The Central Midfield Thread

Passing it backwards means his defensive responsibility is alleviated. Not his zone.
He needs to grab the game by the short and curlys and take responsibility imo.

I can not accept that. He says he prefers playing deeper.
If your suggesting he should go back to being at midfield left then I’d think this could be a good solution for us in many ways.

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Wirtz looks shit because nobody runs in behind


116m more like 1.16

Well he also had both Grav AND Mac around and behind to help defensively. An extra body behind him so he can go press brainlessly.

That´s why I have been saying we need to drop Wirtz if we insist on playing Szobo and just play that 3.

I´d drop Szobo instead or play him rb though.

Deeper here means RCM in a 4-3-3 formation not part of a double pivot.

No, I was suggesting Szoboszlai as a wide player on the right which would solve a number of our current problems.
Could be in a 442 or as we are 451.
Have him play his ‘natural’ position.

If I was an adviser for Sloz, I would certainly be coaxing him to learn the demands of being a good RB, and quickly… The midfield at the moment is dysfunctional for majority of our games… If Iraola decides he needs to revamp the whole thing, there is no guarantee that Sloz would not become a casualty of losing his regular starting place…

It’s not difficult to notice when Szobo loses possession in midfield.

But you could also see against Fulham, in our possession phase, how Szobo dropped deeper than Gravenberch to get us going.

I’m almost half-expecting us to try (at some point in the season) Barcola as a striker, Wirtz in the inside left channel and Munoz on the right as a front 3.

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Does anyone else feel that reverting to a more rigid system for a time would help?
I definitely think for us fans it would enable us to see who’s who and what’s what hence the valor and abilities of individual players. For me as it is it’s incredibly confused. Szoboszlai is everywhere yet appears ineffectual. I haven’t a clue what Gravenberch is doing when he plays and appears a liability. Macca seems quite rigid in his position yet gets messed up by Szoboszlai coming into his zone. Wirtz has games where he operates well and others when he doesn’t as even when in space he doesn’t receive the ball he also gets messed up by Szoboszlai moving into his zone and often seems to be looking over his shoulder to see where Szoboszlai is as it affects who he should be pressing.
Only Nyoni seems to be doing the job.
It looks a mess I think Iraola is looking at stability in starting line up and hoping it will fall in place with time. Unfortunately the lack of discipline is messing with that. Sure it’s still early days and a real revision shouldn’t be envisioned before between 5 and 7 EPL games. So there shouldn’t be panic. It’s just that I feel we need to identify a playmaker and as it stands we have too many trying to do that and not succeeding.

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Yep, it’s a bit of a mess. Too much space out there for the opposition, and on our side the passing is too ponderous. I’m hoping we see a good improvement with more coaching as we go. If the improvement isn’t enough, I expect we will go to market, probably for Camara in January.

Individually they are good players, but at the moment we have not found the right midfield blend.

Essentially the coaching is over, too many matches and long international breaks.
It’s down to the players after Bournemouth to find ways of pulling it together.
They are capable even if I question their attitude and character if they buckle down things can improve immensely. They need to work on communication and understanding I think. It’s the time they spend together outside training and coaching I think that’s going to help the most. Hopefully not so much that they become sick of one another :wink:.

The problem with central midfield, is that the manager wants Szoboszlai and Grav to play the double pivot. With Wirtz at #10 in front.

*But what is happening in reality is the Dom and Grav duo cant play together.

*And Macca has been a superior player to both of them at CM. A player they wanted to get rid of, is our best CM.

*Complicating matters, is Nyoni should be playing there too. And nobody expected him to be this good at his age.

*Complicating matters even more. Is putting Dom at 10, sends our £100m Wirtz to bench. Or putting Dom at RB will eventually piss off Dom…
*AND we would not of witnessed that WONDER GOAL! if Dom was at rb.

So, i believe we will see Dom and Macca in the double pivot behind Wirtz. ( i think Macca and Nyoni is the best tandem though).

Finally bringing in Camara means, more unhappy players.

Btw Macca is undroppable at this moment.

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That´s about it. We can possibly get away with Dom and Mac for now but I honestly think we should play Nyoni over Dom and see how it goes.

But then we´ve just given Dom a big contract (and Grav) so we´ve backed ourselves into a bit of a corner.

Iraola and the club have some BIG decisions to make in midfield. Likely one of Dom or Wirtz cannot play. long term.

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Dom is not a 10, he is poor with his back to play and his passing isn’t all that suited to playing in a 10 role

His strength is his engine and his shooting, but being a 10 doesn’t always guarantee him being in the right shooting position, as his best shots come when he is facing goal, moving onto the ball, ideally in an 8 position.

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Hmmm…You basically confirmed what i said… which is a Dom and Macca double pivot.
That way Dom is more of a #8 role… and Macca would hold more of a #6 defensive position.

My post was just highlighting the complicated mess at CM. As Dom along with Grav has been poor in central midfield… Whereas Macca and young Nyoni are so far looking better. And so would a potential incoming of Camara.

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Some posters mention playing him as the 10 in Wirtz’s position, which it seems we both disagree with.

Playing with 3 midfielders and the make up of our midfielders also won’t work, as the players at the top of the field need creative players to put them in positions to score especially in the Premier League as space is a rare commodity.

He doesn´t have to play in the 10 but he is much better in a 3 man midfield where he takes the role of Wirtz to some degree as the more free attacking player.

He still needs two other players to do the midfield work, like wirtz does.

I wouldnt do it but they are the options to have a balanced mifield as I see it - midfield three with Dom and two of Mac, Grav and Nyoni, or Wirtz in front of Mac and Nyoni.

Szoboszlai is too good to be on bench. But He has holes in his game in every position he can play. Except RB. Which he doesn’t want to play. Plus his ball striking is wasted there.

I think ideally, we should start wirtz infront of Macca and Nyoni. And Dom RB.

At the 60- 65 min mark, we could do following subs

Dom replace wirtz at AM
Araujo replace Dom at RB
Grav replace Nyoni at CM

I be waiting for the match where Iraola will try a Nyoni plus Mac plus Dom/Wirtz/Grav.

Right now Nyoni has been good but would not want to overhype him but if he doesn’t play more, we will never know. So far we have looked stable when he comes on

Mac, of course has been out best CM this season so far. He has looked assured and intentional and has chip in with goals.

And so far Dom and Wirtz and Grav has shown it is not working when 3 of them plays together. Maybe 2 of them will work in some instances to balance but at this point, I wouldn’t go anywhere near this combination if possible.