Finally I get to post here. What with work and everything, haven't had a minute. I did manage to watch the game on ifollow so will air my views.
First. People are saying we played 4-4-2. No we didn't. We lined up with a midfield flat three of Sawyers to the right, Livermore central and Krovinovic to the left. Ahead of them Robson-Kanu lined up on the left seemingly with licence to join Austin through the middle where possible and Pereira on the right seemingly with licence to come infield into the pockets. You can call it 4-3-3 but in this day and age of nitpicking accuracy I'd call it 4-3-2-1.
We started the game quite well, got the early goal and looked quite lively. We weren't having it all our own way though, Barnsley worked hard, played at a high tempo, defended a fairly high line and got the ball forward into the front man and work off him from their midfield. Time and again they hurt us down their right (our left) with Gibbs doing absolutely nothing effective defensively to stop anything coming into our box. I prefer Ferguson. You might lack a bit in forward areas but we don't get dominated in our defensive areas down his flank. Sam Johnstone made two or three excellent saves but we had chances too. Robson-Kanu was marginally offside when played in bu Pereira and Austin should've scored with the best chance of the half when through on the keeper. His finish was poor and that ultimately cost us tthe points.
Second half we were poor, getting worse by the minute. We offered absolutely no threat going forward, our midfield three largely non existent and on the rare occasions we did break forward Pereira's good work was undone by his team mates. I see people criticising our forwards but they had absolutely zero service from either out wide or from our midfield. Charlie Austin thrives on crosses, I cannot remember one cross all night from open play. Barnsley fully deserved their equaliser. Furlong called to the hapless Sawyers to go out to the man on the ball down our right hnd side and Sawyers did nothing just stood there, I'm presuming he just didn't have the legs to get there he's looked tired for three or four games to me. Ajayi is in the middle of the area and marking no-one - why?
Team selection - Slaven hasn't got much wrong this season but he got it wrong yesterday. 4-3-2-1 is fine, no problem with that system at all but as with any system you have to have the right players in the right areas for it to function properly. We didn't do that. If you are playing with three central mids and two wide men supporting the central striker you have to have pace / ball carriers out wide. Pereira is not that type of player and should've played where Krovinovic played. Robson-Kanu isn't that type either. You may get away with playing him wide occasionally (Pereira also) but certainly not when you have no pace on the other side of the pitch. Edwards / Phillips even Willock can play in those wide areas.
Midfield 3
Sawyers Livermore Pereira
Livermore Barry Pereira
Phillips Jake / Barry Pereira / Krovinovic
Any of those combinations work (and there are others that will work too) as long as you have the correct type of players in the wide areas.
Middlesbrough next, it will be interesting to see if we go back to our normal shape or if we persist with this new one. If we do persist we need to change the personel. Personally I wouldn't be playing Romaine, he looks as if he needs a rest desperately,
