The "Here We Go Again" New Manager Thread

**Eirambler** · 16/10/2025, 4:13 AM

Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke

I'm nothing but relaxed, I assure you.
I just enjoy setting you off like a tied up guard dog who can see the robbers with the odd mention of Stephen Kenny for a cheap laugh and you are always right on cue with the reaction. Here's a cheat code for that ; don't rise to it so easily. You'll be even happier in the hills outside Glasgow if you follow that code, albeit a bit windswept up there.

Now this packed midfield, who of our current crop would they be ?
I ask as we did play with Smallbone /Molumby and Azaz the last night. Vs Portugal, we had Cullen and Molumby granted but Ogbene and Ebosele ( although not strictly middlemen ) weren't exactly free to roam, now were they ? & we ran Portugal close, score line wise with just the two conventional middlemen, and in doing so gave probably our best performance in the group thus far. Now here's the real kicker - V Armenia in the game prior to that, we had, Taylor / Cullen / Knight ( and Azaz and Ogbene out there and we lost )

So paint me the picture you crave please, which three are you after ?
I am guessing you want only disruptor types, who generally don't overburden themselves foraying over halfway, and who stop the opposition, because if you look above we've often had three and even four out there in the Armenia loss ( + Ogbene who does fill in with his share of troubling the opponent when they have the ball )

Is it Cullen with Molumby and Knight alongside ? And if so, who goes elsewhere ? Who gets dropped at the back, one of the three CBs has to sit it out, do they not ?

Do you go to a back four ? & if you do who plays LB ? Manning is lovely over halfway, but pin him at LB & you'll see another side of him. A leaky one.
Who plays RB ? Coleman is on his last lap, Doherty is a cnut & O'Brien isn't one, a RB I mean but doesn't come across as a cnut either to be fair.

Who else plays and where ?
What's the overall formation ?

And Ferguson alone in the opponent half, I can't agree with if that's where you are going because he's poor at it, his touch, bringing others in, making it stick from a 50 / 50 ball (at best) is weak. Also, who is going to even try to find him with any kind of pass looking at the last few games. None of them, however many you stick in front of the defence & if he does hold onto it, who will be near him in your side to play off to ?

I'm all for it, if it works, but show your full workings please & not just one aspect.

& while I'm at it, one last time, for emphasis, we played four midfielders V Armenia not counting Ogbene, which delivered the result which effectively ended our campaign.

Azaz is not a central midfielder, nobody who knows the first thing about what they're talking about would suggest that he was. Ogbene and Ebosele are obviously wingers. Taylor is one, but he wasn't played in centre midfield away to Armenia, he was played just behind the forwards. I mean surely even you can remember that, it was only a few weeks ago?

We have played only two in central midfield in every game you have listed. Your posts towards me are repeatedly condescending and inflammatory, and to be honest I'd expect better from posters on this forum. You have been called out on it already this week. This isn't YBIG, though perhaps you'd be more at home there. So, if the above is all you have to offer in reply to the actual topic being discused, then I'm afraid there's little point in me wasting my time discussing this further with you.