I've been calling for Luke to use a three at the back for a while, and I'm glad that whilst we haven't looked amazing, we did look much improved against Bristol City. The issues with that formation for the rest of this season is how limited we are in the central positions; we have three 'proper' centre-halves in Cabango, Darling, and Delcroix, but Naughton and Christie could deputise in a three moreso than in a two. Come the end of the season, and we're likely left with just Cabango, which is madness - but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Similarly in midfield, it's Franco and LoB or nothing. Fulton is clearly not good enough anymore for a starting midfield role, Allen is completely crocked, Cooper too attacking, Abdulai too London-based. It puts us in a position where we're constantly fretting that a single injury to one of five players means that we're unable to continue the 'experiment'.
The other adjacent issue is the surplus of 10s/wingers that we have who can't fit the system. If we roughly played a 5-2-2-1 against BC - Cullen and Eom as 10s behind Vipotnik - it completely rids us of any possibility to use wingers in their desired roles. Ronald is okay in this regard, as he's got a good workrate to move up and down at wingback, but unsurprsingly, can't defend. Like, at all. As much as he has his detractors, he's been very useful for us on the left of a front three this season; having him on the right of a back five is complete madness.
From there, you've got Ginnelly (fuck knows what's going on, but is feasibly a backup 9), Bianchini (useful through the middle, not much on show out wide), and to a lesser extent MPH (should play at 10) that just don't suit the system, but are all able to contribute something to a very ordinary Championship squad.
I think Luke will carry on with it for the rest of the season (or at least until he's booted), but we yet again face a recruitment dilemma in the Summer.
