Midfield and Striker combinations

[FullerMagic]

www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/stoke-city-transfer-squad-sima-5854708

It's a minefield now

6 into 3 in midfield
And 5 into 2 up front
And all proper front-line options too.

.

In a 3-5-2, Allen presumably will be the deepest in pretty much all situations now, with little competition apart from Thompson, who could potentially play that role?

Then it's tough choosing the first choice other 2 . There'll obviously be rotation etc - but some players will get 35+ starts and some won't. Powell, for example, will surely start virtually every game.

So is it..probably....Powell and Sawyers as the favoured 2, by and large? Or Powell with Vrancic and Sawyers fairly equal in the pecking order?

And then you've got Clucas (and Jordan Thompson) Head scratcher.




Up front, it's tricky trying to work out the likely strike duos MON will be drawn to, certainly once Tyrese is back

Fletcher with any of them would probably work (although Fletcher will probably be phased out a bit by the looks of it. His season has been mixed so far, but I thought he was great against Forest)

Is the eye-catching Sima-Campbell duo workable, or are they too similar?

Surridge with Sima/Campbell?

Interesting to see how much pitch time Brown gets as he's obviously the least glamorous option now, but one that MON obviously likes a lot for his pressing and work rate.

And Surridge came here for lots of starts.



If we switch to 4-2-3-1, how many of the strikers do we think would be options as the 1?

Obviously Fletcher could. Maybe Surridge? All the others doubtful though.

But all the others would be options wide, along with Doughty, Tymon and Ince.


And presumably it'd be 2 of Allen, Clucas, Thompson and Sawyers deeper with Powell or Vrancic behind the striker if we did make a formation change?

[Gods]

>>It's a minefield now

>>6 into 3 in midfield
>>And 5 into 2 up front
>>And all proper front-line options too.

It's a bit strange. MON's big gripe was that for the first season and a half here he has had too many players to try to keep happy.

Particularly the strikers will be a challenge once Tyrese is back, none of them will want to sit on the bench.

Tyrese - his star is on the rise and he was the 'main man' 8 short months ago
Fletch - has pedigree and the bench is no place for that flashy late career crisis 'man-bun'
Surridge - looks vanilla at best to me but our one 'Big Ticket' purchase in the summer
Brown - MON has him running through a brick wall, you can't really nail him to the bench
Sima - 7 million quid from Senegal via some 'Bohemian Farmland' in Czechoslovakia, surely Brighton are expecting him to get game time

[Veritas]

Minefield! Looks more like a potential goldmine to me.

[Gary Hackett]

Sept 1, 2021 8:18:11 GMT FullerMagic said:

www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/stoke-city-transfer-squad-sima-5854708

It's a minefield now

6 into 3 in midfield
And 5 into 2 up front
And all proper front-line options too.

.

In a 3-5-2, Allen presumably will be the deepest in pretty much all situations now, with little competition apart from Thompson, who could potentially play that role?

Then it's tough choosing the first choice other 2 . There'll obviously be rotation etc - but some players will get 35+ starts and some won't. Powell, for example, will surely start virtually every game.

So is it..probably....Powell and Sawyers as the favoured 2, by and large? Or Powell with Vrancic and Sawyers fairly equal in the pecking order?

And then you've got Clucas (and Jordan Thompson) Head scratcher.




Up front, it's tricky trying to work out the likely strike duos MON will be drawn to, certainly once Tyrese is back

Fletcher with any of them would probably work (although Fletcher will probably be phased out a bit by the looks of it. His season has been mixed so far, but I thought he was great against Forest)

Is the eye-catching Sima-Campbell duo workable, or are they too similar?

Surridge with Sima/Campbell?

Interesting to see how much pitch time Brown gets as he's obviously the least glamorous option now, but one that MON obviously likes a lot for his pressing and work rate.

And Surridge came here for lots of starts.



If we switch to 4-2-3-1, how many of the strikers do we think would be options as the 1?

Obviously Fletcher could. Maybe Surridge? All the others doubtful though.

But all the others would be options wide, along with Doughty, Tymon and Ince.


And presumably it'd be 2 of Allen, Clucas, Thompson and Sawyers deeper with Powell or Vrancic behind the striker if we did make a formation change?

I've liked that as I can see you've put a lot of thought into it 😀

But yeah midfield wise Allen , Sawyers and Powell look to be the trio I think he'll eventually settle on.

Up top is a lot more difficult to call.

I think Sima will be used as an impact player from the bench with Brown starting until Campbell is up to speed which is a few months away Fletcher to be slowly phased out as Surridge is phased in.

[Deleted]

It feels like the midfield 3 is Allen, Sawyers and Powell - seems the most balanced combo imho.

Up front it's more of a head-scratcher. Brown and Surridge were an integral part of our best performance this season, but can we really see a lot of goals coming from them if they played week-in, week-out? I think Fletcher still has more quality than both of them, but perhaps not the energy. Sima is completely unknown, but could be an absolute star. Tye should be upfront once up-and-running, regardless of the competition.

[FullerMagic]

And then you've got TOB as the wild card!

(wonder if he'll make the bench at any point now he's fit)

I'm still no clearer as to what his position is, mind you.

[Lakeland Potter]

Sept 1, 2021 8:18:11 GMT FullerMagic said:

www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/stoke-city-transfer-squad-sima-5854708

It's a minefield now

6 into 3 in midfield
And 5 into 2 up front
And all proper front-line options too.

.

In a 3-5-2, Allen presumably will be the deepest in pretty much all situations now, with little competition apart from Thompson, who could potentially play that role?

Then it's tough choosing the first choice other 2 . There'll obviously be rotation etc - but some players will get 35+ starts and some won't. Powell, for example, will surely start virtually every game.

So is it..probably....Powell and Sawyers as the favoured 2, by and large? Or Powell with Vrancic and Sawyers fairly equal in the pecking order?

And then you've got Clucas (and Jordan Thompson) Head scratcher.




Up front, it's tricky trying to work out the likely strike duos MON will be drawn to, certainly once Tyrese is back

Fletcher with any of them would probably work (although Fletcher will probably be phased out a bit by the looks of it. His season has been mixed so far, but I thought he was great against Forest)

Is the eye-catching Sima-Campbell duo workable, or are they too similar?

Surridge with Sima/Campbell?

Interesting to see how much pitch time Brown gets as he's obviously the least glamorous option now, but one that MON obviously likes a lot for his pressing and work rate.

And Surridge came here for lots of starts.



If we switch to 4-2-3-1, how many of the strikers do we think would be options as the 1?

Obviously Fletcher could. Maybe Surridge? All the others doubtful though.

But all the others would be options wide, along with Doughty, Tymon and Ince.


And presumably it'd be 2 of Allen, Clucas, Thompson and Sawyers deeper with Powell or Vrancic behind the striker if we did make a formation change?

Ty and Sima are similar but far from identical. I'd say that Sima looks far better in the air than TY, without being a back to goal target man. And, although both Ty and Sima have pace I suspect that Sima still has more energy even though Ty is far better than he was a year ago when he struggled to last 90 minutes.

Where Ty probably comes out on top is his skill set. He has scored some brilliant goals with both feet and from acute angles - and he certainly looks more two footed than Sima. Ty's two footedness is something he seems to have developed since he started getting picked for our first team - he looked to have a much weaker right foot when he broke into the squad but within months he seemed to have improved the right such that he is pretty well two footed now.

I'd say that Ty will be able to play effectively alongside both Surridge or Sima - and I don't see why they could not play as a 3 should we ever wish to switch to 343 or 433 during a game.

[prestwichpotter]

You only have to go back to the injury woes of last Xmas to see what can happen if you haven't got players in all positions with the quality to step in, it's a nice problem to have.

Often in coaching/management you get lucky when injuries force you to try different combinations, it's a long old season and hopefully we'll have a couple of decent cup runs to go with it.......

[jimmygscfc1234]

Sima buys us time while Campbell gets back to full fitness and then gives us options when everyone is ready to go. In an ideal world a front three of Sima, Ty and Surridge sounds great, and you'd hope we occasionally see that.

[realstokebloke]

Easiest decision of the bally lot is to have Clucas confined to quarters (sorry, too much 'Vigil' perhaps).

He was utterly wank on Sat'dee.

But of course, he was instrumental in our win at Swansea - albeit a much easier game / opposition.

Thought Vrancic was also sluggish and comparitively ineffective at CC too btw.

So yeah, back to the headscratching but for me, it'd have to be Joe at 6 and Powell / Sawyers as 8s.

Up top, Surridge and Sima (pre Tyresse) look a potentail handful, especially if the WB's work as envisaged.