The Central Midfield Thread

You put him on a par with Batty :grimacing:

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He might be confused and crazy but not about McMahon. He was a cracking player. No two ways about it.

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Fair enough. Makes more sense if we sub out Steve for ā€˜the govā€™norā€™

Thiago then.

Last new, Hendo replaced by Endo? And is not a joke

ā€¦22/23ā€¦23/24.

.Fabinhoā€¦Mac Allister.
.Hendo ā€¦Szoboszlai.
.Thiagoā€¦Thiago.
.Elliott ā€¦Elliott.
.Milner ā€¦Endo.
.Kieta ā€¦Bajcetic.
.Oxladeā€¦Jones.

If we go from who we had this time 12 months ago to who we have now,i think we have hugely improved our midfield .If we were to add another 1 like Doucoure iā€™d see this as a very successful midfield transformation.

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wouldnā€™t the first DM have originated with the Dutch playing a 4-3-3 first?

Total Football, everyone could play anywhere.

When the Austrian introduced the 4-3-3 shape into Dutch football he changed how an ideal midfield functioned. No longer could it be a two-men affair. Three men were needed to exert ā€œTotalā€ control over the pitch. To create this shape, Happel dropped Van Hanegem (more of an advanced playmaker than striker) into midfield and added Franz Hasil (talented playmaker) to the midfield where Wim Jansen remained as the defensive rock in his holding DM role. The new three-man midfield could now get more involved in the attacking build-up with Wim Jansen covering defence in his dedicated holding DM role. Happel instructed his two more advanced central midfielders to look for half-spaces between the opposition lines of defence and midfield. In this way they were tactical fore-runners of Pep Guardiolaā€™s famous ā€œFree 8sā€.

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Alexis Mac Allister Ā£35m
Diminik Szoboszlai Ā£60m
Wataru Endo Ā£16m

Not a bad rebuild for Ā£111m :clap:

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Orā€¦ we could have just got Caicedo for that sum.

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Mac Allister
Szoboszlai
Endo
Thiago
Jones
Bajcetic
Elliott

Difficult situation imo.

Quantity wise we should be fine now.

Quality is also there but we have to be able to show it for 55+ games.

Another signing would surely help but that would definitely limit the game time for Jones, Bajcetic and Elliott.

Not signing anyone would mean we have to rely on two out of Thiago, Jones and Bajcetic to perform on a high level being lucky with injuries.

The ā€˜perfectā€™ addition we need might not be available this summer so waiting until January or next summer might be smart.

What should we do until the end of the month?

  • Donā€˜t sign any more midfielders.
  • Sign another DM
  • Sign another versatile midfielder
0 voters

I went with sign another but I do think a CD is more important

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Yes, another midfielder would be nice but a CB is essential.

LCB has to be the priority now.

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After Endo, the last thing I want is another midfielder of more or less his level. That is on paper of course, maybe he turns out to be better than everyone realistic expects. I donā€™t see any proper ones available, so please no Cristantes, Leminas and similar bunch. We spent a good few years cleaning our first team squad. Thereā€™s enough in this squad to achieve our normal goal this season, a trophy and back in CL.

We have EL football this season, I say rather try and see what can be done at CB, try to offload whatever we have to offload (basically only Nat, but heā€™s lucky he has 2 years left on his deal) and finally close this long summer.

Iā€™m now worried that CB might be the area weā€™re leaving ā€œunresolvedā€ for a bit too long, like the midfield was. While we want a CB that is flexible, in a yearā€™s time we might need 2-3!

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In a years time VVD will have another 12months mileage in his legsā€¦ If we havenā€™t already got someone in the background at the club being mentored for this role, and we have to go outside for a CBā€¦ We wonā€™t be looking for someone to play alongside Virgilā€¦ We will be prioritising someone to play instead of him

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Three of this group are in the treatment room now. Itā€™s a long season and there will be more injuries, especially Thiago and probably Jones. I think another midfielder is needed.

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Not sure if this is supposed to be in order, but I think in general people are discounting Thiago a bit too easily. Iā€™m certain heā€™ll be a starter when fit. Also he was our best midfielder last season and pivotal the year before for our quadruple push. Get him fit and and in form and weā€™ll be flying.

In answer to the question, worth getting another midfielder in for sure need to learn the lesson of last season. A versatile, hungry player ideally.

When we start Thiago every match he will be injured before we know it.

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