Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 18 July 2012

18 July 2012

It's a formation that became so popular that they named a magazine after it. It's also the only formation that has brought Grimsby Town any recent success (and I use the term 'success' as loosely as the Go Compare man's trousers around Victoria Beckham's waist). I know we all bang on about pre-season being about fitness and squad cohesion, but if there's anything we've learnt - not just from pre-season but at various periods last season and from previous managers such as Lennie Lawrence and Russell Slade - it's that 4-3-3 simply does not work in Grimsby (or Cleethorpes, I should say, before we start getting emails). This is a 4-4-2 shop, for 4-4-2 people.

If, like your West Yorkshire Diary, you didn't go down to Blundell Park last night for the pre-season friendly against Dean Saunders' Donny, you'll still probably know that we were losing 3-0 at half time because we played 4-3-3 in the first half and it didn't work. The second-half shift back to 4-4-fucking-2 paid off to the tune of two Dayle Southwell goals and an all-round better performance. Balance, natural width and strikers in striking positions probably helped.

It remains to be seen whether Shouty and Shorty will persist with 4-3-3 and the idea that Liam Hearn is more useful to the team out wide on the left. At least if we play it one more time it'll give our top scorer and genuinely likeable lad another chance to perfect his left-back skills when Aswad Thomas goes on a forward rampage. Let's be honest about this: Hearn doesn't want to play on the left of a front three. We don't want him to play on the left of a front three. He got 29 goals last season by playing through the middle and terrorising the generally immobile and cumbersome centre-backs of this division.

But perhaps what causes me greatest concern is that these summer signings - Cook, Hatton, Colbeck, Thomas, Pearson and Niven - were all brought in with 4-3-3 in mind. How they would slot into a 4-4-2 set-up is a puzzler for the management duo to solve - if they even choose to accept that 4-4-2 is the right way forward, of course.

And then there's the argument that pre-season is exactly the time to experiment with formations and personnel. Perhaps we're all getting our knickers in a twist over nothing.

Today the Grimsby Telegraph has pinpointed the new location of the Fentydome, which will surely feature an iconic floating halo above it. I've exhausted myself on 4-3-3 so I will lovingly pass this topic on to tomorrow's diarist, whoever he or she may be, so they can discuss supermarkets, noise pollution, crematoriums and, oh yeah - football.

Finally today Richard Lord has emailed in to say: "I particularly liked the way Middle-aged Diary referred to 'the club's official organ' on Friday. It reminded me of how we don't use the word 'organ' in that way any more because it just sounds a bit dodgy. However, I recently read a fascinating book on etymology and it just so happens the very relevant chapter on the word 'organ' (and how it links 'organised' to 'organic') is available on the author's blog. It's well worth a read." Thanks Rich. By Middle-aged Diary presupposing the club has an organ, we have to acknowledge that, etymologically speaking, the various tasks they do are organised and the various products of those tasks are organic. There's evidence, if ever it were needed, that words change their meanings over time.