Your last sentence is absolutely bang on there. Players particularly not suited to a 442 - Johnson (unless he played as a right winger), Gerrard (unless he played on the right), Torres, Maxi (as a wide man) Dirk (as a wide man) Cole (as a wide man)
It pains me that people slate the wide men we have when it's painfully obvious that our squad is not set up for a 4-42, 4-1-4-1, basically anything that doesn't rely on two midfielders and the width coming from the fullbacks.
We can't change that in January, we might over the summer. We need to play to the players strengths from now until the end of the season or we are in trouble.
Agreed.
The midfield is often where the game is won and lost - and ours isn't functioning well at the moment. But I think it would bring out the best in Lucas, Meireles and Gerrard if we reverted to the formation outlined above.
We desperately need reinforcements on the flanks and to backup Torres. Ngog isn't ready, and perhaps never will be, to come in and cover for Torres. Ok, so the Spaniard is having a stinking season but we know what he's capable of, whereas Ngog hasn't shown anything like that level. He's still young, but when you think back to world-class strikers at his age, they had already shown that they'd be a force to be reckoned with.
Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Ian Rush and Fernando Torres all spring to mind for us, while a lot of other strikers for other clubs fit that that description. Ngog may be a slow burner, but I've not seen enough from him to suggest that he'll become a top striker.
In recent years we've had better all-round options upfront than we have at present, and also in most other positions, but we really lack a foil/backup for Torres. We've had a lot of decent strikers in recent years but no frontline, premier goalscorer. While we had a selection of good strikers in Baros, Bellamy, Cissé, Crouch, Fowler, Morientes etc in recent memory, we haven't had a 'Torres'. We need a balance. Having Torres supported by players of similar ability to those above (as they were back then), along with Ngog, would provide us with more experienced and able options.
The midfield is less of a concern that the front positions and left-back, for me. If we reshape them into the formation outlined above we'd have the right formula with the ingredients we have.