I'd like to see us play with a better holding midfielder than song. Fabregas drop back level with Jack, the two fullbacks pushed right forward to really provide width, and then the two wide players pushed right up alongside van Persie - almost as strikers.

Excuse the errors, struggling typing on my phone.

Dules, I think we're the only remaining Arshavin fans in the world. I'd start him ahead of Nasri. He almost literally couldn't do any worse than Nasri has this year.

There's Arshavin fans, and there's Arshavin fans.

Six pages on this? Glad I chose gin over this place yesterday evening!

All I'll contribute on the matter is that he obviously didn't have a good game but then RVP was the only one of our lads that did. Nasri has had a dip in form over the past few months but it's nothing compared to Cesc. Nas isn't even playing badly per se, just within himself - the team has lacked confidence since Brum and that has been reflected in everyone's performance. All we've seen is the Nasri of the past few seasons, brilliant at retaining the ball but scared to be as direct as he was in the first half of the season.

Haha I'll get ya a beer ron. For all his shortcomings I still think he's the best choice out of those available to us. Just feels more threatening with him on the pitch

We could do with a dynamo or two; one wide, one central. Ashley Young and Scott Parker are good names, not because of their relative football ability which is another matter but players along those lines in their style of play. My ideal player for the left side position would be a younger Robinho.

Robinho has the class, but he's another choker.

asajoseph wrote:

Robinho has the class, but he's another choker.

By younger I literally meant the pre-real madrid version. He's a lazy has-been now.

Seeing as this is the Nasri thread, it's worth noting that he's got just 1 goal in his last 17 games. When do you bite the bullet and drop him?

When you have a reliable alternative.

Captain wrote:

We could do with a dynamo or two; one wide, one central. Ashley Young and Scott Parker are good names, not because of their relative football ability which is another matter but players along those lines in their style of play. My ideal player for the left side position would be a younger Robinho.

Oh you and your wings Capi, whats the point if we don't have a spine.

Come again?

The conversation turned to the front six shape that a member would like to see; I want a CENTRAL midfield dynamo and one wide.

And I want a flat midfield four and a front two.

The best formation will almost always be 4 4 2, but it's hard to fit it to our resources given how many players we have who favor playing down the middle. Any of the formations that gives us 3 central midfielders is better suited to our personnel.

If you have good enough players and a tactically good manager you can play multiple formations very well. In the end that is pretty much all it comes down to.

Man U change between 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1 and 4-2-3-1 regularly and they look fine playing either formation. Madrid just beat Barcelona having several players playing in unfamiliar positions.

Is it just me, or does everyone else find that when you're trying to make up these formations Cesc is still the biggest problem in trying to find the right balance in midfield?