THE OVERHAUL!

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

Hulk is a striker bro, but when Falcao was at the club he was playing as an inside forward, same as Sturridge who is also.. not a winger.

He'll bond well with Danny.

[Tricky 301]

No, we need 1-2 big name players. We're lacking quality on the flanks.

I agree we need to provide the youth with a chance off first team football. We do need a big name wide player though, with real out and out pace.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Hulk played as striker because there was no better options. When there's a proper striker, he moves out wide and does very well there.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Hulk played as striker because there was no better options. When there's a proper striker, he moves out wide and does very well there.

EXACTLY! People who think he's a striker have no clue...

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

Hulk played as striker because there was no better options. When there's a proper striker, he moves out wide and does very well there.

Why did you change to Marin?Feels so weird

[Sheva. 5,373]

Why did you change to Marin?Feels so weird

Lol what's weird about it?

[Madmax 9,219]

Another one of these threads ..

That's 429346 of them now.

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

Lol what's weird about it?

Used to recognizing you with the old avatar.

[Leif 6,006]

Hulk is a winger who can play as a Striker. How many times are people going to call him a striker? Ignorance.

He is not actually a winger. He's simply deployed there. He is infact a striker.

[Joshyboy 36]

Hulk has Excelled as a WINGER. End of story. He would play as a winger here.

Well he's a striker who can play on the wing, I'm not trying to wind anyone up but you did just kind of have a stab at some chap because you thought you we're right.

He would have excelled as a striker If he was played through the middle like he has been this season, but again, he's in the same position as our Danny, striker pushed out wide.

[Sheva. 5,373]

He's better as a winger than as a striker. Out wide he can beat people with pace and tricky, get to the byline and feed the striker, like he did so well for Falcao.

Or cut in with his left foot like Robben, and unleash a rocket.

[strong centreback 157]

Just like to extend my gratitude towards ron gourlay for putting us out of the misery of seeing bosingwa and kalou in a chelsea shirt for another season, now if he could swing romans axe towards malouda and ferreira id be forever in his debt.

[strong centreback 157]

Im hoping that hazard latest comments about playing time and position will put us ahead of city and utd in the chase for his signature, as surely he is more likely to play every game here than at those two as we have no competition for him on the wing.

[didierforever 7,349]

i dont see why we let kalou go. its so stupid. sell malouda, why offer him an extension but noy kalou. we had not sold kalou all we would have needed was a creative mid and a right back even after letting go of malouda,bosingwa,ferreira,drogba and probably essien.

i had so hoped that this should have been the squad after dd's departure

strikers- torres, sturridge, lukaku

wingers/creative midfielders- kdb,marin,mata,kalou.

cental midfielders- ramires,meireles,essien/some1 we buy,josh,lampard.

cdm- oriol,mikel.

defenders- ashley,bertrand,ivanovic,hutchinson,terry,cahill,luiz, a right back

goalkeeper- cech,thibaut,turnbull.

now we gotta buy another winger or have malouda crap us for another season. FFP is kicking in, we need to be careful.

[JDY 1,290]

I hope we eventually start playing our football like Manchester City.

Although they also use a 4-2-3-1, it's much better than our own.

We use 2 defensive midfielders, 1 attacking midfielder, 2 wingers, 1 striker.

They use 1 defensive midfielder partnered with 1 box-to-box midfielder, 2 playmakers where the wingers would usually be (but they play closer to the centre and then drift out wide to put a cross in when needed), and then a trequartista who swaps roles with the striker up-top, who often also acts as a trequartista.

(A trequartista is a player who switches between being a striker and attacking midfielder throughout the game. Think Aguero, Messi, Rooney.)

This creates ultimate possession with the playmakers, striker and trequartista all wanting to pass, pass, pass, while the box-to-box midfielder will often go with a surprise run and put the ball into the net when those playmakers mentioned occasionally drift wide, opening up space in the middle.

Due to their playmaking-wingers playing a lot more central, their full backs always need to bomb forward.

I think we could play something like them if we lined up in the following way -

Cech

Kane, Cahill, Terry, Cole

Mikel, Ramires

De Bruyne, Mata, Hazard

Torres

This would give us an English back 4 which would be great for communication purposes, a possession-minded midfielder in Mikel deployed as the holding midfielder, Ramires with his surging runs and versatility,

De Bruyne whose fantastic with both feet and works well in any attacking position, Mata is obvious, and then hopefully we can snatch up Hazard who is MADE for this role.

With Lampard as a sub able to play where Mikel/Ramires are or where Mata is, Marin able to cover for any of the front/mid 3, Bertrand to rotate with Cole, Ivanovic to rotate with Kane, and Lukaku and Sturridge able to cover for Torres, I'm sure this would bring us effective, possession, attacking football.

No need to go crazy with the money and buy Hulk and Lucas Moura who wouldn't even fit into a 4-2-3-1.

We'd be much better off investing in back-ups and rotation options.

The bit about Manchester City's formation isn't entirely accurate. They also play with two DM's. Only when one of their attacking players comes off does it free Yaya Toure to a box-to-box role. Other than that, agreed with the majority.