How can Greenacre be best utilised thread

yep, right up to the point where he put Hearfield at CAM

Basically that is exactly the same formation we've been playing for weeks except that with Daniel out Leo goes wide and Party all the time comes in (I'd need a lot of convincing about that), it's hardly a watershed tactical overhaul.

Put it this way, I am baffled how this has become ambitious.

It's not ambitious, but it is more ambitious than the current system. We don't need a big change, but I think that slight one may be all it takes.

I'm not convinced about Hearfield either but I do believe he's shown glimpses and I wouldn't mind seeing him tried is all.

In terms of other options for that role (who are currently available, before anyone says "Fred"), we could possibly bring Ifill inside but Daniel is too lightweight and Diego... well Diego seems to have a long hard slog to get back in the frame. I've not seen enough of Caceres to judge him properly but wouldn't mind him given a chance either.

I'm all for other suggestions though, and it's just one opinion out of many of course.

EDIT: Apologies, having just checked back over the post, I noticed the source of confusion. I cocked up the lineup (initially I had the current system there as a comparison and managed to delete the wrong one). Now it should seem slightly more ambitious than the current system.
EvertonFC2009-10-19 23:19:27

Have to keep Greenacre on for a bit more - starting to like the "Greenacre my Lord" chant.

Cant believe im about to say this,but i agree. He takes the most ridiculous glory shots,all the time.  Needs to get back to his pinpoint deliveries. Sure,if he has a good chance to shoot by all means go for it,but lately its everytime he gets the ball

Week one and two, Bertos was amazing and when he got outside the box, he did slip the ball along to Greenacre and Ifill. I think we need to either play another central man right next to Greenacre, or that creative composed midfielder in behind him. I dont think we have either of those right players, however Caceres has the most promise to me.

Give him his own beach ball.

Everton - i thought your analysis was on the button.  We're all chasing our tail looking for a solution (cept those happy with the current 4-3-3 and expecting t he finishing to improve).  If you don't believe it is bad luck but poor match of players style and poor finishing capability then there is no obvious fix with the current squad.  Unless Diego could play to his rep

------------------------1 of Lia/Brown/McKain
-------------------------------Diego
--------------------Bertos -------------- Ifill
------------------------Acres -----targetman to be bought/Chen

'course I'll get ar*eholes from News cause he doesn't think one defensive midfielder, the two wide back players and Diego(or other CAM) can control the midfield.  If you buy that then:

------------------------2 of Lia/Brown/McKain
-------------------------------Diego
--------------------Bertos---------------- Ifill
--------------------------------Acres

It's been tried, but you wonder what's up that Diego is so far off his game/disinterested/not clicking with the squad.  He's the man that should be feeding Acres the sort of ball he wants, surely.  So what's up with Diego?

How many games of Greenacre doing nothing until people stop blaming the other 10 players on the pitch and the manager and start to realise he maybe isn't what he was hyped up to be?

What is that ?

A striker who finishes the ugly chances from loose balls in the area... the type of ball we never seem to generate with him on his own up front ?

Just what do you think he was hyped as ?  The next Wayne Rooney ?

Hell No!

Greenacre is a good player,

Id say thats all smeltz is...not much good at anything else but finishing chances.

pair him with Ifill in the middle. Tell Ifill to stay central and to make his runs through the center with greenacre working off of Ifill.

Or with Diego/ Caceres/ Fred behind Greenacre then he could be ok with straight passes. He did look better when Diego played alright in the first few games too

Play ten games, work your arse off in all of them and be the clubs leading goalscorer even though being asked to play as a lone striker when you have spent your whole career playing as part of a front two ? 

The way you work for that is to play him alongside someone that will take the ball in the area and get it to Greenacre, the player the club spent the whole pre-season saying they would sign and conspicuously didn't.

Also, where do you get Greenacre blaming anyone else  ?  I'm sure he's as pissed as anyone that he's not getting chances and not finishing them.  I'm sure there was article the other week saying how frustrated he was with himself.

Don't go re-writing the facts or history just to support your own views.

Ifill is not now and never has been a striker, no matter how much the Phoenix tried to tell us he was.  He's a winger, has been for fifteen years.

I agree. Good team man, hard working, very professional attitude, but ordinary in most other respects. I am still waiting to be surprised by some piece of skill, improviastion, change of pace, anything. Really want him to work out but perserverance can only go so far.

The guy has had a long career in the lower leagues in the UK.  I can tell you for certain that he'll have no problem doing the tough work up front - he'll have done it 50 games a season playing in league 1.

Just tell Bertos to play through balls and such to Greenacre - Leo is shooting far too much and isn't even on target all that often.  He does great work to get into good positions then just wastes the move by going for glory.

that Owusu has been a charm at at Adelaide. You don't get much more proper targetman credentials than him...was Smeltz a targetman?

we want a damn striker...Greenacre is in bad form lets face it and the attack isn't working well...it might help with a different combo, or different emphasis in the style of attack...

Greenacre is an old fashioned english striker.

we are not using him properly.

What ?

The same Owusu who was dropped last week because of excessive sh*tness.  The same Owusu who's now being called 'Benchtime' instead of Hang Time by Adelaide fans ?

I thought Martin was being sarcastic?

You might be right Wumbo... sorry if that's a misread Martin.

 

Nobody is playing through balls EVER. The type of ball a striker can run onto and hit first time, or take one or 2 touches and then shoot. All chances come from crosses, most of which seem to be aimless. We really must mix it up a bit and an attacking midfielder is really an absolute must. Diego is not the answer, Ifill is not the man for that particular role either. Nobody at the club is to be honest but my only hope is that Fred is signed. He could well be the missing link. However, if he's only signed as a guest, we're back to square one when he goes.

I know it's not gonna happen so please don't point that out, but McGlinchy would be perfect for that role.

Pretty sure we didn't.  Not sure why you think he would have advanced knowledge, because a) it was before he was an AW and b) i'm pretty sure the fifa rule change hadn't occurred before he signed.

Correction.  Looks like he was on trial at CCM around the same time the change came in
2ndBest2009-10-21 21:57:59

Not too sure about that one - the timing was very close, but can't be bothered checking it now.

We did ask but he turned us down. Not sure how hard we actually persued it though.

nothing wrong with acres - well good enough for this league in the right system - surely you'd have to say

we just don't have the target man for him to work with and off, nor the CAM capable of playing the killer ball.  seems to me to win the league you need both, otherwise your threat is too predictable and manageable by the oposition and there is enough talent in the league to make playing for 1-0 wins a hard ask

similarly we have a squad full of wide midfielders
bertos, ifill, daniel, rojas, hearfield, caceres, and you might as well say costa, 'cos with a small acres as your primary front man costa doesn't naturally complement him up front and is unlikely to get a go alone.

nothing wrong with acres it's the squad composition thats the problem

i'd still like to see Chen given a chance up front with acres.  will create some room for acres and increase the threat from our crosses

the defensive middies and back four are the strength of the team, so they'll just have to manage, and i reckon they will, and with brown asked to find a way to get forward and play the killer ball as much as his pace lets him get forward and his skill and vision lets him play the ball.  Would be great if we had a good sub to back him up, so he could run till he dropped, but again the squad mix is difficult

we don't have a youth/development team, so these guys (Chen/Brown esp) need to be asked to step up on match day and give it a crack.  Chen's young, give him a go.  Browns got some good strengths, so get him to stretch to find more for the team. 

next year replace chen with that target man that's been missing, and burgle Fred (find Diego his mojo?) or better
Man, Diego not producing the goods is a huge hit for this team
go the phoenix
mjp22009-10-22 16:40:41

no. Neither Brown or McKain will ever be a targetman.


two up top will give him more space, just that neither him nor Chen have  great aerial dominance i think.  Attacking midfielder may be the most tangible option. Diego or Caceres could work.

On a side, not that this is the answer, but Lia looked quite good technically on Saturday. On a few occassions he was able to slip through two defenders and i think he just has to keep doing that up the feel the field more because if he can beat them in the middle of the park, then I think he could slip some balls off to Chrissy G