how to play against a 4-4-2 system?

[Doctor DOOM]

^ ok, I see you dont want to slot him ( hmmm... I wonder why )

but is he a playmaker?
I dont think so.

discarding all the adjectives used ( no help in defining him ), what most ppl may slot him as is either a regular central mid or a def mid. ( if you read the spanish press on his game against atletico mad-reeeed, you'd see he is defined as the def mid there too )

they both HAVE to pass forward and find mates and they do it on occasions. but these players are NOT playmakers.

are we ok so far?

[yashar_fasihnia]

nope, he is not a playmaker, but he isnt an exact defensive midfielder either.

he is a good central midfielder with both offensive and defensive capabilities if thats wat ur looking for? (unless u still want to wonder why and assume all kind of reasons for urself just to get closer to prove ur point)

i compared him to patrick viera who isnt a pure DM, but has the abilitiy to play as a single DM, but at the same time, able to play next to another DM as well.

and btw, im pretty sure my adjectives pretty much helped if u werent too focused on proving something u have already assumed in ur mind and trying every possible way to get to it such as assuming there are certain reasons i didnt slot him
not only i compared him to patrick viera which should pretty much give u a hint of wat type of a player he is, but also i mentioned he is a midfielder who should play in the middle and not on the sides. and i wont be saying he is a GK, defender or striker, so i think that pretty much leaves should give u ur answer!

P.S. i follow our european legionannaires quite well and nekounam has almost always played as DM for osasuna, either next to punal or as sole DM in the team.
their formations have included 4-1-4-1, 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2
however, the spanish press have called him that because he has been playing as DM for osasuna all along for wat now? 2 - 3 years? that doesnt mean he is a pure DM.

[Doctor DOOM]

nope, he is not a playmaker, but he isnt an exact defensive midfielder either.
he is a good central midfielder with both offensive and defensive capabilities if thats wat ur looking for? (unless u still want to wonde why and assume all kind of reasons for urself )

ok.
now, put that in the present context of TM, where we need ALL the extra help we can get to WIN games.
not to hold the opponents off.
not to get a single point in the games.
not to face some heavy hitter teams from europe or south america.

and that, imo, means we need a TRUE playmaker in the team who does what nekunam does ( only occasionally and once or twice in a game ) with far more regularity and precision.


ESPECIALLY if your forward need that many more chances created for them to score their single goal!
if we had great goal scoring machines whose conversion rate was more than 50% then we could say even those couple of passes from the central mid shd do the job.
but we dont.
hence, we need to constantly supply these guys with chances for them to score that goal!


what supports my opinion is the lack of goals scored by our strikers.
especially when the team has NOT had any true playmaker.
imagine if aside from our mids scoring their goals, we had 1 or 2 goals off our strikers. we'd be in a totally different situation today !

[yashar_fasihnia]

so ur back with ur suggestion to:
1)bench nekounam?
2)play some other DM and only a single DM in the team? (who btw is ur candidate?)
3)and play with 2 strikers? (which 2 strikers btw?)

correct?

or rather, just gimme ur preferred lineup + formation if u dont mind (so that i know wat ur midfield and attack will be compromising of) and we can carry on from there...

[Doctor DOOM]

not necessarily.

for NKorea game we dont have nekunam.
provides us a chance to try using another def-mid ( ando if fit, would be absolutely ideal ) and a playmaker ( not nouri, but someone with top quality ).

if that doesnt answer, we always can go back to using nekunam as def-mid and whatever else .



and definitely yes on using TWO strikers.
absolutely.
I think pairing of NIKI-BORHANI would be nice.
we've tried VH for a long time now, and he just hasnt had much effect ( not totally his fault as we havent provided the right circumstances for him; no playmaker, single forward, hardly anyone good at crossing on either flank .... ! ) and rezaei just isnt half as in form as borhani at the moment.

so there's no harm trying out a combo of a quick footed and a physical and tall striker.
covers both ground & air attacks for us