O'Neil: We'll Need to Be Adaptable
Thursday, 30th Jul 2026 11:31

Blues boss Gary O’Neil says his side will need to be adaptable over the course of the Premier League season and will work on different systems as pre-season continues.

Town lined-up 4-2-3-1 against FC Cartagena on Saturday and against Osasuna at Colchester last night, before switching to a 4-1-4-1 system after the substitutions.

Quizzed on what fans can expect to see during the rest of pre-season, O’Neil said: “We’ve been fairly consistent, with the ball we’ve used a back three most of the time with the ball in possession.

“Out of possession, we’ve been a four. We’ll be a five sometimes, we haven’t done that yet, we’ll probably practise that at some point in pre-season, I would think.

“The season’s going to call for a bit of adaptability because we’ll play some teams that have come up from the Championship with us at home and we’ll play a certain way and when we’ll go to the Etihad and we might play a bit different.

“There’s different challenges in the Premier League, but the principles will remain - we work hard as a team, we defend as a team, we attack as quickly as we can, we show a good understanding tactically.

“And I saw a lot of that tonight, so I’m very pleased, but we will, we will be adapt for this year.”

Looking ahead to Saturday when the Blues play friendlies at Oxford United and Wycombe Wanderers, O’Neil added: “We’re going to try and get 90 minutes into as many as we can, some won’t quite be ready, but we’ll do our best to get some 90s into a few.”

Photo: TWTD

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Sir_Bob added 11:55 - Jul 30 It was the same as K Mc really, with Davis bombing up the left wing and Axel Tuanzebe tucking in to make a back 3.
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RetroBlue added 12:24 - Jul 30 I do like that word "adaptable" ( thumbs up)
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muccletonjoe added 12:36 - Jul 30 Maybe we will see an end to the rigid formation we have been used to
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dirtydingusmagee added 12:38 - Jul 30 Yes need to be able to change things around when needs be. A PLAN B ( and C&D) will be needed throughout the season, i just hope GON can form a settled team , so that players can form partnerships and not keep rotating for the sake of keeping everyone happy.Just my opinion,not expecting everyone to agree Players need to play for the shirt they wear . . .
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Tractorcookie added 12:53 - Jul 30 I like what I hear him saying - "need to be adaptable". We will need to be more flexible tactically than we were last time around and it sounds like that is the plan which is good news!
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BrockleyBlue78 added 13:03 - Jul 30 Good to hear, nothing wrong with 5-3-2
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ChingShady added 13:21 - Jul 30

Basically lads, we need to learn to win and it ain't always going to be pretty or near darn ugly at times. We had our joy ride last time round, I think GOM knows we cannot play like that to have any chance of surviving. Verdict is still out on him, even if we lose the first 5. If I see we are trying to play a style where it gives our players the best chance of winning, then i'll take it and back him to go build on from on it.

Bluedocker added 13:52 - Jul 30 Its better to be adaptable than predictable unfortunately as much as I liked him that was how McKenna was. Teams knew what he was going to do when subs where going to be made and who would replace who.
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Monkey_Blue added 16:38 - Jul 30

Bluedocker… so why were his wolves team useless for almost a year( their form in the second half of his first season was poor). You can’t say terrible players because under his replacement they went from 3 points behind us to 20pts ahead of us. Whatever 11 we put out against Sunderland will have cost less, have less prem experience and have fewer international caps than the team we beat to get him sacked. Flexible, adaptable are great words but in practice it can mean chopping and changing and players being unsure what their role is. This is more a defence of McKenna than an attack on GON.. but results will determine which version of adaptable we have here. Last season McKenna did play differently knowing that if promoted we needed to be more resilient and pragmatic…. He got moaned at for that despite it being a sign of forward planning.

trevski_s added 17:35 - Jul 30

Its one of the first things he said when he first came through the door "we will play the formation based on the opposition" so its good to hear he is willing to have a couple of formations in mind so will probably some games at 4-2-3-1 when wants to be more attacking and aggressive and some at 5-2-2-1 (with 2 of the 5 being WBs) when wanting to be more defensive. These are just guesses and we won't properly know formations and who plays where till close of pre-season/start of main season

As much as I liked McKenna it was one of his flaws last time in the Premier, not seeming to want to switch up the formation

bluesissy added 18:25 - Jul 30 O'Neil out
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PhuketPete added 18:33 - Jul 30

It’s good we’re going to be more adaptable but one or two subtle adaptations may be our limit to start with, particularly as it looks like we’re doing to have 10 new players in our match day squad and many will have barely played with each other even into games 4/5. It takes time to understand different tactical adaptations and fluidly move between them and this will be more complicated for players whose English is not so strong. GON may have to keep things relatively simple to start with.

armchaircritic59 added 18:56 - Jul 30 You need to be adaptable in life not just football. If plan A goes up the swanee and you don't have at least a plan B, you're in trouble.
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bluesissy added 19:18 - Jul 30 O'Neil out
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Ipswichtown4life added 21:34 - Jul 30 Just please dont play out from the back, we got punished time and time again the last time out
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Cakeman added 08:29 - Jul 31 That’s encouraging as we haven’t been very adaptable before
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Stato added 08:30 - Jul 31

GON was clear in his first interview that a back 4 would be the default lineup which is good. Obviously a back 5 away to City and the CL boys. I'm guessing he will play one up top. That leaves 5 others to sort out and it looks like 4231 and 4141 are his two favoured approaches but we'll know more after the other friendlies especially in Berlin where probably we will see at least 60 mins from the lineup that will be used against Sunderland.