One question

Quoted from Maringer

I'd disagree with your view that the central attacker in the 4-3-3 needs to be the one scoring the goals. All you need is the goals to come from somewhere so, if LJL (or somebody else) is up there winning the ball, laying it off, or just forcing defenders into mistakes, it is quite possible for the other two attackers to be picking up the pieces and scoring the goals. Of course, you still need a couple of the three strikers to be scoring a decent number of goals, whichever ones they are.

The main issue with 4-3-3 as a formation, I'd say, is that it tends to stay more as a 4-5-1 when the team isn't performing effectively. It is very reliant on the front 3 plus one or two of the midfielders to get up and down the pitch very quickly so the attackers aren't isolated and, when we tried it last season, we were so lacking in pace that this is what tended to happen.

I'd still expect to see us play 4-4-2 the majority of the time this season, but having 4-3-3 (or even 4-5-1 away from home at times) in the locker would be handy, especially against the teams who flood the midfield area with players at BP.

Quoted from arryarryarry

For me this notion about teams coming to BP and "parking the bus" is just a bullshit excuse for our inability to beat these teams because of our lack of a decent goal scorer and the p!ssing about with swapping players about.

Last season the likes of Aldershot, Nuneaton, Cambridge, Welling, Macclesfield, Halifax and Woking all left with one or all three points because they played better than us not because they came here to defend and nick a goal.  

Quoted from mariner91

Connell's scoring record was poor before he played for us. You can't say with anymore certainty that Mackreth won't notch 10 goals than I can say he will.

Where has these shed load of girls disappeared from last year? We scored 65 goals last season and most of those goals are still in the squad, the problem was we drew too many because we didn't have the guile to break down teams who park the bus. I'm hoping that with added pace and improvements out wide and in midfield we'll hopefully be able to nick a few more of those games which would make a big difference.

I'm not for a second saying we don't need another striker. I've stated on here a couple of times that I think we need at least 2. For me, I'd like to see someone with pace such as Pittman sign (if fit I think he'd be a great signing) and a clever player in the vein of Gary Jones as that is something I think we lack currently going forward. But people are acting as if we scored no goals last year when in reality, last year's total plus a player capable of getting around the 15 mark (ideally in close games) would make a considerable difference to our league points and position. I don't think we'd ever be a team that scores for fun under Hurst as he was a defensive player and sets his teams up to be solid. And that's fine, I'd rather we went up winning most games 1-0 than to fail in the play offs scoring 100. But he's recognised what we were lacking going forward last year (not hard granted) and has so far acted on it.

Quoted from MuddyWaters

Thanks for making my point for me. If the front three becomes a front one, he needs to be a goalscorer!