For me talk of shape and balance are a little bit misleading because we don't have a shape, and without that there can be no balance. Whether we start with a 3 5 2 or a 3 5 1 1 or a 3 4 2 1, it all breaks down after 10 minutes. I've noticed that we tend to start gamed quite well, and then have a little spell at the start of the second half. Apart from this it all breaks down. Hogan starts running out of defence, Barclay drifts too much into the middle of the 3 at the back (understandably), Whitfield then has to fill a big hole on the left when he is a winger and his natural tenancy is to play further up the pitch, Madden ends up playing mostly in midfield leaving Reid isolated, Rooney plays where he wants. That's it, after 10 minutes we have no shape its 11 blokes running around a pitch. He who can't be named would have been apoplectic on the side and hooking players left right and centre. Rusk, who I also don't blame for everything, doesn't seem to have the personality, or is it the authority to change this. The further you go up the leagues 2 things determine the increase in standard. Firstly you don't have an obvious weakness in either a poor player or a player playing badly out of his specialist position, and secondly the better sides are disciplined and keep their shape. We have a problem in both areas where the better sides at this level will cash in.