Adam B - needs form

By Charlie Summerbell
July 22 2010

Hartlepool United, who struggled to turn chances into goals last season, could play with just one striker in the new season. They employed a 4-5-1 formation in their pre-season friendly against South Shields earlier this week after experimenting in Holland, and look likely to continue with the system against Leeds at the weekend.

It's their only home pre-season game, andolH certainly one of the most difficult as boss Chris Turner tries to gets things sorted before the season kicks-off in just over a fortnight.
And there's a chance that before it does start, one or two players could be heading out of the Vic on loan after Turner admitted that he has too many strikers in his squad.
He told the Hartlepool Mail: "It is difficult when you have got these pre-season games to give all the strikers in the squad some minutes.
"The loan market is an avenue we will explore in the coming week or two, trying to loan people out to League Two and below to get them regular football."
The seven strikers currently fighting for places are Denis Behan, Adam Boyd, Armann Bjornsson, James Brown, Billy Greulich, Colin Larkin and Michael Mackay, and while one or two of them can play in midfield, Andy Monkhouse has operated as central striker in pre-season games.
While Brown and Behan (right) will be keen to avoid the sort of injury that blighted their season, Boyd will be just as keen to rediscover the form of his first spell with his home town club.
Turner has so far not explained why a team with a history of wasted chances might decide to reduce the number of strikers rather than increase it, though of course the idea of 4-5-1 is that when you have possession, your midfield players have scope to go forward.
That's the theory, anyway.
A year ago Pools were going into the new season with almost a whole new team.
This time the campaign approaches with next to no additions in a squad that struggled to survive in 2009-10 and while it's true the players know each other better now, the big question is whether they have it in them to improve enough to at least avoid a struggle like last season's.
Only time will tell.