Kaboul Bale
Jenas Hudd Zokora
Keane
Berba Bent
 

DJS

A hoonter must hoont
Dec 9, 2006
31,261
21,760
I don't agree about us playing the most penetrative football with Keano behind 2 forwards - I went to the Orient game in pre-season and are play was not much kop tbh.

I'd always prefer to stick to Keano-Berbativ up front as a 2 (with Bent or Defoe in reserve from the bench to make an attacking 3 late in the game) and have a good quality midfield 4 behind them (actually containing an actual good defensive midfielder might be good to! :wink:) as we've played our most fluid stuff in 4-4-2- formation (4-3-1-2 has unbalanced us in the past).
 

Rupstoh

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2006
3,649
456
I actually belive this could work..

Robbo
Chimbonda Dawson Kaboul Bale
Jenas Hudd Zokora
Keane
Berba Bent

Robbo
Chimbonda Dawson Kaboul Lee
Lennon Tainio Hudd Bale
Keane
Berba Bent/Defoe[/quote]
 

Black

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2007
4,807
4,872
No its not a free role its because we have no leaders in the team espeshily in midfield if Keano and Berba stayed up front no one from midfield would break forward, so as usual Keane has to drop back and try to get the ball from the midfield to the strikers
 

walworthyid

David Ginola
Oct 25, 2004
7,059
10,242
I totally disagree with the premise of this post. Berbo and Keano play better as a pairing when Keane plays in advance of berbo. The problem is that our midfield is not creative enough to supply them with regular service or to hold the ball well enough for our entire team to move forward and bring the play closer to the strikers. Thus our strikers are often starved of decent service`and isolated.

As Stoof said in another thread yesterday, we have the right blend of midfielders if we play 3 of them but other teams seem to have that blend with just 2. Either we sacrifice a striker to make up for our midfield or we continue the way we are.

Personally I think that we should maybe play with a 5 away from home at times and at home against the better sides. This is where we are really lacking but the problem is that none of our strikers are really suited to a lone front role although all of them have done it very effectively in the past. Keane was brilliant up at man u a couple of seasons ago and berbo was out of this world against Bolton last season and we all know what Bent can do in that role. The thing in common though is that they played in a counter-attacking situation, would the same thing work when we had to attack at home?

This would be my main criticism of bmj, he does not have enough variety in his tactics to allow for some experimentation with these formations and players and as a result we lack that little something extra when the game does not go according to plan.
 

liewser

Member
Oct 14, 2004
315
5
Why would we want to do that? This is just an attempt to use 3 of our 4 strikers but with our squad neither is viable, and is unlikely to work for anyone outside the likes of united chelsea or arsenal, possibly not even then.

How on earth do you think our defence is going to cope with one down using 3-4-1-2? how will our midfield cope with one down using 4-3-1-2 (as keane wont do the same tracking job that jenas currently tries to do)?? Anyone putting forward these formation changes always involve including more strikers in the team when goal scoring for the most part is not an issue with our team.

Have you not noticed that our goal scoring hasnt been a problem in the last few games? If we are going to change our formation for anything it should be to strengthen our defensive unit not messing around with our attack.

Theres a reason why almost all premiership teams stick with 4-4-2/ 4-5-1. This isnt champ manager.
 

davros

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2005
2,887
586
Robbo
Chimbonda Dawson Kaboul Lee
Lennon Tainio Hudd Bale
Keane
Berba Bent/Defoe
:grin:
Wasn't it Tranmere who tried something like that and got into some trouble?
Might help us turn those 4-4s into 5-4s though.
 

batigol

Active Member
Dec 6, 2006
851
178
I think Berbs is better at creating chances for players than Keane so I don't recommend Keane dropping back. In fact, he should stay up front to finish off the chances berbs create. Sometimes I find that he gets in the way of play if he drops too deep. Stay upfront and score goals Keane!
 

cnyy12

Member
Jul 21, 2006
376
0
I think, to some degree, we did play the 4-3-1-2 you suggested last year, but with Lennon in the free role, in which he was pretty impressive, perhaps more so than as a winger.

In addition, when we play a 4-4-2 its not actually so different than this, since we largely have 3 CMs and one winger, who is not really applying such significant support to the midfield. Here, we would just be giving that winger more free roam, and applying the creativity in the center where we really need it.

The one thing this does is ask what you do with Bale. You definitely would need attacking fullbacks, and I think we are mostly dedicated to Bale as LM and Lee as LB, the way they have been most impressive. I'm not sure you would want Bale to be moved to LCM to keep moving him around at this point in his career.
 

SpursManChris

Well-Known Member
May 15, 2007
5,347
2,458
3-4-1-2! Noooo! 3 Defenders in our back line with the already piss poor protection from our midfield? Balls will be flying into the net all OVER the place!
 

ward1848

New Member
Mar 2, 2005
559
0
It works when both Keane and Berba move around and come deep and the midfielders run beyond. Thats why we miss JJ when he doesnt play and why Bale does so well. because they both get beyond the front men. If nobody runs on we have no outball, momentum and its too congested.
 
Top