If All Fit & In Form, Whats Our Best XI ?

[brady1993]

If everyone is fit this is likely our best lineup:

 

The only positions I'm not 100% about are:

• I think there is an argument for Jozwiak over Lawrence on the left as his linkup play and dribbling are better. Lawrence though likely offers more goals and is captain so will play.
• If Ebosele overcomes some of his rawness I think there is a case for putting him in at right back over Byrne. Think he likely has more going forward and might be less likely to get bullied physically.
• If Stretton develops a bit more I think he might displace Baldock as I suspect he's a bit more clinical.
• With no other signings Davies clearly starts but I think we could do with someone a bit better on the ball and ideally a yard of pace there instead.

 

[DCFC Kicks]

With Bielik coming back I'm not sure where he'd fit at the moment with Bird and Thompson playing so well.

Not sure what's happened to Sibley but 'on form' he's in my team.

Not sure how to fit Knight in either

                   

[Crewton]

I don't think you can say that Sibley has any "form" at all in respect of the first team at the moment, certainly not enough to displace Knight or even Ebosele. And why would we play Lawrence as the lone striker when we've just taken 10 points from the last 4 games? 

[rammieib]

Think there is going to be so many different views on this…

             Allsop

Ebosele Jags Davies Forsyth

        Bielik       Bird

Knight                    Lawrence

         CKR      Plange

Even with the above, Forsyth would be left exposed, so would be tempted with Joz in and drop Plange but I want a goal threat.

Not a Byrne fan (despite that cross) as I actually feel defensively he is suspect. (Yes same can be said on Forsyth).

Harsh on Shinnie.

[DCFC Kicks]

2 hours ago, Crewton said:

I don't think you can say that Sibley has any "form" at all in respect of the first team at the moment, certainly not enough to displace Knight or even Ebosele. And why would we play Lawrence as the lone striker when we've just taken 10 points from the last 4 games? 

I still think if everyone was playing at their maximum capability Sibley would be the best, and Knight isn't a winger.

[Crewton]

20 minutes ago, DCFC Kicks said:

I still think if everyone was playing at their maximum capability Sibley would be the best, and Knight isn't a winger.

Well, you said "based on form" when you explained your selection of Sibley, so I commented on that. But even if you based it on 'maximum capability' (how do you assess that btw?) the only evidence so far of Sibley's capability is a dozen appearances at the end of the 2019/20 season, which showed great promise which so far hasn't been built on, has it?

And that wide right position in the forward 3 isn't a 'wing' position - the full-backs are supposed to provide the width. Even if it was, Sibley is no more of a winger than night is, IMO. They can both play on the right, but you have to allow them to shift position with the other two for maximum effectiveness. 

[DCFC Kicks]

5 minutes ago, Crewton said:

Well, you said "based on form" when you explained your selection of Sibley, so I commented on that. But even if you based it on 'maximum capability' (how do you assess that btw?) the only evidence so far of Sibley's capability is a dozen appearances at the end of the 2019/20 season, which showed great promise which so far hasn't been built on, has it?

And that wide right position in the forward 3 isn't a 'wing' position - the full-backs are supposed to provide the width. Even if it was, Sibley is no more of a winger than night is, IMO. They can both play on the right, but you have to allow them to shift position with the other two for maximum effectiveness. 

I was basing my team on the topic question which is 'if all fit and in-from', which I interpreted as being 'at their best'. In my opinion Sibley's best games for us have been better than Eboseles's best, even if Sibley hasn't built on them yet. I agree I maybe should have put Plange up front instead of Lawrence.

I know the right forward position we play in a 4-2-3-1 isn't a wing position, but I wanted to fit Bielik, Bird and Thompson in. If I put Knight in theirs not enough attacking players, and I don't think Knight is naturally an attacking player.

[TheHomunculusLives]

The whole current situation with Sibley is frustrating, because in the youth set up and when he first broke through to the first team in late 2019/20, he looked like the most exciting homegrown player we'd had for several years. But for whatever reason or reasons, he has never built on that highly promising start, and has offered relatively little when given opportunities this season.

I'd still have him in my match day squad, but he's done nothing to justify being a starting player or one of the 'go to' impact subs in quite a long time now.

I really hope he fulfils his potential at Derby as he's a local lad with obvious talent. But things haven't been happening for him for a while and with other, even younger players like Thompson, Ebosele and Plange stepping up and doing well, I do wonder what future Sibley has here.

[Chris_Martin]

1 hour ago, DCFC Kicks said:

I know the right forward position we play in a 4-2-3-1 isn't a wing position, but I wanted to fit Bielik, Bird and Thompson in. If I put Knight in theirs not enough attacking players, and I don't think Knight is naturally an attacking player.

no shinnie?

[brady1993]

11 minutes ago, Chris_Martin said:

no shinnie?

This might be controversial but in the last few games we've looked better without him and not at all looked like we've missed him. Thompson brings the same energy whilst being a substantially better footballer technically, he's making for a much better partner for Bird and has solved a fair issues we were having playing through midfield earlier in the season because of Shinnie.

[TheHomunculusLives]

I do think that if we can make the system work, a 3 - 5 -2 formation with Bielik as part of the three with Jags and Davies, a hard working, quick passing, energetic midfield of Bird, Thompson and Knight, Byrne and Buchanan as wing backs and Lawrence playing off Plange, might be a good starting XV.

[brady1993]

If everyone was 100% fit I'd be tempted to go with something like:

• Could flip a coin with Roos or Allsop. Think Roos is marginally better but it's a toss up.
• 2 CBs mostly pick themselves at this point with perhaps an outside argument of trying Bielik there.
• Buchanan's pace on the left and being better on the ball get's him the nod over Fozzy
• I've thought for a while that I want to see Ebosele over Byrne. Ebosele is raw but Byrne has racked up a fair few goal costing mistakes this season, gets bullied really easily and is wasteful in the final 3rd a bit too often. It's close with but with this midfield setup I would be tempted to go with Ebosele there.
• The 3 midfielders are our best midfielders and honestly would be the strongest area of the team. Placing Bielik between Bird and Thompson allows those two to play higher where there passing, link up play and positional awareness can hurt teams more.
• Lawrence is quietly having his best season in a Ram's shirt, noticeably recently his linkup play has been better and he's making better decisions in the final 3rd, often looking to play others through than take everyone on.
• I think it's close between Jozwiak and Knight here. I'd go with Jozwiak for his link up play, dribbling and passing but this was the one I was least sure on because Knight gives more energy and probably a bigger goal threat (and his habit of consistently winning several free kicks a game.
• Plange I think is the best option we have up front to start a game. His energy helps us press aggressively, his movement off the ball is excellent and really keeps teams honest, he clearly has an eye for goal and there has been flashes of good dribbling ability when he's had his confidence up.

[rammieib]

14 minutes ago, brady1993 said:

If everyone was 100% fit I'd be tempted to go with something like:

• Could flip a coin with Roos or Allsop. Think Roos is marginally better but it's a toss up.
• 2 CBs mostly pick themselves at this point with perhaps an outside argument of trying Bielik there.
• Buchanan's pace on the left and being better on the ball get's him the nod over Fozzy
• I've thought for a while that I want to see Ebosele over Byrne. Ebosele is raw but Byrne has racked up a fair few goal costing mistakes this season, gets bullied really easily and is wasteful in the final 3rd a bit too often. It's close with but with this midfield setup I would be tempted to go with Ebosele there.
• The 3 midfielders are our best midfielders and honestly would be the strongest area of the team. Placing Bielik between Bird and Thompson allows those two to play higher where there passing, link up play and positional awareness can hurt teams more.
• Lawrence is quietly having his best season in a Ram's shirt, noticeably recently his linkup play has been better and he's making better decisions in the final 3rd, often looking to play others through than take everyone on.
• I think it's close between Jozwiak and Knight here. I'd go with Jozwiak for his link up play, dribbling and passing but this was the one I was least sure on because Knight gives more energy and probably a bigger goal threat (and his habit of consistently winning several free kicks a game.
• Plange I think is the best option we have up front to start a game. His energy helps us press aggressively, his movement off the ball is excellent and really keeps teams honest, he clearly has an eye for goal and there has been flashes of good dribbling ability when he's had his confidence up.

To counter this:

1) You literally only have two players in the team who score any goals. 

2) The midfield trio would pass it between themselves for 5 minutes before it goes back to our GK who pumps it long and we lose it.

3) I get fans not liking Forsyth but the outlet ball he offers from our GK on a long kick is huge. What do you do with this team if we are forced to go long?

4) The sheer defensive work rate of Knight is immense. He also makes countless runs and he’s always in the opposite box. Plus the amount of free kicks he wins buys time and energy conversation. He has to be the first man in the team hands down.

[DCFC Kicks]

41 minutes ago, TheHomunculusLives said:

I do think that if we can make the system work, a 3 - 5 -2 formation with Bielik as part of the three with Jags and Davies, a hard working, quick passing, energetic midfield of Bird, Thompson and Knight, Byrne and Buchanan as wing backs and Lawrence playing off Plange, might be a good starting XV.

Something like this?

The front 2 look a bit isolated though. Is 2 attackers enough?

Jozwiak could possibly play in RWB like he does for Poland.

Edited January 5, 2022 by DCFC Kicks

[Anag Ram]

9 minutes ago, rammieib said:

To counter this:

1) You literally only have two players in the team who score any goals. 

2) The midfield trio would pass it between themselves for 5 minutes before it goes back to our GK who pumps it long and we lose it.

3) I get fans not liking Forsyth but the outlet ball he offers from our GK on a long kick is huge. What do you do with this team if we are forced to go long?

4) The sheer defensive work rate of Knight is immense. He also makes countless runs and he’s always in the opposite box. Plus the amount of free kicks he wins buys time and energy conversation. He has to be the first man in the team hands down.

Agree though on point one, I don’t think we have a single reliable goal scorer. CKR has struck lucky with errors but struggles to get into scoring positions.

Knight for me should be our new Bryson but he lacks the confidence to tear into the box and demand the pass. 

I don’t care if he misses a few but he has the engine to make things happen and like you I’d always start him.

Jozwiak can’t run five yards without falling over.

 

[brady1993]

7 minutes ago, rammieib said:

To counter this:

1) You literally only have two players in the team who score any goals. 

2) The midfield trio would pass it between themselves for 5 minutes before it goes back to our GK who pumps it long and we lose it.

3) I get fans not liking Forsyth but the outlet ball he offers from our GK on a long kick is huge. What do you do with this team if we are forced to go long?

4) The sheer defensive work rate of Knight is immense. He also makes countless runs and he’s always in the opposite box. Plus the amount of free kicks he wins buys time and energy conversation. He has to be the first man in the team hands down.

1) I could be facetious and say that there are 4 goal scorers in that team given that 4 of them have scored this season. But you are right in that it's somewhat reliant on Lawrence and Plange finishing things off but isn't that mostly the case anyway ? It's perhaps a further argument to start Knight (which I'll get to).

2) This I disagree with. Generally when the pattern of play happens that you are talking about is when are less technically gifted players are involved so they either slow the move down, don't have the confidence to turn or don't have the awareness to move into space so they get forced back. It's something that's increasingly happened less since we've involved more technical players. Look at how many times Bird aggressively played it between the lines to a forward in space against Reading, a lot of that comes from with Thompson aside him they can work the opposition out of shape more easily and set up that moment. Bielik will only add more of this as he's excellent at aggressively playing through the lines as well as driving with the ball. What this means is Bird can go and take space higher up in order to play through the likes of Plange and Thompson can use his intelligent movement to drag teams around more. 

I think with that midfield set up, yes we'd have a lot of the ball playing around in the midfield but I think you'd see it going back far far less because they can more readily keep it between them looking for the moment to play someone in.

3) Buchanan does that role as well if not better than Fozzy does. He's close to Fozzy in the air and his pace gives a different option to play long onto. Ebosele on the right means a long option to that wing is more feasible as well. 

4) Like I alluded to I was very close to writing Knight down there for the reasons you mentioned plus he linked excellently with Tommo and Ebosele against Bournemouth. To be honest the more I think about it the more I think it should be Knight. I was thinking Jozwiak initially just because I think his linkup play is better which would be important for how we would be set up here.

Honestly though? Who knows, form ebbs and flows. There a couple elements to the team I'm confident about and there are some I'm less so and some I'm not sure are solvable problems with what we have available. For now I'd stay with team that started the last two games with the idea of bringing the same three subs because it's working really really well, producing the two best performances of the season and I would be hesitant to tinker with it.

[brady1993]

11 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

Agree though on point one, I don’t think we have a single reliable goal scorer. CKR has struck lucky with errors but struggles to get into scoring positions.

Knight for me should be our new Bryson but he lacks the confidence to tear into the box and demand the pass. 

I don’t care if he misses a few but he has the engine to make things happen and like you I’d always start him.

Jozwiak can’t run five yards without falling over.

 

Yeah I get that with Knight. I think there will come a point where it clicks for him in front of goal and it's possibly from a midfield role as opposed to out wide. He scored 6 in his first season off 20 appearances and you'd back that eventually he's going to find a similar vein in front of goal over a more protracted period of time.

[Jimbo Ram]

1 hour ago, DCFC Kicks said:

Something like this?

The front 2 look a bit isolated though. Is 2 attackers enough?

Jozwiak could possibly play in RWB like he does for Poland.

Bielik would be wasted at centre half…

[Jram]

2 hours ago, TheHomunculusLives said:

I do think that if we can make the system work, a 3 - 5 -2 formation with Bielik as part of the three with Jags and Davies, a hard working, quick passing, energetic midfield of Bird, Thompson and Knight, Byrne and Buchanan as wing backs and Lawrence playing off Plange, might be a good starting XV.

I sincerely hope they let us play XV players- survival would be certain 

[Sparkle]

I have no idea what our best team is currently as the only ones who are definitely in mine are Davies Jagielka Bryne and Forsyth 

Bird has done well as has Thompson and Shinnie whilst Knight has to play somewhere 

up front who knows as Plange has scored two very important goals and Richards gives more from the bench to the team as does Ebosele - we still have Lawrence who for a long time was our only hope of a goal logically 

Anyway we have some nice problems currently