Our midfield

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Tongeincheek said:
Hecky said no more signings now in the press conference.

I hope to Christ this means he’s getting Coulibaly and Arblaster up to speed, or if they end up playing together - Couliblaster
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Half of the problem is that Hecky can do this job, but he's not going to be given the chance.

Look at what we are playing up top, probably 12 months before he is capable of doing so. Jebbison is going to rip this league apart, just not this season.
 
Should have been a couple brought in for the midfield in the summer in addition to Doyle and McAtee. Out and out midfielders. In PHs defence the budget must have been fairly tight and we had Coulibaly available then. Still I would have liked us to get one more at least in there as Fleck has been off the pace for a long time now. Not for me to think of names but I see Cameron Brannigan was available on a free in the summer and has always impressed me when I've see him. We shouldn't be having the same midfield from 4 years ago. It should have been freshened up a while back.
 
Our midfield are imo the big problem currently. To a man they are small, lightweight and easily dominated when pressed.

Berge, when available improves us dramatically but even with him we struggle when pressed.

Aggression, height and the ability to drive at the opposition with the ball are an absolute priority in Jan. With a stronger midfield the defence will get more protection and the forwards more chances.

It must be addressed this time round or the season could simply fizzle out.
 
Striker said:
Our midfield are imo the big problem currently. To a man they are small, lightweight and easily dominated when pressed.

Berge, when available improves us dramatically but even with him we struggle when pressed.

Aggression, height and the ability to drive at the opposition with the ball are an absolute priority in Jan. With a stronger midfield the defence will get more protection and the forwards more chances.

It must be addressed this time round or the season could simply fizzle out.
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Only needed a big strong midfielder for years...
 
In Coulibaly & Berge's absence , if you pick Fleck & McAtee ahead of Doyle & Ndiaye , you get dominated as in the first half v Norwich.
If you're sticking with 532 , I would play Ndiaye in midfield to replace the loss of Berge's creativity and two strikers ahead of him.
What you CANNOT do is play 2 slowboats in Norwood & Fleck plus McAtee/Osborn - that's just too weak.
Norwood has to start but needs to be counterbalanced by some pace on & off the ball by Doyle & Ndiaye.
The first half v Norwich we had no creative player whatsoever so were limited to hopeful punts.
And midfield offered no protection to the defence.
 
Weasel said:
Should have been a couple brought in for the midfield in the summer in addition to Doyle and McAtee. Out and out midfielders. In PHs defence the budget must have been fairly tight and we had Coulibaly available then. Still I would have liked us to get one more at least in there as Fleck has been off the pace for a long time now. Not for me to think of names but I see Cameron Brannigan was available on a free in the summer and has always impressed me when I've see him. We shouldn't be having the same midfield from 4 years ago. It should have been freshened up a while back.
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Doyle’s an out and out midfielder. I think this one is down to Wilder as much as Hecky. As you say, we probably didn’t have the money this time round and all Slav could do was bring in some pensioner on a free in the previous summer window.
I think in an ideal world, we’d have sold Berge and used the money for a couple of midfielders but it didn’t happen.
 
Norwood
Fleck
Doyle
Osborn
Berge
Coulibaly

Think this is a main priority in January along with a striker. Them six are either not good enough, injured or can't be expected to play every minute.
 
BushBlade said:
Doyle’s an out and out midfielder. I think this one is down to Wilder as much as Hecky. As you say, we probably didn’t have the money this time round and all Slav could do was bring in some pensioner on a free in the previous summer window.
I think in an ideal world, we’d have sold Berge and used the money for a couple of midfielders but it didn’t happen.
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If we had sold Berge I think the Ismael Kone deal would have gone through
 



MagnifiqueShorehamStreet said:
We’re third in the table.Great isn’t it?
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It's great but we've also just been on a really lousy run of six/seven games without a win which included a few losses to poor sides.
There's nothing wrong with people discussing areas we might be weak and where we might improve. The fact we're third doesn't mean we're strong all over the park. We're not. We're weak through the middle and lack mobility.
 
On Saturday the Sky commentators said that our midfield was the strongest in the league, and kept going back to this statement countless times.

The midfield was Norwood, Doyle and Fleck

Norwood's statistics this season are excellent, and on this fact alone he's arguably the best midfielder in the league. He was first in tackles made, which I found surprising, but I don't monitor this stuff.

Doyle looks to be an excellent midfielder, and was last year for Cardiff.

I think Flecks legs have gone, but played correctly he still has a part to play in the short term.

We could do with some big mush in centre mid to mix it, and our midfield is coming to the end of its shelf life, but I'd bet that most Championship teams would swap us in a heartbeat.
 
SouthStandGBlock said:
On Saturday the Sky commentators said that our midfield was the strongest in the league, and kept going back to this statement countless times.

The midfield was Norwood, Doyle and Fleck

Norwood's statistics this season are excellent, and on this fact alone he's arguably the best midfielder in the league. He was first in tackles made, which I found surprising, but I don't monitor this stuff.

Doyle looks to be an excellent midfielder, and was last year for Cardiff.

I think Flecks legs have gone, but played correctly he still has a part to play in the short term.

We could do with some big mush in centre mid to mix it, and our midfield is coming to the end of its shelf life, but I'd bet that most Championship teams would swap us in a heartbeat.
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Putting aside whether you should place too much stock in what a pundit like that says, I think people are saying we need more options in midfield with not just one eye on this season but also with a view to setting us up for the future, ie. in the Premier League potentially or at the very least regularly competing for promotion. A midfield three in the Championship of Norwood, Doyle and Berge has shown to probably be one of the better midfields in the league, if not the best. Norwood has been excellent but we know he is more limited in the Premier League when we have less time on the ball and there are more questions asked of athleticism. Doyle isn’t our player. Berge can be brilliant but is inconsistent. In terms of back-ups, Fleck has considerably dropped off. It could be that it’s taking time to come back from injury, but I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to rely on him in the coming years. Arblaster and Coulibaly are completely unknown quantities. Osborn is squad filler. McAtee is progressing but obviously comes with caveats as well.

That leaves us with a real need to strengthen both for now and in the future. Maybe Hecky thinks that Blaster can play the Norwood or Fleck role. Maybe we can sign Tommy Doyle if we can promoted at the end of the season. But in the short term I think an extra body to compete with Norwood, Fleck and Doyle for the slightly more deep-lying two is logical if we’re going to try and get promoted. Longer-term, adding another - either signing Doyle or someone like him - would also make sense.
 
SouthStandGBlock said:
On Saturday the Sky commentators said that our midfield was the strongest in the league, and kept going back to this statement countless times.

The midfield was Norwood, Doyle and Fleck

Norwood's statistics this season are excellent, and on this fact alone he's arguably the best midfielder in the league. He was first in tackles made, which I found surprising, but I don't monitor this stuff.

Doyle looks to be an excellent midfielder, and was last year for Cardiff.

I think Flecks legs have gone, but played correctly he still has a part to play in the short term.

We could do with some big mush in centre mid to mix it, and our midfield is coming to the end of its shelf life, but I'd bet that most Championship teams would swap us in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...
I think this guy would be the sort of shout we should be looking at:

www.transfermarkt.com

Amir Richardson - Player profile 22/23

Amir Richardson, 21, from Morocco ➤ AC Le Havre, since 2022 ➤ Central Midfield ➤ Market value: €3.00m ➤ * Jan 24, 2002 in Nice, France
www.transfermarkt.com www.transfermarkt.com

Amir Richardson. French/US, left footed midfielder. Plays on loan to LeHavre from Reims. He's 20 and 6'5". Probably can't get someone who ticks so many boxes at once!

Also a player who is o/c at the end of the season from Toulouse, Branco Van Den Boomen. 27, 1 goal and 4 assists in 13 games. 6'2", know even less about him but what a name!

I think the main issue in rising up to the PL is that in many games you see only a fraction of the ball. It does therefore require a completely different skillset.
 
We struggle against the high energy teams who don't give us anytime,nullify Norwood and midfield , press and try and force us into mistakes or go long..Tuesday night, we were patched up, and they were high energy and had the legs on us, ran all over us at times.
Energy and mobility has been a problem since the 2nd Prem season, especially noticeable when the crowds weren't there.
At full strength though, I think we're still good enough in this division..to many players out, or returning and not upto speed is the main problem.
 
LondonBlade89 said:
Putting aside whether you should place too much stock in what a pundit like that says, I think people are saying we need more options in midfield with not just one eye on this season but also with a view to setting us up for the future, ie. in the Premier League potentially or at the very least regularly competing for promotion. A midfield three in the Championship of Norwood, Doyle and Berge has shown to probably be one of the better midfields in the league, if not the best. Norwood has been excellent but we know he is more limited in the Premier League when we have less time on the ball and there are more questions asked of athleticism. Doyle isn’t our player. Berge can be brilliant but is inconsistent. In terms of back-ups, Fleck has considerably dropped off. It could be that it’s taking time to come back from injury, but I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to rely on him in the coming years. Arblaster and Coulibaly are completely unknown quantities. Osborn is squad filler. McAtee is progressing but obviously comes with caveats as well.

That leaves us with a real need to strengthen both for now and in the future. Maybe Hecky thinks that Blaster can play the Norwood or Fleck role. Maybe we can sign Tommy Doyle if we can promoted at the end of the season. But in the short term I think an extra body to compete with Norwood, Fleck and Doyle for the slightly more deep-lying two is logical if we’re going to try and get promoted. Longer-term, adding another - either signing Doyle or someone like him - would also make sense.
Click to expand...

Burnley's midfield is the strongest I've seen. They work together as a unit, defensively and in progressing the ball up the park. They all seem comfortable in possession and in mixing it physically.

Our midfield, individually, is fine. We all know what Norwood & Doyle's strengths are.
But our midfield doesn't dominate games together and they're often overrun through the middle of the park.
I've seen us lose the midfield battle on a number of occasions this season but still get a result due to a compact defence and a ruthless attack.
 
Norwood and Fleck both had their performances criticized last season. Despite a handful of adequate performances, they must both be aware that contracts expire next summer.
Norwood is proving that he can still cut it this season. Fleck seems unwilling or unable to do the same.

If we gat promoted to the PL, they are both likely to struggle. Norwood is worth another year, if he keeps his game up, but only in the Championship.

Doyle is an interesting prospect, but he belongs to another club. I suspect the days of ‘hard men’ like Keane and Viera are now numbered. Dodgy tackles with arms raised in innocence get you a red card these days, even if it is still a contact sport, just. ;)
 
Our midfield is decent in possession when given time on the ball to allow Norwood to dictate.. This has been the case for ages, it also allows us space with which to progress the ball.

Against Norwich, Blackpool and most teams we face away, the opposition press high up the pitch meaning less space for our midfield to operate in, as such they're bypassed in favour of the longer ball which invariable ends up turning over possession whilst we have most of our XI still in our own half defending.

We still seem to love Egan taking the ball off the keeper in these situations. I feel sorry for him as he's given the huge responsibility of progressing the ball... often he has little options and he's forced into a risky pass, or he bangs it long. When we play against pressing sides, we need outlets at the top end of the pitch. In each of the last 3 games we;ve had sides press us, that outlet has been Sharp.... who simply isn't an outlet anymore.

Also - with regards to Fleck - love the guy, love what he's done for us and the journey we've shared, but he doesn't want the ball anymore when we're in possession and he's a static traffic cone when we're defending. His legs have totally gone. He looks like he's towing a caravan carrying a tonne of ballast.
 
CaptainMorgans said:
Burnley's midfield is the strongest I've seen. They work together as a unit, defensively and in progressing the ball up the park. They all seem comfortable in possession and in mixing it physically.

Our midfield, individually, is fine. We all know what Norwood & Doyle's strengths are.
But our midfield doesn't dominate games together and they're often overrun through the middle of the park.
I've seen us lose the midfield battle on a number of occasions this season but still get a result due to a compact defence and a ruthless attack.
Click to expand...
Hey Mr Know it all,

Say that again, but slowly.

1667664323571.png
 
Silent Blade said:
Hey Mr Know it all,

Say that again, but slowly.

View attachment 147264
Click to expand...

It gets weirder...

If you disagree with my post, why not try to debate it?
This random stalking and attempted point scoring is very boring.
Where does the "Mr Know-it-all" stuff even come from?

Burnley are top of the league.
I stand by everything I said previously.
I rate their midfield. Brownhill, their best midfielder, was missing yesterday.
 
CaptainMorgans said:
It gets weirder...

If you disagree with my post, why not try to debate it?
This random stalking and attempted point scoring is very boring.
Where does the "Mr Know-it-all" stuff even come from?

Burnley are top of the league.
I stand by everything I said previously.
I rate their midfield. Brownhill, their best midfielder, was missing yesterday.
Click to expand...
Berge and Doyle was missing too!!!
 



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