DiMaggio, Swanson, Scully, Pesci, King, Ledley – Hey ho, it’s Joe!

By: Martyn | August 3rd, 2008

The more I look at how our squad is shaping up with the new acquisitions and versatile options, the further I think that the club are preparing for an imminent Ledley departure. Hell, even Joe Ledley is preparing for a Joe Ledley stair-climb if his switched-off showing against Ajax was anything to go by. So would and could there be life after Joe Ledley? Quite simply, yes. However, I believe a change in formation would have to be initiated to help accentuate our assets. A fluid 4-3-3 in a similar vein to the one played by Mourinho at Chelsea might actually aid our team should we lose a key first XI member.

Ignoring the back 5 positions for relevance’ sake, perhaps we could operate with a midfield 3 of:

McPhail
Rae Scimeca

And then up top:

McCormack Parry
Thommo/Bothroyd

I raise the formation modelled at the Blues by the self-christened Special One because Mourinho liked to see the two wide men up top pulling in at times to create a 5 in midfield. Should we come up against a more dominant side in the centre of the park, we would ensure we were not exposed with our two outer-flank forwards dropping back down the pitch to do a plugging shift. Correspondingly, the intelligent channel running and defence stretching that Parry and McCormack provide would allow a link up between the target man and two onrushing centre midfielder players i.e. Scimeca and Rae.

Similarly, Dave Jones likes his full-backs to have a lot of energy and rampage forward, so they would also help cover the midfield sandwich in cling-film should the need for body-packing arise.

Thinking and functioning more offensively, fluctuation in the full-back and the outside left and right positions would ensure our attack would be option-full and an unrelenting threat, above all with Rae and Scimeca charging into the box or feeding on any loose balls.

Substitutions could both accommodate or switch this tactical line-up, with Whittingham, Kennedy, or Brown being brought on as direct replacements for the two wide men (albeit having to drop a little deeper). On the contrary, one of them could come on and slot in as a winger, giving us the option of a 4-4-2 similar to the one we played against Ajax in the first half, or a 4-4-1-1 similar to the one we used last season.

I believe that the halfway-hogging motley trio I envisage would work effectively as should all three be on form (take note one Irishman in particular, although credit where its due for the Ajax showing), we’d have tenacious running, a ball-winner, an added goal threat, and a slick positive passer of the ball. To recite a fantastic David Pleat quote uttered during the Italy-Romania EURO 2008 match (in description of the Italian’s midfield); “A threesome requires an attacker, a destroyer, and someone who’ll sit there and clean up”. Hmm, indeed!

Then again, perhaps this formation could function WITH Joe Ledley. But just what is his best position? The central role that sees him hogging the edge of the box, or the role out wide, feeding in at times to form a three-pronged attack? Similarly, would the formation shift I advocate allow the more forward 6 members of our team to play to their strengths? I believe so. But will Dave Jones ever consider what would be a radical amendment should we dip heavily in form this season? Wishful thinking, I’m sad to say. His reluctance to alter the system is another motive as to why fans get on his back for the most trivial of reasons. It provides an opportunity to blow off some steam for all the crap showings with the same opposition-marshalled game plan.