The midfield thread (please no abuse)

Starting Anew

Starting Anew

Well-Known Member
After all the debate on other threads, thought it might be sensible to try to have one for the topic. Can we please try to not slag off players or slag off posters who don’t believe that your favourite player is Beckenbauer.

Assuming that we continue to play 3 midfielders, who will they be? If we play the Christmas tree you could argue that there is more scope for defensive mids. If we play 4,3,3 then all the midfielders need to be able to play box to box and link to the attack.

Our options seem to be (2 most controversial first):

Arfield. One of our best players last year but arguably one who doesn’t actually play his best in the midfield 3. Better played further forward in the Christmas tree as part of the 2. When playing in the 3, he can get pinned back too far behind the forward line to maximise his attacking threat. This may have been exacerbated by playing with players who were not great at bringing the ball forward so the whole midfield got pinned down. This may have improved with new personnel.

Jack: great reader of space defensively and crucial for breaking down opponents’ play. Gives great cover to Tav as well, dropping to shadow right back at times. Also good at seeing the runs of others. But limited in skill on the ball. Not great at dribbling and his range of passing does not match his ability to see the passes. Benefits from having a midfield colleague near him so Jack can win the ball and lay it off for someone else to create with. But this then means that 2 players need to be near each other and deep.

Davis. Elder statesman. Great vision. Great range of passing. Can create from deep. Reads the game at least as well as Jack and can create with the ball himself. But not as fast as Jack and not quite as strong in the tackle. Probably doesn’t help Tav as much just because he no longer has the legs. IMHO our first choice holding player but won’t play every game at his age.

Kamara. Massively improved the team when he came in. First midfielder we’ve had in a while who can take the ball for a walk and ride through challenges. Great vision for forward passes and range of ability to do them. Can tackle though not his main feature. Not known for scoring much.

Aribo (by reputation and YouTube videos). Fairly complete box to box engine. Strong in the tackle but also good at dribbling and passing. Able to play creatively in tight areas. Genuine goal threat. Biggest down side is not knowing if he will live up to all this.

McCrorie. Strongest tackler in the squad. Great at retaining the ball through a tackle and walking away with it under control. Athletic and able to burst through opponents with strength and change of pace. Not great at passing and uses strength more than skill when dribbling. Not always the best reader of the game and can be caught out of position.

Docherty. May or may not feature in the squad. Proper box to box athlete but doesn’t really excel at any one area. Almost certainly a squad filler rather than a starter.

Rossiter. Who knows? Could be a midfield general in the proper Gerrard mould. Could play one game all season. His career may depend on this preseason and his next move.

In my view, our strongest 3 are Davis, Kamara and Aribo, offering a balance between defensive and offensive abilities and complementing each other. Arfield plays further forward for me and is competing with Ojo and Hastie. Jack will get a lot of game time replacing Davis at times and maybe replacing Kamara or Aribo in tougher games.

All of the first 5 will play 20 games plus. The others are all really too hard to call right now
 
I think initially Gerrard will go with Davis, Jack and Kamara. They know the system and Aribo will be phased in using the friendlys.
 
Hard to disagree with any of that.
Davis Kamara Aribo will, in my opinion, be the preferred 3.
For tougher games likes of Aberdeen / Hibs / Motherwell - basically teams who don't play football but just want a fight - Jack will come in.
As for the others, well, we will play the neck end of 60 games so rotation will be absolutely key.
That's before you factor in any potential injury or suspension.
 
if aribo has knocked back PL teams and is on a hefty wage then he will defo be starting so ad like to put davis and kamara in there with him.
 
Think we will be surprised to find out what works, at present our best 3 on paper look to be Kamara - Aribo - Davis.
 
Modfella said:
Think we will be surprised to find out what works, at present our best 3 on paper look to be Kamara - Aribo - Davis.
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Agree. Exciting to see what could happen. One variation i’d be interested in is Kamara, Aribo and Arfield. Might be too weak defensively but both Kamara and Aribo can tackle. And you would be less likely to see that thing where Arfield is pinned back too far.

Doubt we’ll start like that but could see it happening second half if we are chasing a goal.
 
Starting Anew said:
After all the debate on other threads, thought it might be sensible to try to have one for the topic. Can we please try to not slag off players or slag off posters who don’t believe that your favourite player is Beckenbauer.

Assuming that we continue to play 3 midfielders, who will they be? If we play the Christmas tree you could argue that there is more scope for defensive mids. If we play 4,3,3 then all the midfielders need to be able to play box to box and link to the attack.

Our options seem to be (2 most controversial first):

Arfield. One of our best players last year but arguably one who doesn’t actually play his best in the midfield 3. Better played further forward in the Christmas tree as part of the 2. When playing in the 3, he can get pinned back too far behind the forward line to maximise his attacking threat. This may have been exacerbated by playing with players who were not great at bringing the ball forward so the whole midfield got pinned down. This may have improved with new personnel.

Jack: great reader of space defensively and crucial for breaking down opponents’ play. Gives great cover to Tav as well, dropping to shadow right back at times. Also good at seeing the runs of others. But limited in skill on the ball. Not great at dribbling and his range of passing does not match his ability to see the passes. Benefits from having a midfield colleague near him so Jack can win the ball and lay it off for someone else to create with. But this then means that 2 players need to be near each other and deep.

Davis. Elder statesman. Great vision. Great range of passing. Can create from deep. Reads the game at least as well as Jack and can create with the ball himself. But not as fast as Jack and not quite as strong in the tackle. Probably doesn’t help Tav as much just because he no longer has the legs. IMHO our first choice holding player but won’t play every game at his age.

Kamara. Massively improved the team when he came in. First midfielder we’ve had in a while who can take the ball for a walk and ride through challenges. Great vision for forward passes and range of ability to do them. Can tackle though not his main feature. Not known for scoring much.

Aribo (by reputation and YouTube videos). Fairly complete box to box engine. Strong in the tackle but also good at dribbling and passing. Able to play creatively in tight areas. Genuine goal threat. Biggest down side is not knowing if he will live up to all this.

McCrorie. Strongest tackler in the squad. Great at retaining the ball through a tackle and walking away with it under control. Athletic and able to burst through opponents with strength and change of pace. Not great at passing and uses strength more than skill when dribbling. Not always the best reader of the game and can be caught out of position.

Docherty. May or may not feature in the squad. Proper box to box athlete but doesn’t really excel at any one area. Almost certainly a squad filler rather than a starter.

Rossiter. Who knows? Could be a midfield general in the proper Gerrard mould. Could play one game all season. His career may depend on this preseason and his next move.

In my view, our strongest 3 are Davis, Kamara and Aribo, offering a balance between defensive and offensive abilities and complementing each other. Arfield plays further forward for me and is competing with Ojo and Hastie. Jack will get a lot of game time replacing Davis at times and maybe replacing Kamara or Aribo in tougher games.

All of the first 5 will play 20 games plus. The others are all really too hard to call right now
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A post that recognises that each player has different strengths and weaknesses instead of just calling out X as a better player than Y?! This is not what I sign into FF for! :)

It's hard to tell as I've not seen Aribo first hand but if he's better defensively than he is attacking then Jack's place is most under threat. If attacking is his main strength then Kamara's most likely to drop out. I think our midfield will mostly be Davis + 2 of Jack, Aribo and Kamara. Purely because Davis is the most well rounded and consistent of our current midfield.

Usually you have a 'this would be my strongest lineup on paper' and try to make that click but if Aribo does sign then I think it will be a case of us trying different combinations to see what works best. That's why it's important to get him as early as possible.

I think Arfield will be used further forward, if we play 4321 he'd be one of the first picks if we play 433 I think he'll be behind the four players mentioned above in terms of selection and our attacking threat will come from front 3.
 
Starting Anew said:
After all the debate on other threads, thought it might be sensible to try to have one for the topic. Can we please try to not slag off players or slag off posters who don’t believe that your favourite player is Beckenbauer.

Assuming that we continue to play 3 midfielders, who will they be? If we play the Christmas tree you could argue that there is more scope for defensive mids. If we play 4,3,3 then all the midfielders need to be able to play box to box and link to the attack.

Our options seem to be (2 most controversial first):

Arfield. One of our best players last year but arguably one who doesn’t actually play his best in the midfield 3. Better played further forward in the Christmas tree as part of the 2. When playing in the 3, he can get pinned back too far behind the forward line to maximise his attacking threat. This may have been exacerbated by playing with players who were not great at bringing the ball forward so the whole midfield got pinned down. This may have improved with new personnel.

Jack: great reader of space defensively and crucial for breaking down opponents’ play. Gives great cover to Tav as well, dropping to shadow right back at times. Also good at seeing the runs of others. But limited in skill on the ball. Not great at dribbling and his range of passing does not match his ability to see the passes. Benefits from having a midfield colleague near him so Jack can win the ball and lay it off for someone else to create with. But this then means that 2 players need to be near each other and deep.

Davis. Elder statesman. Great vision. Great range of passing. Can create from deep. Reads the game at least as well as Jack and can create with the ball himself. But not as fast as Jack and not quite as strong in the tackle. Probably doesn’t help Tav as much just because he no longer has the legs. IMHO our first choice holding player but won’t play every game at his age.

Kamara. Massively improved the team when he came in. First midfielder we’ve had in a while who can take the ball for a walk and ride through challenges. Great vision for forward passes and range of ability to do them. Can tackle though not his main feature. Not known for scoring much.

Aribo (by reputation and YouTube videos). Fairly complete box to box engine. Strong in the tackle but also good at dribbling and passing. Able to play creatively in tight areas. Genuine goal threat. Biggest down side is not knowing if he will live up to all this.

McCrorie. Strongest tackler in the squad. Great at retaining the ball through a tackle and walking away with it under control. Athletic and able to burst through opponents with strength and change of pace. Not great at passing and uses strength more than skill when dribbling. Not always the best reader of the game and can be caught out of position.

Docherty. May or may not feature in the squad. Proper box to box athlete but doesn’t really excel at any one area. Almost certainly a squad filler rather than a starter.

Rossiter. Who knows? Could be a midfield general in the proper Gerrard mould. Could play one game all season. His career may depend on this preseason and his next move.

In my view, our strongest 3 are Davis, Kamara and Aribo, offering a balance between defensive and offensive abilities and complementing each other. Arfield plays further forward for me and is competing with Ojo and Hastie. Jack will get a lot of game time replacing Davis at times and maybe replacing Kamara or Aribo in tougher games.

All of the first 5 will play 20 games plus. The others are all really too hard to call right now
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Think you’ve more or less nailed this.

Personally, I think Rossiter’s time is up, and I say that reluctantly.

Greg Doc still has a future imo - I think he could play an important back-up role for Arfield in attacking midfield.

Mccrorie and Jack will be essential backup as fatigue sets in by late autumn, with Davis and perhaps both Kamara and Aribo needing rotated out for rest.

Our depth in midfield, with an all-in-all decent choice of player, could be what wins us the league this year.
 
Union Jack 1872 said:
How can anyone say this the Guy hasn’t kicked a ball for us yet .

We have signed far better players and they have flopped.
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True. But we rarely beat EPL clubs and Celtic to a player and pay him £20k/wk and don’t expect him to be a regular starter.

He may flop. That would be immensely disappointing. But he has been bought with a view to being in the starting 11. Makes no sense at all to deny that.
 
If we qualify for the Europa League and are looking at a 60 game or more season again, at least 4 or 5 midfielders will make 40-plus appearances.

There may be times we see Arfield playing deeper if injuries and rotation demand it. I think Docherty has a real chance of being involved more as the system suits him better now. Davis, Kamara, Aribo and Jack will be the main 4 fighting for 3 positions if we stick with the system we finished the season with.

I'm not sure as fans we've ever really fully adapted to this idea, but we won't have a "strongest XI" as such, especially in the first half of the season.
 
Union Jack 1872 said:
How can anyone say this the Guy hasn’t kicked a ball for us yet .

We have signed far better players and they have flopped.
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Sorry you have lost me?
We are debating what the best option is for the 3 midfield berths, with your logic we should therefore go with the 3 we played with at the end of last season, as we haven't seen any of others play.
 
Think the assessment of the players is pretty fair. One point to make Kamara made a good start, and looks quality, can he carry that form on and establish himself? Early days yet, signs look good but he had some ropey displays as well. We shouldn't pile more pressure on.

We will also change formations more with more quality in the squad. Last season we played what we had in some games with guys playing on empty. We will use 4-2-3-1 and 4-1-3-2 and other formations to suit the situation.

Arfield is a cracking player when he gets further forward. Greig Stewart will alternate with him in that position. Last season Arfield would have benefitted form a rest, now we can rotate.

Hope Rossiter has a good preseason, not surprised he isn't at the early fitness stuff, my understanding is he excels in the fitness stakes. If he can be in an around hte team he difnately adds quality to the options.

I would like to see Ross McCrorie go out on a decent loan to get regular games. He is a great prospect games would help him improve ball retention, something he isn't that great at. With better players in our team that will become more apparent.
 
Starting Anew said:
True. But we rarely beat EPL clubs and Celtic to a player and pay him £20k/wk and don’t expect him to be a regular starter.

He may flop. That would be immensely disappointing. But he has been bought with a view to being in the starting 11. Makes no sense at all to deny that.
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We have had plenty of disappointing signings ,

No one here can say for sure how it will go.

Putting him straight In to a team over 3 players that had some really good performances is putting an enormous amount of pressure on him .

We also have Doc back who was a standout in the exact same league as he was playing in a worse team. .
 
The three that finished the last few season have the shirts it's up to the likes of Aribo and Docherty to prove that their better than those three in training
 
Union Jack 1872 said:
We have had plenty of disappointing signings ,

No one here can say for sure how it will go.

Putting him straight In to a team over 3 players that had some really good performances is putting an enormous amount of pressure on him .

We also have Doc back who was a standout in the exact same league as he was playing in a worse team. .
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Fair enough. You can go with last season’s 3. I am sure that they will play together at times. I’m fairly certain that Aribo will be a starter. That’s kinda what we are spending a big chunk of wages for.

While there is always a question on new players, it does seem a bit harsh to decide our new signing is going to be unsuccessful before we’ve seen him kick a ball.
 
Davis Kamara/Aribo Jack, I have either Kamara or Aribo in the team as balance is important as well and I believe that Aribo plays left sided same as Kamara.
 
Modfella said:
Sorry you have lost me?
We are debating what the best option is for the 3 midfield berths, with your logic we should therefore go with the 3 we played with at the end of last season, as we haven't seen any of others play.
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The 3 guys who ended the season have the Shirts to be taken off them.

We know what the rest are capable of and Doc I’ll also have hopefully moved up a level .

Think people need to calm down a bit , Aribo has a played well in a poor league but as above Doc was a standout in the same League and half this forum have already written him off .

The guy has undoubtedly got the potential but has he got the heart ?

Look at Barasic he looked like a world beater against us and was also outstanding his first few games . look at him now.
 
We should not have any first choice starters. Suspensions, injuries, dips in form all happen. Everyone should be fighting for a jersey. Personally i think Docherty is going to surprise a lot of us and be a stand out. Hopefully he can impress in the friendlies/europa.
 
Starting Anew said:
Fair enough. You can go with last season’s 3. I am sure that they will play together at times. I’m fairly certain that Aribo will be a starter. That’s kinda what we are spending a big chunk of wages for.

While there is always a question on new players, it does seem a bit harsh to decide our new signing is going to be unsuccessful before we’ve seen him kick a ball.
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I am not saying for 1 second he isn’t going to be a success, Davis , Jack and Kamara ran all over the Beasts and complimented each other extremely well , Davis will play 25 ish games I can’t see him playing much more as his average a season was allways low.

My comment is Aribo isn’t just walking straight in to this team without a fight and there are some really good players going for 3 spots .
 
Union Jack 1872 said:
I am not saying for 1 second he isn’t going to be a success, Davis , Jack and Kamara ran all over the Beasts and complimented each other extremely well , Davis will play 25 ish games I can’t see him playing much more as his average a season was allways low.

My comment is Aribo isn’t just walking straight in to this team without a fight and there are some really good players going for 3 spots .
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Fair point. But I would suggest that Gerrard sees him as someone with sufficient fight to merit a place or we wouldn’t be giving him such high wages.

You could say that if we signed Messi, he’d still have to take a shirt off one of the incumbents. You’d just be fairly sure that he would. Aribo is not Messi. But i’m fairly sure he is expected to be good enough to merit starting.
 
All this talk of Aribo being a starter is nonsense - let's see how he actually is and make him earn his place in the team. He was playing in the 3rd tier of English football last season and seemingly struggled with inconsistency at that level and with a hell of a lot less pressure than he will face now.

We all know that inconsistency isn't something that our fans have much time for ...
 
DavieM said:
All this talk of Aribo being a starter is nonsense - let's see how he actually is and make him earn his place in the team. He was playing in the 3rd tier of English football last season and seemingly struggled with inconsistency at that level and with a hell of a lot less pressure than he will face now.

We all know that inconsistency isn't something that our fans have much time for ...
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Genuine question - was consistency a problem for him? Not heard that before. He may not have been MOTM every game but thought he was pretty secure as one of charlton’s best players most games.
 
I'm delighted that we've got options in midfield now. If players aren't pulling their weight, they will be replacing and we know the ones coming in can deliver in a Rangers jersey. Hopefully brings the best out of every one and a rise in consistency.

Fully aware that there will be the need for rotation and changes, I just hope it's not evey game - unless required.

I like to get a settled side out as often as possible. Constant tinkering, chopping and changing can be a negative on the team.
 
Union Jack 1872 said:
How can anyone say this the Guy hasn’t kicked a ball for us yet .

We have signed far better players and they have flopped.
Click to expand...

Agreed. We are building this guy up to be a world beater when hardly anyone has watched him and we are signing him from a low level.

He's clearly talented but there's always a risk element coming from that level to the expectations at Rangers.
 
Starting Anew said:
Genuine question - was consistency a problem for him? Not heard that before. He may not have been MOTM every game but thought he was pretty secure as one of charlton’s best players most games.
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Yes seemingly it was according to the snippets I read on one of the Charlton forums just before he signed.
 
Starting Anew said:
Fair point. But I would suggest that Gerrard sees him as someone with sufficient fight to merit a place or we wouldn’t be giving him such high wages.

You could say that if we signed Messi, he’d still have to take a shirt off one of the incumbents. You’d just be fairly sure that he would. Aribo is not Messi. But i’m fairly sure he is expected to be good enough to merit starting.
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We are paying him big money as we got him for free so have no fee ,

We have signed World Cup winners who haven’t made the grade.

I seriously hope he does get a game ahead of one of the other 3 then that means he’s improved the team but time will tell .

We shouldn’t be heaping pressure on a young guy who was playing non league football a few years ago and playing last Season in a team not much better than the Scottish Championship.

I hope all our new signings are a success but they won’t all be .
 
DavieM said:
Yes seemingly it was according to the snippets I read on one of the Charlton forums just before he signed.
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Where i’d seen that, i’d taken it the same way that we’d say it about Arfield. Consistently good but not always as good as he can be.

We’ll find out soon.
 
DavieM said:
All this talk of Aribo being a starter is nonsense - let's see how he actually is and make him earn his place in the team. He was playing in the 3rd tier of English football last season and seemingly struggled with inconsistency at that level and with a hell of a lot less pressure than he will face now.

We all know that inconsistency isn't something that our fans have much time for ...
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Agreed, you'd think we've signed a cross between Baxter and Gazza they way some posters are talking.
 
I think Aribo has the best chance of Getting a decent song from the Union Bears.
In all seriousness though it's whoever impresses in training (something to which we're not privy to seeing) and if you get a shirt you must perform to keep it. On occasions the likes of Davis have dropped out the 18 completely and Halliday brought in from the cold to a starting slot in the middle of the park!
I'm sure the honesty of Gerrard will wipe the slate clean and there will be 3 shirts up for grabs regardless of the excellent dynamic of our midfield 3 at the end of the season.
Many don't like the Aribo thread but it's a great debate/argument on the pros cons of players...refreshing! ( When it's not too OTT)
 
Spoilt for choice aren't we its great, long gone are the days where our midfield included Kyle hutton, Nicky Law and Ian Black!

Looking forward to the pre season games, and i will wait until after those to give my preferred midfield.
 
It's a great problem to have.

3 centre mid positions, at least 5 or 6 quality players capable of filling them.

At some point in the season I expect Davis, Kamara, Aribo, Jack, Arfield and McCrorie to be involved in those positions. Its a good mix of different types of midfielder, all of which will be needed at some point in the season, so I dont think any of them are, or should be, guaranteed starters. All about form / fitness / opposition.

Rossiter and Docherty added to that is probably too many, as much as I'd love them both to succeed here. Maybe if Arfield is going to be used further forward and one of the others picks up an injury there might be a chance for one of them - it's whether they want to hang around waiting for it.
 
I liked "Jack - range of passing does not match his ability to see the passes", like me when watching on tv, aka his passing is poor.

For me, Jack is a very, very limited player and if we need someone in to tackle and break things up I think McCrorie is significantly better, McCrorie played a huge part in winning v Celtic last Christmas (noted Jack scored but his goal scoring rate for a Rangers midfield regular is appalling).

I like Jack but he doesnt give us enough and we need a level higher to win the league this year, coz we need to win this league by a long way as the Bheasts and their countless allies will be pulling out all the stops to prevent us.
 
I think we need to wait until we see Aribo - in a Rangers shirt - before making any judgements on whether he is what we need and whether he merits a regular starting berth. He SHOULD be ideal - but then, so should Barisic. As we well know, sometimes it takes more than talent.

The good thing is, we have options this season that we didn't have last year, especially prior to the Winter break. Hopefully that means we turn those damned draws into comfortable victories.
 
Union Jack 1872 said:
We are paying him big money as we got him for free so have no fee ,

We have signed World Cup winners who haven’t made the grade.

I seriously hope he does get a game ahead of one of the other 3 then that means he’s improved the team but time will tell .

We shouldn’t be heaping pressure on a young guy who was playing non league football a few years ago and playing last Season in a team not much better than the Scottish Championship.

I hope all our new signings are a success but they won’t all be .
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The big money still puts him at the top of our wage structure. Any pressure he is under doesn’t come from me. Let’s hope he lives up to it.

But let’s also enjoy the hope that one of our more prominent signings is actually going to improve our team.
 
The manager needs about 6 midfielders of a good quality who can cover for injuries and suspensions and for different tactical approaches that SG decides to use.
The manager will want it that if he has to replace or drop a player that there is no drop in the quality of the players on the park and they will continue to get victories.
People have to stop going in a strop because someone picks a midfield 3 that doesn’t have your favourite player.
We have to wait and see how they play now once the season commences before we can say what we think is our best midfield.
 
RBRFC said:
I liked "Jack - range of passing does not match his ability to see the passes", like me when watching on tv, aka his passing is poor.

For me, Jack is a very, very limited player and if we need someone in to tackle and break things up I think McCrorie is significantly better, McCrorie played a huge part in winning v Celtic last Christmas (noted Jack scored but his goal scoring rate for a Rangers midfield regular is appalling).

I like Jack but he doesnt give us enough and we need a level higher to win the league this year, coz we need to win this league by a long way as the Bheasts and their countless allies will be pulling out all the stops to prevent us.
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I agree that Jack is not great at passing. Also agree that McCrorie is better at tackling. He usually walks away with the ball under control while Jack often knocks it loose and needs someone else to win the second ball.

But Jack is very very good at controlling space and seeing what opponents are up to. He is rarely caught out of position or beaten by a through ball. And is very very good at filling in the spaces vacated by Tav or other midfielders as they attack. Davis can do this too but doesn’t have the same legs to run to do all the covering. We do miss this greatly without Jack. But i’d hope we don’t need it too much in most games.
 
I think the starting three will be Davis, Kamara and Aribo, Good competition for places though with the likes of Jack, McCrorie and Docherty. Think Arfield will start the season playing in one of the wide positions he was in at the end of last term.
 
Well done OP. This is an interesting post. I'm of the opinion the same as a few others that Kamara - Davis - Aribo would appear to be a strong option for starting most often as things stand.

It does immediately put in to question what Arfield does then though. That'll depend on Kent and whether he's back or not.

Arfield could continue in the role he found himself doing well in supporting Defoe / Morelos with one more wide player (Kent) at the tail end of last season.

However, if Kent is back and we've also got Ojo, there isn't room for those two and Arfield as well as a striker and that's before we've even thought about Hastie, Jones and (possibly to a lesser extent) Stewart.

Of course, we'll have the usual suspensions and injuries which will make all these decisions that bit easier on a week to week basis.

I'm delighted that we've got options now in various positions.
 
I think Gerrard has big plans for Rossiter, and given his history, I think SG is easing him in gently. I suspect we will see him phased in gradually this season, probably to replace Jack in the longer term.

I'm not ITK, just have a feeling about this.
 
archimedes said:
I think Gerrard has big plans for Rossiter, and given his history, I think SG is easing him in gently. I suspect we will see him phased in gradually this season, probably to replace Jack in the longer term.

I'm not ITK, just have a feeling about this.
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Really? The word from @ID10 was that there 'was interest' in Rossiter. I suspect we've left him behind to sort out a new club. He certainly won't be replacing Jack anytime soon.
 
Hands down we definitely have the strongest midfield in the league. Gerrard was full of praise for Rossiter after he went out on loan, and having no doubt worked with him at Liverpool I’d be amazed if he’s not in his plans. Doherty May go on loan again, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jack dropped. As much as I really like him as a player, he’s the weakest of our midfield. I can see him being backup to Davis with Kamara, David, Aribola our main three and Rossiter and McRorie on the bench. Arfield will play further forward
 
ecossebear said:
Hands down we definitely have the strongest midfield in the league. Gerrard was full of praise for Rossiter after he went out on loan, and having no doubt worked with him at Liverpool I’d be amazed if he’s not in his plans. Doherty May go on loan again, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jack dropped. As much as I really like him as a player, he’s the weakest of our midfield. I can see him being backup to Davis with Kamara, David, Aribola our main three and Rossiter and McRorie on the bench. Arfield will play further forward
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I'm a Jack fan too and while I've been impressed with Kamara (and there's no reason for him not to improve yet) I'm wondering whether Kamara might have a form dip after his initial burst of excellent performances since he came in.

He does offer something different to Jack but Jack has shown he has, by and large, got the right mentality to perform for us consistently in his role.
 
Laudrup1 said:
Well done OP. This is an interesting post. I'm of the opinion the same as a few others that Kamara - Davis - Aribo would appear to be a strong option for starting most often as things stand.

It does immediately put in to question what Arfield does then though. That'll depend on Kent and whether he's back or not.

Arfield could continue in the role he found himself doing well in supporting Defoe / Morelos with one more wide player (Kent) at the tail end of last season.

However, if Kent is back and we've also got Ojo, there isn't room for those two and Arfield as well as a striker and that's before we've even thought about Hastie, Jones and (possibly to a lesser extent) Stewart.

Of course, we'll have the usual suspensions and injuries which will make all these decisions that bit easier on a week to week basis.

I'm delighted that we've got options now in various positions.
Click to expand...

Pretty much my thoughts too. I do rate Jack and what he brings to the team but for me he's probably the one to make way for Aribo in the games where we're going to be the team dominating possession. Horses for courses though and Jack will have his role to play during season. I would add that its doubtful whether Davis can handle a 50+ game season so we're going to have to be smart at when and where we use him. Docherty, McCrorie and Halliday all very decent back up options to have but feel the time is right to regrettably call it quits with Rossiter if the rumoured interest from down south is true.

Its the 2 advanced roles behind (or at the side of) Morelos / Defoe that I'm really intrigued about. Currently 6 players battling it out for 2 positions - Arfield, Ojo, Stewart, Jones, Hastie and Candeais. 7 if we get Kent back. You'd have to think Arfield has a jersey given his brilliant contribution last season, at least in the xmas tree formation. So the new boys have a hell of a fight on their hands to impress and grab a place in the squad and I really couldn't hazard a guess at this point in time who will come out on top. Competition will be fierce though, which is exactly as it should be so pleasing on that front.

Man, I wish this season would just start already!!
 
Jack kamara aribo, 3 young guys get them playing together and understanding each other, davis steps in when need be imo
 
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