In his own words old humpty dumpty himself has said we have no natural wingers in the current squad, despite the presence of Ryan Hall and Aidy White. With Hall weeks behind in pre - season preperation after the birth of his child and White used as a 3rd forward among other positions this summer, one thing is certain, McDermott is set to do as he said he would from day one. He told us he would build a system to suit the personnel. With a glut of central midfielders left behind by Warnock and seemingly none heading for the exit, McDermott looks set on the midfield diamond we have seen him tinker around with so far. In my view this could work well for us. Ok we wont be excited in the stands by watching blistering pace and trickery down the flanks, but lets face it, if we haven't got the players why force a square peg into a round hole. Too often we saw Warnock play Green, McCormack, Varney, Diouf and others out wide and it did not work! Just like Peltier was never a left back OR a captain! But that was then and this is now, and what I see is a system that could work well so lets break it down.
The defensive midfielder - right now, you would say that's Paul Green an he will do a good job too. But he's got a bit more to his game than just breaking up play, and as we've seen can grab a goal or two when he gets forward. With that in mind I'm going to say on the back of a top notch performance in Dublin and an assured 30 minutes at Stevenage that Rudy has nailed down that spot when he returns from his ban and we have'nt seen the best of him either!
Right and left - It's got to be Green and Murphy. I think both can chip in with goals and here we have got two players who are mobile, will look for it off Austin and get to the second ball and use it.
Tip of the diamond - At the minute I don't think Brian knows who this is going to be. We have seen White, Hunt, McCormack, Dawson, Varney etc. Personally I think it's made for Diouf. With the ability to hold it, win free kicks, create and his all round technical attributes I think he could be a very important player for us, however the argument is; at his age can he do It every week? The answer is no, so there's an opportunity here for young Dawson if he is upto it! Otherwise this one is very much up for grabs and with Hunt, McCormack, White, Poleon and Varney we are not short of numbers, if one of them can make it there own. Others may also play their part during the season, Tonge less mobile, more creative and Norris, more mobile less creative and with the academy in full flow, we may see débuts handed to Mowatt and Lenighan.
All in all I think we will see this formation yielding positive results with three central midfielders being very useful away from home and three front men being the antidote to the lack or width when were at home.
Eire White
Twitter- @eirewhite