Does the midfield system need completely revamped?

Lovenkrands Dug

Well-Known Member
I get that they offer a lot of protection for the full backs, but for me that's about all they do right now.

For a flat midfield three, I don't think it's particularly strong defensively. The opposition pick up second balls infront of our defence far too easily and find themselves in space they really shouldn't with three midfielders on the park.

Offensively it brings very little as we know. It's no wonder Roofe and Morelos drop so far back. Maybe they're instructed to, but I think a large part of it is the striker not having someone playing in that space behind them.

I don't think it's just a quality thing and we need better players in there, I think the system is just dried out and too easy to play against. How we change it without taking away the full back protection I have no idea though.
 
Don’t think it needs ripped up and started again but I think it would help to have a Plan B to mix it up occasionally.
 
Yes, absolutely. The midfield is done. We need to recycle.

Jack too injury prone
Davis 36 and almost done.
Kamara, probably be sold.
Arfield 32 and not the player he was.
Aribo not a midfielder
Lundstram, well, he's Lundstram.
 
The only change we’ll see is to personnel and on a game by game basis. Chop/change; Lundstram, Aribo, Davis, Kamara, Bacuna.

Next summer it will need ripped apart as Davis and Arfield are out of contract, we will eventually lose Kamara.
 
100% YES !

Been a problem area for a long time - we have ZERO creativity and threat from our midfield.

We get into the position in games where we are looking for Tav - Borna or even Goldson to "create" for us, they are looked to to open up packed defences hence we get cross after cross or the big diagonal to one of the FB to then cross !

We should have spent all the Marbles on a midfielder - instead we have wasted 3 salaries on bench fillers

Most annoyingly is that the manager and his asst were both midfielders but cannot see that this is the area of the team needing major surgery ???
 
Yes, absolutely. The midfield is done. We need to recycle.

Jack too injury prone
Davis 36 and almost done.
Kamara, probably be sold.
Arfield 32 and not the player he was.
Aribo not a midfielder
Lundstram, well, he's Lundstram.
I don't think it's a personnel issue. We could do with upgrades, yes, but they are still capable of influencing games far more than they are and they reason they aren't is due to the tactics.

If they're going to offer nothing going forward then they should at least be a rock defensively but they're not that either. The midfield currently exists purely to keep possession and spread the ball the full backs, that's just not good enough and is an absolute waste of three players on the pitch in attacking scenarios.
 
I don't think it's a personnel issue. We could do with upgrades, yes, but they are still capable of influencing games far more than they are and they reason they aren't is due to the tactics.

If they're going to offer nothing going forward then they should at least be a rock defensively but they're not that either. The midfield currently exists purely to keep possession and spread the ball the full backs, that's just not good enough and is an absolute waste of three players on the pitch in attacking scenarios.
100%
 
I would bring the lad charlie mccann into the 1st team fold and see what he can do , only way to see if these lads can do it is to give them a chance, by all accounts hes a fantastic player
 
Tell you what the problem is with our midfield.

Davis- free
Arfield- free
Kamara- 50k
Aribo- 200k
Lundstram- free
Bacuna? I'm guessing hardly anything

Now all of them for the money are no brainers. So I'm not saying that, we need to make the most of the pre contract/bosman signings.

But I have said it since Gerrard come in. These types of signings will only take us so far. It's still the only area of the team we haven't invested in
 
I think with the system we play we need three well rounded quality midfielders that can do a bit of everything to a high standard consistently and with our budget it’s going to be very difficult to get right.
 
Gerrard and the staff I'm sure are well aware of what we need in midfield. The problem is...unless we are extremely fortunate in the bosman market or produce a little diamond. The finances aren't there to get player of real quality. It ain't rocket science
 
Yes. As does the defence.
Our CMs hardly ever get assists or goals. Unfortunately Jack is also the same.
Maybe that's because their job seems to be to get the ball to Tav or Borna or if that fails, just give it back to our quarterback/centre half.
 
Yes, absolutely. The midfield is done. We need to recycle.

Jack too injury prone
Davis 36 and almost done.
Kamara, probably be sold.
Arfield 32 and not the player he was.
Aribo not a midfielder
Lundstram, well, he's Lundstram.
Not quite that bad, but think we should go 4231, rather than 433, especially at home
 
I get that they offer a lot of protection for the full backs, but for me that's about all they do right now.

For a flat midfield three, I don't think it's particularly strong defensively. The opposition pick up second balls infront of our defence far too easily and find themselves in space they really shouldn't with three midfielders on the park.

Offensively it brings very little as we know. It's no wonder Roofe and Morelos drop so far back. Maybe they're instructed to, but I think a large part of it is the striker not having someone playing in that space behind them.

I don't think it's just a quality thing and we need better players in there, I think the system is just dried out and too easy to play against. How we change it without taking away the full back protection I have no idea though.
the midfield seems to be not too bad till it gets to the opposition 18 yard box then they all hit a blank
 
Forward to where?
Into the right hand side of the midfield three or four. Alternatively, leave Tav at right back and put Nathan Patterson in there. Patterson is too good to be sitting on the bench.
 
Into the right hand side of the midfield three or four. Alternatively, leave Tav at right back and put Nathan Patterson in there. Patterson is too good to be sitting on the bench.
Interesting point, and it's possibly worth exploring, bearing in mind that Tavernier looks the one more readily able to adapt, and is reputed to have to have played in midfield before.
 
we do not have a creative midfilder who's also a goal threat, when was the last time we saw one of our midfilders who played a pass we thought "never saw that pass coming" even with Hagi in the team we very rarely see those type of clever passes
 
We're in need of quite a big rebuild at the end of the season. We've not been doing well in terms of planning ahead despite the hype.

How are we in a position where our only options to come in for defence or midfield are Simpson and Lundrstrum?
 
Gerrard and the staff I'm sure are well aware of what we need in midfield. The problem is...unless we are extremely fortunate in the bosman market or produce a little diamond. The finances aren't there to get player of real quality. It ain't rocket science
I think that would pass for a reasonable excuse for poor performance in Europe but doesn't cut it for me domestically.

We can't exactly moan about a lack of funds/investment when, even for bosmans, we are still dining at a table that 90% of the other teams in this league could only dream about. Yeah it would have been difficult to get a player in who would have been an automatic starter with the required qualities with us having little cash to spend but we still have 7 midfielders who should all be better than any other midfielder they will come up against in the league. The issue for me isn't in the quality it's in the balance, or lack of it that we have. No natural goal scorers and too many players who, although good at it, like to back up play rather than get ahead of the ball. This is leading to predictable patterns of play that teams with lesser players are able to defend against too easily.
 
Tell you what the problem is with our midfield.

Davis- free
Arfield- free
Kamara- 50k
Aribo- 200k
Lundstram- free
Bacuna? I'm guessing hardly anything

Now all of them for the money are no brainers. So I'm not saying that, we need to make the most of the pre contract/bosman signings.

But I have said it since Gerrard come in. These types of signings will only take us so far. It's still the only area of the team we haven't invested in

Two of those players we should be looking at selling for 10 million plus.
 
Tell you what the problem is with our midfield.

Davis- free
Arfield- free
Kamara- 50k

Aribo- 200k
Lundstram- free
Bacuna? I'm guessing hardly anything

Now all of them for the money are no brainers. So I'm not saying that, we need to make the most of the pre contract/bosman signings.

But I have said it since Gerrard come in. These types of signings will only take us so far. It's still the only area of the team we haven't invested in
Fees mean absolutely nothing. Bacuna, Aribo and Lundstram, I'd say would have cost us circa 4 million to bring in.
They've taken us to Europe, which isn't to bad
 
Kamara and Davis have played way to much football the past couple of seasons and the players brought in to give them a break haven't cut the mustard.
 
Since we don’t play with traditional wide men in a 433, we could go to a diamond in midfield would allow our midfield to try and get back to what they do best while giving say hagi more freedom to feed the forwards
 
Two of those players we should be looking at selling for 10 million plus.
Kamara yes.

Other two i dont see it at the moment

im not knocking the recruitment on them players at all, some v good finds.

But in terms of us kicking on to the next level and getting someone in their who can give us goals from midfield. We need to invest
 
Veerman now has 4 assists to his name. It’s a shame we didn’t have the funds for him as he looks like a player we’re crying out for.
I’d also like to see us move away from 4-3-3 and change to a 4-2-3-1. The second sitting midfielder should be instructed to bomb into the box from deep
 
Doesn’t need ripped up but we need better options. Domestically we’re playing against a congested last third most weeks and struggling to break them down. I genuinely feel to an extent that a combination of both FBs being a bit off form and teams sussing us out has caused us difficulty in wide areas. Maybe we need to look again at the positioning of our wide forwards in some games when the fullbacks are not producing the goods.
 
we do not have a creative midfilder who's also a goal threat, when was the last time we saw one of our midfilders who played a pass we thought "never saw that pass coming" even with Hagi in the team we very rarely see those type of clever passes
when hagi plays he’s usually out wide working his socks off, I’d give hagi the freedom that’s usually granted to aribo
 
I just feel that midlfiekd don’t contribute to the goals and provide very little service to the strikers. Most of our balls into the box are from Tav/Barisic, it’s rare that you see a defence splitting pass or an overlap.
 
I just feel that midlfiekd don’t contribute to the goals and provide very little service to the strikers. Most of our balls into the box are from Tav/Barisic, it’s rare that you see a defence splitting pass or an overlap.
The few times they do overlap is to run into the corner, hold onto the ball for 10 seconds then play it back into the middle again.
 
The only change we’ll see is to personnel and on a game by game basis. Chop/change; Lundstram, Aribo, Davis, Kamara, Bacuna.

Next summer it will need ripped apart as Davis and Arfield are out of contract, we will eventually lose Kamara.
Agreed.

If we do not win this league and get CL money I worry about the standard we will be able to attract for the midfield given we will post losses and have to sell.

Centre of defence will need replacing too with Goldson and Balogun out of contract.

CL money is massive for the inevitable first 11 rebuild next season.
 
Gerrard said in post match that Motherwell did a great job of showing us wide and we had to put in crosses (which were rotten 90% of the time).

My worry is, when it is like that, are we carrying a player that could be subbed for an attacking midfeilder like Bacuna or Arfield? Do we really need Davis AND Kamara on as security for the back two?

Be interesting to see what happens against livi as SG has hinted at changes......
 
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