Excellent analysis.

Pretty much what I have heard over the last few days regarding FDB tactics and his time at Ajax.

Let's hope it works out for him at our club.

Edited by Willo (24 Aug 2017 7.07pm)

Very good analysis. Reason to be fearful or hopeful?
One camp says Its not in our DNA - steer clear. Another says give it a chance but must revamp the team/squad.
If we could get Vorm, Sarkho & Wimmer, plus Munir or Lucas Perez (assuming Burke is WBA-bound) and offset this expenditure by selling Cabaye, Townsend, Sako, Mutch, Campbell, Lee & Williams, then maybe we'd have personnel who might make the system work. Then we’d also need to bring youngsters into the fold (which is good imo) – Kirby, Lokilo, Kaikai etc.
Don’t know how the figures would add up, but guess the net cost might be £25m-£30m with an extra £10m deferred (if this can be negotiated) for Sakho?
Any thoughts?

I probably went over the top with my reaction from Huddersfield, but I was very angry and had just wasted me weekend.

I found the article very interesting. I'm not going to claim to be a tactical genius, football isn't even my main sport. For those that probably know more I have a couple of questions.

1) 3-4-3 appears to be a radical change. If that is how FDB envisions the future that is fair enough, but wouldn't it be better to get there incrimental by changing the team one step at a time?

2) it wasn't mentioned in the article but having zaha play on the left and as an inside forward doesn't appear to make the best of his pace and ability to take people on. As mentioned, LVG's team struggled to break teams down as they didn't have anyone who could take players on, draw in defenders thus creating more space for the rest of the team. If he was playing much wider, he would have time an extra couple of seconds to fix the defender and decided what way to go round him, which would pull more players into cover. If he was on the right, it would also put less pressure on Ward as the defence would be preoccupied with wilf. Is this correct or am I barking up the wrong tree.

At the moment I am hoping this will turn out a bit like our promotion season when the first 3 games were terrible, then we had a great transfer deadline day and everything clicked.

Doesn't look too good does it. Two things I feel from wstching it. 1. puncheon shouldn't be aying defending midfield. 2. Zaha and Townsend are wingers, not inside forwards. For this system to work (assuming they both play in the front 3) they need to get much closer to benteke and leave space on the wings for the wingbacks. This really doesn't seem to suit either player as they like to ay on the wings. Possibly why fdb been playing townsend as wing back. But the we don't have another forward to play closer to benteke. Feel he will he to go 433 with three more central midfielders and Zaha (when fit) and townsend playing wider.