Central Midfield is The Problem

Has anyone blamed Gosling for today's ineptitude??? No, just his part in it. It's very honourable defending our players come what may, albeit a bit blinkered. Gosling gets mentioned week in week out because he poor more than he is good.
 
Gosling was no better or worst than the rest of the team today. Was he getting grief at the end, as he shot straight down the tunnel, quickly followed by Fraser
 
I’ve got to go with Neil here and on match report thread . We could have the best central midfield in Europe , but two against five or three is always going to struggle .im not a particularly knowledgeable guy with tactic but it very interesting to read about it during one match ( Burnley ) and then see it so glaringly obvious in the next home game
 
Steady Eddie 1 said:
Gosling was no better or worst than the rest of the team today. Was he getting grief at the end, as he shot straight down the tunnel, quickly followed by Fraser
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Title of post is central midfield is the problem. Hence my fun/sarcastic retort of gosling given other comments! Fraser was the biggest issue today - gets the hat-trick that a top 6 player should get and 3 points in bag. We created six hilt edged chances and missed them all! We looked a balanced team until stan went off and left us with 4 centre backs!
 
AFCBade said:
Title of post is central midfield is the problem. Hence my fun/sarcastic retort of gosling given other comments! Fraser was the biggest issue today - gets the hat-trick that a top 6 player should get and 3 points in bag. We created six hilt edged chances and missed them all! We looked a balanced team until stan went off and left us with 4 centre backs!
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It’s too simplistic to blame missed chances when it’s the same lack of control in midfield costing us each week. Finishing is the hardest skill in football. Fans constantly underestimate how difficult scoring a chance is. Poor pundits don’t help but it’s why we get the impression every missed chance is a sitter.

Solving the midfield conundrum isn’t simple either. However, unlike the odd game or two where we miss a few chances, we get outnumbered almost every game. I’m sure some will feel the reaction is OTT, but if as a team we set up the same way every time, it shouldn’t be a surprise we fail to control midfield every time.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Surman, Gosling, Arter, Cook... they all get stick when they play.

Maybe it’s not the players...

Maybe it’s hard for two men to stop three and do their own attacking job too.
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Without doubt 2 vs 3 doesn't help but if we want that consistency we all crave you have to ask, out of those 4 players how many are truly the quality needed to deliver it?

For me it's probably only one of them and so 2 x ball keeping, play-makers are needed in the summer.
 
Tinpot Club said:
It’s too simplistic to blame missed chances when it’s the same lack of control in midfield costing us each week. Finishing is the hardest skill in football. Fans constantly underestimate how difficult scoring a chance is. Poor pundits don’t help but it’s why we get the impression every missed chance is a sitter.

Solving the midfield conundrum isn’t simple either. However, unlike the odd game or two where we miss a few chances, we get outnumbered almost every game. I’m sure some will feel the reaction is OTT, but if as a team we set up the same way every time, it shouldn’t be a surprise we fail to control midfield every time.
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What I see is a team that is set up to score more goals than the opposition. Thus the fab4 are given great licence to attack even though we sometimes get outnumbered in midfield/defence.

Thus Eddie backs his front 4 to outscore the opposition. When they fail to score just one goal from 6 great chances (or 10 chances including half chances) then not too surprising of the rest of the team creaks.

The alternative is to pack the midfield and drop one or two of the 4 and play more cautiously. I prefer that away from home. But today against a team relegated and winless away from home I think Eddie right with starting XI but was let down by two dispiriting injuries and woeful finishing from full internationals who should be doing better.

NB Worth adding I have no football management experience but this is my humble opinion!
 
AFCBade said:
What I see is a team that is set up to score more goals than the opposition. Thus the fab4 are given great licence to attack even though we sometimes get outnumbered in midfield/defence.

Thus Eddie backs his front 4 to outscore the opposition. When they fail to score just one goal from 6 great chances (or 10 chances including half chances) then not too surprising of the rest of the team creaks.

The alternative is to pack the midfield and drop one or two of the 4 and play more cautiously. I prefer that away from home. But today against a team relegated and winless away from home I think Eddie right with starting XI but was let down by two dispiriting injuries and woeful finishing from full internationals who should be doing better.

NB Worth adding I have no football management experience but this is my humble opinion!
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And this is part of the problem. We are relying on the individual brilliance of 4 players to make up for the deficiencies of the team. And even when the fab 4 do perform, we can still get caught out if our defence end up with one of there too frequent implosions.

Personally I don’t think playing a 3rd midfielder could be described as packing the midfield. Not at this level in 2019 anyway. Either way, we have to go back to outthinking our opponents instead of just assuming we have enough to get the job done.
 
Tinpot Club said:
And this is part of the problem. We are relying on the individual brilliance of 4 players to make up for the deficiencies of the team. And even when the fab 4 do perform, we can still get caught out if our defence end up with one of there too frequent implosions.

Personally I don’t think playing a 3rd midfielder could be described as packing the midfield. Not at this level in 2019 anyway. Either way, we have to go back to outthinking our opponents instead of just assuming we have enough to get the job done.
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I say packing as I thought Fraser and brooks were meant to be in midfield when opposition attacks
 
Waz afcb said:
To be fair to Gosling and Lerma they are nearly always outnumbered in middle. When teams play a 3 man midfield we generally find it very hard to get a grip on the game.
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That’s is an Eddie problem then, he needs to get one of the attackers to drop in to help out on rotation
 
So 'Central midfield is the problem'...

Really?

It's not missing five full backs because they're all injured...

It's not a season where the whole side has been ravaged by injury...

It's not that yesterday two central midfield players were up against three...

It's not that our full-backs were centre-halves who were clearly struggling in those positions...

It's not because yesterday our strikers couldn't hit a barn door...

No, apparently, it's because yesterday's two centre midfield players are not good enough...


I really do despair sometimes :shake:
 
AFCB Lost in Brum said:
So 'Central midfield is the problem'...

Really?

It's not missing five full backs because they're all injured...

It's not a season where the whole side has been ravaged by injury...

It's not that yesterday two central midfield players were up against three...

It's not that our full-backs were centre-halves who were clearly struggling in those positions...

It's not because yesterday our strikers couldn't hit a barn door...

No, apparently, it's because yesterday's two centre midfield players are not good enough...


I really do despair sometimes :shake:
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Injuries have without doubt derailed this campaign but for me central midfield quality is the main cause of our inconsistency we've had over the last 3 seasons. Arter, Surman and Gosling were plenty good enough to keep us in the division during the first season in the prem, and are probably good enough to keep us out of the relegation zone next. But if we truly are aiming for 7-10 position we need more.
 
johnbob said:
That’s is an Eddie problem then, he needs to get one of the attackers to drop in to help out on rotation
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Absolutely. This is a job King isn’t really capable of doing in the number 10 position, hence why we often look so outnumbered in the middle.
 
Waz afcb said:
Absolutely. This is a job King isn’t really capable of doing in the number 10 position, hence why we often look so outnumbered in the middle.
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It’s also not just about getting the striker to drop in to help defensively. You also need the no. 10 to receive the ball in tight areas to link midfield to attack. King doesn’t have the first touch to do this.

Interestingly David Brooks does. I’d love to see Brooks and King swap positions occasionally
 
Tinpot Club said:
The main reason midfield can’t advance the ball forward is the 20 or 30 metre gap to the forwards and most teams pack the gap between them. Xavi and Iniesta would struggle to play the ball through let alone Lerma and Gosling.

People will still defend the outdated 4-4-2 system but surely most can see its part of the problem. A third midfielder means the passes can be shorter and it gives the ball carrier more options. Creativity comes from passing triangles not flat lines
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Which has been our problem all season. Play a high line against us and we can destroy teams on the counter with our pace, sit back in two banks and our system is not equipped to play through the opposition, often ending up with 4 or 5 forward players on the pitch out of desperation but no real way to work the ball to them.
 
Tinpot Club said:
It’s also not just about getting the striker to drop in to help defensively. You also need the no. 10 to receive the ball in tight areas to link midfield to attack. King doesn’t have the first touch to do this.

Interestingly David Brooks does. I’d love to see Brooks and King swap positions occasionally
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Agree. But he does have the ability to pick the ball deep and drive forward with it, but again that relies on teams playing a high line against us. Most have worked our system out.
 
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