Park The Bus - And Everything Else

When JJ sits down to fill in the starting X1 for Saturday’s game at Sheff Wed he will no doubt have in mind the cliché about focusing on what you can control. There’s nothing he can do about the unavailability of the forwards (Stockley, Aneke, Washington, also presumably Burstow), the fact that we don’t have to hand free-scoring midfielders (even if they are pressed into service up front), or the fact that we are missing other players (Clare, Blackett-Taylor, Fraser). If some of them become available for the game, so much the better.

What is in our control is the other half of the footballing equation: stopping the opposition scoring, or at least making it difficult for them to do so. In this area, assuming Inniss is available again, there are choices, of both personnel and formation. Wednesday are not a high-scoring team (the fewest goals for in the top 10) and if the analysis team can provide anything useful for the match it will surely be a breakdown of how they tend to score their goals (and by implication how we go about stopping them).

So subject to players becoming available, the proviso that we cannot have the benefit of looking at those that are on the training pitch, and absent any deep insight regarding Sheff Wed’s tactics (I did see the season’s opener against them at The Valley and they were slow, dull and predictable – but don’t know if that’s still the case), here is what I would do.

First, the formation surely has to go, at least for now. Undoubtedly it worked very well early in JJ’s tenure, and may work very well again when we have a fuller squad. For now, it isn’t and, despite playing three centre-backs and a defensive midfielder in front of them, we get pulled apart far too easily. It simply isn’t good enough to suggest that against MK Dons there was little in it through the first half, we gave as good as we got etc. We were undone, as we had been, by simple passes and moves which exploited spaces we have been unable to shut down effectively. It happened not just for their goal but also for an early opportunity which their guy failed to control, and has happened repeatedly in recent games. So change the structure.

I’d advocate not so much a 4-4-2 as an outright 4-5-1 and park the bus (well, park everything we've got really). Notions of a winning streak are for the birds at the moment, keeping a clean sheet on Saturday is the prime objective and a 0-0 would be perfectly acceptable in our position. As at Sunderland in Jackson’s first game in charge, nicking one and taking the three points would be a (very welcome) bonus. My 4-5-1 includes plonking two defensive midfielders in front of the back four, which probably means Dobson and Watson.

Who forms the back four? Forget wing-backs, so Castillo returns to the bench or misses out. Purrington for me starts on the left, with either Matthews or Gunter on the right. For the central two spots we have Inniss, Lavelle, Famewo, Pearce and Gunter to consider. If Inniss is available he plays (not least as we need him for set pieces in both boxes), so it’s really a case of which one works best alongside him. My instinct is to choose Pearce. Famewo has played well alongside Inniss in the past, my concern is that he seems to be inclined to play his own game in his own fashion whatever the outcome. A disciplined Famewo would work well. I can’t see Inniss and Lavelle working as a pair.

If Dobson and Watson form the central pairing in front of the defence, who are the other three? With this formation there is the scope for two genuine wide men, which probably means Jaiyesimi and Leko on either side or giving Campbell a start. Then with just one up front – which at the moment looks like Kanu but if Campbell plays it could free up Leko for the position – you have the guy with the free role, which has to be Lee (who did give us a spark when he came on against MK Dons). That means, for me, no starting place for Gilbey or Morgan; of course either of them could be the choice instead of Watson, but if you’re prioritising defence why not choose someone that way inclined?

No doubt there are other options in JJ’s head, up to and including playing Inniss up front from the off. Whatever it is to be, I trust the main decisions were taken shortly after Tuesday’s game so that the work on the training ground is done with them in mind. Perhaps we will be pleasantly surprised by players coming back, perhaps we keep the same shape and win the game convincingly. Especially in these strange times, we live in hope.