... in the later stages of games when we are under the cosh? I can't say I am a great fan of the 4-2-3-1 system that Cook plays. That's not to say that it can't work but I am not sure we play it with sufficient fluidity, or perhaps even have the players to play it well. When we are doing well, it looks good, but we create very few chances: we had only three shots on goal yesterday and two against Shrewsbury. Clearly Cook isn't going to change his formation, but he has to show greater flexibility in the latter stages of games. With a narrow lead yesterday, and Cambridge coming into the game, I think the solution was to drop Fraser back into to a midfield three (as he did in the Sheffield Wednesday game) or replace Fraser with Harper and drop him back. Harper would also have added some height to the team. From his comments yesterday, Cook appears to regard such an approach as unnecessarily defensive, but unless we wrest control of the midfield, we end up being defensive anyway. And whilst the defence has come in for some stick yesterday and in many other games, I don't think it's fully down to them because a sound defence starts with the midfield. | |