Who sits and who plays where ? Specifically, Shalrie, Joey and Our Clint. I'd move Shalrie to the back and play Our Clint at D mid. Joey can move back to L Back (although I think he's less of a liability at D mid). This is if we go back to 4-4-2. Noonan and Twellman at striker with JMM subbing. JMM might play attacking mid in the 3-5-2, especially if Cancela continues to play mediocre. What about Rusty ? In the 3-5-2, he's my right back with Jay either sitting or moving to wide right mid. 4-4-2 I have him playing centrally with Shalrie. Kamler goes to L mid as soon as he's ready. I know this is all speculation since it remains doubtful we will see all of these guys healthy again, this year, at the same time, but by the end of July we should have Twellman, Kamler, and Shalrie back at a minimum.
OK, I will use as a base then that Shalrie, Brian and Taylor are back by the end of July and I think your lineup is what I would do... Brown Heaps John/Joseph Franchino Ralston Dempsey/Cancela Kamler Noonan Twellman Wouldn't that be nice...it would have the added benefit of putting Ralston back on the right side of the midfield.
I'm guessing that everyone would agree that regardless of what formation we adopt when everyone is healthy, the players who must be on the field at the opening whistle are: Joseph Dempsey Ralston Kamler Twellman The players competing for spots are: Brown/Reis Heaps/Pierce Pierce/John Leonard/Franchino Cancela Baker/Noonan Noonan/Brillant/(Moore?) On the outside looking in are: Luke/Dorman/Singer
Again you get high fives Jon for spotting the critical point: you play your best players available and I agree with your list of "must be on the field"s. Other factors besides health will control who else plays: Current form, card status, where we are playing and the tactical reality that SN wants to work with/against. Even though SN is inclined to favor the 4-4-2 it may well be that he stays with the 3-5-2 for the remainder of the year. If our midfield can handle the middle of the park then Heaps, John, Franchino/Leonard seem to be adequate. If our midfield is not able to control speedy wingers going deep and crossing (which seemed to be our problem early in the year with the 4-4-2) the more robust 5 man midfield seems more suited to this group of players. Joseph and Dempsey are a good plug up the middle. Ralston and Kamler can then do a good job on the wings and these 4 should be able to move the ball forward to Pepe and the forwards. I think the biggest coaching challange will be deciding which Forwards to play and in what combination. We have spouted a lot on how TnT and Noonan are not a good pairing. Now with an emerging player like Brillinat and maybe a healthy JMM, SN are PM will be called on to hit on the right combo. I'm betting we will see TnT and Brilliant with Noonan and JMM off the bench. Lets remember, dysfunction (inability to finish our chances) has been our biggest problem this year. Given the four forwards mentioned a coach should be able to find a hot player combination. My guess is to start out Leonard will sit and Joey will be at left back along with John and Heaps ina 3-5-2. Joey was a Red Card waiting to happen against the Mutts so we will need replacements for all three starters as the season progresses and card accumulation requires players to sit. It's good to have Kamler and Bully able to play in the middle and maybe Rusty although I think he may be a lost cause for the remainder of this season. Kante is DMW. My starting midfield would be Ralston, Joseph, Dempsey, Kamler, Pepe. It will be nice to have Brilliant, Baker, Dorman, Noonan and Franchino all able to fill a midfield role depending on the situation. I would like to give the pairing of TnT and Brillinat a try but go with JMM and TnT if Joe-Max can ever get healthy. I don't think that TnT, Noonan is a good pairing. What might be fun to see late in a match against a tired defense is a combo of a fresh JMM and Brilliant
The last time we were in a similiar situation was 2 years ago, when basically our whole defense got injury, suspended, was away on int'l duty, etc. for periods of time. We never really got everyone healthy, but got just barely enough defenders back (with Pierce giving up his body for the team) to field a decent defensive line. Throughout the end of season run and the playoffs, each time we lost someone, one of the missing would be back just in time. I don't think we'll come close to getting everyone healthy together this year - these things tend to keep spinning off new situations (maybe for over-taxing the players who are available). So, I don't think Nicol's job of putting together a lineup will get too tough. JMM may be back for a few games, but he should only be looked at as a late game sub - if for nothing else, to preserve him. Brilliant will go back to being a sub when Twellman and Noonan are both healthy enough to start. Dempsey must be in the starting lineup. Kamler is going to have a hard time catching up at this point. He hasn't played a game in midfield since ... last year? Joseph MUST be in the midfield - it is a terrible waste of talent to put him in back. John is doing just fine back there. The problems the defense has experienced lately are mostly from bad giveaways in midfield. One hard decision is Franchino. He's not among the players who MUST be on the field, but I don't think Nicol is about to make him a "healthy scratch" this season. Another tough one will be Pierce. If it were me, I don't think I'd tamper too much with the defense. I definitely wouldn't put Pierce in for John and I wouldn't switch back to a 442 just to get Pierce in. I'd give him some minutes at right back to see if he looks better than Heaps (who quietly has been much more reliable now that the team has settled in to a decent shape - although he did get schooled by Magee at least once). But again, I don't think it's going to be a problem for Nicol. We've quietly been accumulated yellow cards at a steady rate, so I'm sure that's going to be a factor soon.