Problem with the England set-up is that with Johnson there, Lennon's game gets negated. Johnson hardly ever passes quickly, preferring to 'glory boy' it up the wing and then lay it off, by which time the oppo have people behind the ball and Azza's job gets harder. I think Azza is a very very important player for us who we need to get the most out of...one thing he's added to his game last season is the cut to the back of the box. We crashed a whole bunch of those wide of the goal!
The last couple of games Lennon played for England, he played RB. Johnson was RW for the majority of the match... When defensively organized Lennon was RW, sure... But whenever Johnson went forward, Lennon covered as he does for Spurs players... What he perhaps didn't realize was that Johnson doesn't come back, in virtually all attacking spells, Lennon was behind Johnson.
Interesting - but who compiles these stats? If what you say is true, he would surely be in the England team and be highly sought after by other top teams.
What sort of crazy logic is this? We went through this before the Euros when 0 goals, 0 assists Downing was chosen to be in the squad as was Walcott... They were joined by Henderson, Kelly and others.... Milner plays virtually every minute for England. It is insanity to assume that England players are the best 11 players in the 11 positions... (Not that England often used a formation with Lennon's typical position in it...)
Highly sought after by other top teams... Ignoring his injury record, which isn't good... Top English teams? Mancini doesn't use wingers... He's never used Wingers with the brief exception of Figo. Silva and Nasri are not Lennon style wingers.
Manchester United - This team does use wingers, they got Valencia to replace Ronaldo...
Chelsea - Last season used Sturridge as a right forward under AVB and used Ramirez as a box to box midfielder on the wing under Di Matteo, didn't use wingers much before that either... Robben was used a long time ago and aside from Malouda, they didn't even have any wingers.... Hazard is in now, but Ramirez must play somewhere so rw is his, although a 4-2-3-1 doesn't really use a winger in the "chalk on the boots" sense...
How many other top teams are there? Chelsea finished 6th last season, but I'll include them in the list to be nice and offer another chance...
At this point, we've got to be next in this list along with Arsenal? So we're a top team....
As for Arsenal, not that we'd actually sell them a player. But fudge me, Gervinho, Walcott and the other wingers they've used in the past few seasons makes you wonder how they haven't had a decent winger in a long time... Although at least they actually spent
some money on a player tested at a decent level this time... Podolski isn't a true winger though and though they may have found 1 wide forward that isn't going to get booed by their own fans every match, I'm not exactly scared of their wings... More scared than I would be of just Arshavin/Gervinho/Walcott maybe, but I'm more scared of ham sandwiches than I am of Arshavin/Gervinho/Walcott.... Lennon would walk into this team due to them. The Ox plays on the left, when Wenger decides to play him... He's a far better player, but last season he was left on the bench to make room for Gervinho/Arshavin/Walcott.... RVP's reaction to the Ox being taken off for Arshavin still makes me laugh every time.
Top European clubs: Real Madrid: Callejon and Di Maria are awesome. Barca - Don't buy wingers if they can help it... Bought Sanchez, but he doesn't have the touch that Barca players should have, he fits their system pretty well though... Barca have a ton of wingers that came through their system, why buy Lennon? Besides, they don't want a right midfielder that creates.... They play a 4-3-3 with a false 9, their wingers are wide forwards and are used to exploit the openings the false 9 creates and to make teams defend wide areas... But even then, it's not a fit for Lennon at all.
Bayern Munich, Robben plays on the right for them, he is a huge goal threat and they play with wingers on their wrong sides in a forward 3....
I have no clue how most of the other top european teams play, but how many teams want to pay 15 million or more for a player that just creates and plays right midfield? How many teams even use a right midfield now? People buy goal scoring wide players rather than creative ones now... But the creative ones bought aren't real wingers anyway, Mata, Silva, etc aren't wingers... Besides, there's a world of difference between Silva and Lennon.... It's not just chance creation, Silva does so much more than that.
If you can think of a better right winger for England, by all means name them. If you can think of a better right winger in the PL that's a real winger, by all means name them... (I doubt you can think of many for England, but Valencia is on Lennon's level for right wingers, there must be others too...)
I'm still not happy that someone even mentioned the England team when talking about Lennon, so I'm going to be lazy and show some stats from before the Euros when this came up....
This is a good time to point out that some people are talking about Lennon's poor ball... This is unfair, he's statistically twice as good at crossing than Walcott and had a higher cross completion than Valencia last season....
He got into Opta's team of the season, for what that's worth...
Anyway, here are some pretty pictures:
I want to point out, a bunch of those stats favour people that play more minutes, so just keep that in mind and try to work out each stat per minute rather than just seeing "X scored Y goals" and overlook X played four times as many minutes as someone who scored the same amount of goals... And so on.
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Also, I have no idea how this was let go:
The 3 at the back idea is not a bad shout tbh. It won't happen of course but it's this sort of creative formation that did wonders for Wigan last season and could work wonders should AVB implement it (which he won't):
------------------------------------------Friedel-----------------------------------------
--------------------Dawson-----------Vertonghen----------Gallas/Caulker-----------
----Walker------------------------------------------------------------------------Bale-
-----------------------------------------Sandro-----------------------------------------
--------------------------------Dembele------------Sigurddson-----------------------
-------------------------------------------Dempsey------------------------------------
------------------------------------------Adebayor--------------------------------------
That formation is an abomination. "Sort of creative formation that did wonders for Wigan" is completely inaccurate. AVB should not touch that particular formation with the world's longest stick... That formation is a penis.
Looking at it should feel wrong. On first glance the thing that really sticks out is the penis formation has a good baseline, completele with giant balls. However the space to the edge of the shaft is the issue which makes this formation something to avoid.
As an offensive shape, it is extremely narrow with only 2 reliable options for width, wing backs. The rcb and lcb are not going to be far up the pitch looking for a switched ball. Do not expect Walker (wing back) and Dawson -I'm focused on the formation but the people used in this particular example deserves a paragraph underlining what a disaster this would be- to be both in advanced positions when Bale has the ball near the opposition corner flag. RCB and R Wing Back both forward when the left Wing Back has the ball cannot happen and more than the lcb supporting with Sandro sitting would be extremely risky, you can't leave the CB and DM without any protection at all.
Quickly, Dawson rcb? How far up the pitch are you letting him go? Do you know how slow he is? That is madness. Dawson in that system has to be CB, it's ideal for his defensive style (he is the type of defender Wigan used for CB, the slow organized commander that puts his body on the line) and Gallas lcb is insane too if you want your RCB and LCB to be able to move at all. Do you honestly expect them to be able to offer any kind of support to the wing backs? How quick will they be to get in and out of traditional CB and full back positions?
Vertongen is most suited to LCB in this formation, but he's not exactly quick either... With Kaboul as RCB and Vertongen as LCB you can maybe fit Dawson in the middle, but that's still not ideal. At least both Kaboul and Vertongen have experience playing as a full back, so they wouldn't be completely lost at sea when having to defend in full back areas.
Back to the actual formation... As I've said, offensively, that team would attack by having Walker (taking out one of the league's best crossers last season for Walker) and Bale (played deeper with teams given an easy option for a 2v1 on him) on the flanks and everyone else in the middle of the pitch... I'd expect most teams to counter that when defending by packing the midfield... The rb and rm can 2v1 Bale and the lb can probably deal with Walker on his own, although the LM can be deployed there if really needed, Walker's crossing is not great but it's an option. Alternatively the RM can come in a bit and leaving 1 up top on Sandro with the 3 CBs having nothing to do gives the option of defending the middle of the field with 4 bodies between the Striker on Sandro and the opposition defence, with 2 people taking Bale out of the game. Of course, if Dawson or Gallas are supporting the structure changes a touch... But that means Sandro cannot move up the field at all or he risks a 2v2 if they counter (their second striker or CAM cannot be allowed past him at any time the rCB or LCB goes forward.)
The penis is a very offensive formation... So it shouldn't be a shock when I say the penis being impotent attacking is nothing compared to the defensive problems it will have.
The traditional 4-4-2 vs the penis will work out thus:
3 CBs defending 2 Strikers = good.
2 Wing backs defending 2 wide midfield players and 2 full backs = No, no oh GHod no....
So from the world's narrowest diamond it looks like Dembele and Sigs are going to be helping out vs full backs... Getting pulled into a weird defensive shape is not good for the penis. The tip of the Diamond, in your example Dempsey now
must be defending very deep to keep 2v2 with the opposition 2 CMs. Ade is left forward with their 2 CBs. If we do get the ball to counter, we'll be 5-4-1 with Dembele and Sigs as what would be RM and LM and Dempsey would be with 2 CMs, Sandro must sit. Bale and Walker are very quick, but they'd be breaking from wide RB and LB positions, that's a huge headstart for the opposition... If Ade wins the ball in the air after a clearance, his support is a long way and the opposition teams have the right players in position to defend against them breaking cleanly. Thankfully Ade is better than Defoe at making the ball stick and shoving his ass into players around him until he can get the ball to one of our players, but a 5-4-1 is not a good position for people to be in when they want to counter... Especially with the positional rules that'll be in place... Don't get me wrong, even as CB Vertongen would still make his trademark runs forward, but a lot of players that could counter would either be discouraged from going forward (Dawson, Gallas, Sandro and Vertongen as CB) or be in worse positions to go forward than they would in the current system... Walker is probably the only counter attacking threat that doesn't suffer from the formation change (but he has been pushed further forward, he'd not be playing RCB as a RB like Richards would be cut out to play for Emirates Marketing Project/England, he'd be taking Lennon's place in a position deeper than Lennon's normal position.)
The reason I say comparing the penis to Wigan's formation is inaccurate is because, the only things it has in common with Wigan's formation is the Goalkeeper and 3 at the back....
Wigan played a 3-4-3, not only did they have more width in their back 3 than Dawson and Gallas would provide, they had 2 very well suited wing backs including a player that specialized in being a wing back and they had a very dynamic front 3 with a ton of width and 2 wide forwards that would work back defensively...
A Spurs 3-4-3 that could be compared to the Wigan 3-4-3 would be:
GK
Corluka (yes, I know he's gone, but that's a RB that can play CB and is thus ideal for RCB in a back 3), King (yes I know he's gone too), Vertongen (I know he's a CB that plays LB for his country due to his country having 3 insanely good CBs, but he'll do... Spurs don't have a huge amount of LBs that could play CB... Bale has the build but that ship sailed a long time ago and he isn't defensively what this position needs)....
Walker, Sandro, Sigs, BAE
Lennon, Ade, Bale.
That setup with Walker and BAE as full backs and the front 3 in an actual front 3 is damn near the same type of player in every position Wigan had. Defensively, that's how it worked.... Bale would have to actually come back, unlike under Harry... But you have 3 big CBs, 2 of whom are extremely capable as full backs and CBs.
Walker and BAE as wing backs, capable of running their asses off and being capable offensively and defensively. Sandro as the more defensive of the 2 CMs and Sigs being the more offensive one...
Lennon and Bale being capable of tracking all the way back to their own corner flags if needed and being able to put in a good defensive shift... And Ade being capable of being the lone striker when the team is defending.
But let's get back to the penis and its lack of defensive utility. I covered the 4-4-2 and will now cover the 4-3-3.
There are many variations of the 4-3-3 but I'll try to use a generic one...
The penis defends against a 4-3-3 as follows:
3 CBs vs a front 3? Dawson and Gallas vs wingers/wide forwards? Sounds very bad to me... Whether pacey wingers or strikers played wide, this cannot be good... If you look at wide options used in the PL and scan through the types of players that are used in 4-3-3s and 4-2-3-1s, it looks damn ugly. I wouldn't like Dawson tested for pace at the best of times, but against the players full backs have to deal with, it's just suicide.... This is a 3v3 situation anyway and the lack of a spare man is risky... One CB covering one striker with the other CBs playing in full back positions is not good...
The alternative is to play 3 CBs vs 1 Striker and have the wing backs create a back 5... 3 CBs on 1 striker means the other team is going to have an extra man if they leave 2 CBs with Ade.... 4-3-3s usually have a DM, so theirs is going to be around Dempsey... That leaves Dembele, Sigs and Sandro against the 2 most offensive of the midfield 3 and the full backs.. The full backs again, how often that problem is going to come up... So again, Dembele and Sigs must go out to meet them and Dempsey even if you did want him around their DM is now going to be pulled deep to help Sandro against the 2nd CM that'll be free otherwise... You might have wanted Dempsey deep anyway, that would have been an option, but it leaves the opposition DM completely free to pick out passes... A team with a triangle 3 man midfield could have tilted the triangle before, but now they are free to shift a deep playmaker into the deepest of the triangle... Even teams that play 2 CBs now have that option... Players such as Scholes, Arteta, Modric, Alonso, Xavi, Cabaye, Schweinsteiger would all be free to take up the deepest CM position and be free to play whichever passes they wished unless you left Dempsey up with them allowing for 2 CMs vs Sandro (suicide) or pulled Ade back (11 men in your own defensive third)...
That's the middle of the pitch.... The problem remains, you still have Dembele and Sigs defending against full backs. The penis is completely out of shape.
4-2-3-1 doesn't play out much differently than 4-3-3...
You have the same sort of choices and have a clusterfudge of the highest order against the better teams in the division.
If you want a traditional 3 at the back, you want to be playing against 2 strikers. The second best case scenario is to go 3v3 and hope like hell your DM can give your CB some cover while your RCB and LCB handle the other 2 wide players... You definitely don't want to be playing against 1 up top.
If you have a kamikaze 3 at the back and go with something like:
GK
Walker Kaboul BAE
Lennon Hudds Parker Bale
VDV Ade Modric
That's not a traditional back 3. That's a team designed to play how a back 4 would play but with only 1 CB... In that situation, you want to play vs a front 3 or a lone striker and can't play against 2 strikers... But aside from Barca, I haven't seen anyone use a kamikaze back 3 in a long time unless they were chasing games. (In such situations, CBs can be thrown forwards as makeshift strikers and so on, but people do usually drop back.)
There is one last thing I want to add, working on a system takes time... Emirates Marketing Project praticed theirs all through pre-season... Even then there are question marks as to how comfortable many of the players are with it. The unimaginable horrors that would come from switching to the penis without a lot of time and effort working on it just blows the mind. Even if it were not an abomination, it'd still suck to have to change systems yet again but this time to an extreme system many players would not have worked in before.
In closing, don't bring the penis anywhere near my team.