Gunning

Quoted from newarkmariner

Didnt think Gunning had a bad game yesterday,hes quickly becoming one of my favourites,and its about time we had someone who sticks it up em,ffs weve had our midfield bullied all season,it was so good watching us put the foot in,and not jumping out of tackles,so sorry Garth i know hes your new antichrist but i for one think hes exactly whats needed,then again i loved watching Bobby Cumming now that man could tackle,UTM

Bit strong there   an antichrist is an evil or sinister individual, not so our Gunning, just a player IMO whose position in the team would be better occupied by A another (Disley, Boyce, Gowling or Comley)

Personally I prefer the Osborne/ Vose type of footballer to the so called hard men of the game, you win nowt with thugs.

Quoted from golfer

I don't see how anybody can disagree with this post. It was a very good piece of management to play him in front of the back4. When you play this system it stops the 2 centre backs being drawn forward out of position. I don't know if people noticed that it allowed the 2 full backs to attack with Gunning dropping back when one of the centre backs covered the full backs. He played a very intelligent role yesterday - their forwards were completely nullified and all the team fitted into this new formation perfectly. I can see good times ahead.

It was a good piece of management and tactically one that wold have wrong footed Fatty Evans. We have played three centre backs in a line recently and I would imagine Fatty Evans would have expected that when the team sheet was announced. IMO I think it is a good position for Gunning to play as he does look comfortable on the ball. This is obviously a new tactic that MB has introduced on the training pitch and it is inevitable that initially Gunning might get in the way of the two centre-backs behind him. Once they develop a better understanding then I'm sure he will have more confidence in both Pearson and Collins when it comes to dealing with the long balls and he is there to pick up the ones that drop a bit short. It's not a format that would work for every match but certainly against route one teams it could be very effective.

The yard dogging spoiler rarely wins the main plaudits from the stands remember.

Quoted from Garth

Bit strong there   an antichrist is an evil or sinister individual, not so our Gunning, just a player IMO whose position in the team would be better occupied by A another (Disley, Boyce, Gowling or Comley)

Personally I prefer the Osborne/ Vose type of footballer to the so called hard men of the game, you win nowt with thugs.

Every team needs a yard dog and Gunning shielding the two centre backs worked as Mansfield went more direct to Green as the match went on.

I think everyone likes to watch an 'Osborne/Vose' type of player as Leicester liked to watch Vardy and Mahrez but ask them if they'd like Kante back!

Gunning was effective in this new role.  Matt Green was subbed, we scored 3 goals, without reply,  against an in-form team who are still in the play-offs.

Gunning, and the team must have done a few things right.

You need spoilers to enable the creators in your side a lot of the time. Yes we all love to see the creative juices of flair player's but without some bite in there you'll likely lose the battle for control and end up getting turned over.

How long have we bemoaned our middle weak link? I'd say its probably all the way back to the time we had a proper yard dogf