Revealed: How injuries are forcing Alex McLeish to switch formations

Sep 21 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

McLeish added: “We work on systems and try to bridge that gap of trying to be tough to beat and creating chances.

“The 4-4-2 gives you more scope with the two strikers but then again we have drawn teams out in a 4-5-1 quite a lot.

“Comparing to the two home games, Portsmouth and Stoke, when we were 4-4-2, we created more when we had one up.

“But in the 4-4-2 at Man United and Spurs, when we switched to that, we were starting to look a big threat as well in that kind of formation.

“When O’Connor came on at Hull, it really gave us an extra dimension.

“There are two half-decent systems there we can play and that we are comfortable with. The main thing I have is the personnel. I couldn’t do it without the personnel being correct.”

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