Central Midfield

[Saint Domingo]

Apologies, but I disagree with you here - not so much Matic, but certainly Kante and Fernandinho.

Neither of the latter two did anything remotely akin to "bringing the ball out of defence in their title winning seasons".

Looking at Fernandinho first, last season Nicolas Otamendi was the key distributor out of defence for City, and whenever Fernandinho got it, literally his only job was to give it to either Silva or KDB. There were rare moments when he would make a late run into the box or sit right on top of the opposition box such was City's dominance, but in general he was the definition of a ball recycler.

This season, EPL TOTY Otamendi can't even make their lineup, and instead they have Stones and Laporte playing centre half - both wonderful distributors of the ball from the back. Fernandinho is touching the ball a lot less this season already, and when he does he is only passing sideways, backwards or to Silva / Gundogan. In fact, I noticed in their game against Wolves he tried to move the ball forwards a few times and it was continually intercepted ... and last game he was straight back to the sideways/backwards ball recycling that he did last season to great effect.

Then there is Kante. In Leicester's title winning season, it was actually Danny Drinkwater who played the forward balls (most often wide to Mahrez or sometimes over the top to Vardy). Kante was almost exclusively a defensive terrier breaking up opposition attacks and immediately recycling to Drinkwater.

In Chelsea's title winning season, whilst yes he did pass the ball forwards slightly more (by virtue of Chelsea being a much more dominant side than Leicester in terms of possession statistics), yet again it was Fabregas who did the majority of the forward passing, often getting the ball wide to Hazard, Willian, Alonso and Azpilicueta.

This newfound belief amongst the populace that Kante and Fernandinho are somehow elite attacking ball distributors is a massive media misconception. What has made them both so good is getting to play with 8s (Drinkwater, Fabregas, KDB) and either 10s (Silva) or wide men (Hazard, Willian, Mahrez, Sterling, Sane) who have been able to create attacking opportunities, meaning they have been left to do their best work which is on the defensive side.

I am very interested to see how Kante goes this season playing as an 8-cum-10 ahead of Jorginho and Kovacic. He will have the benefit of playing ahead of two other truly world class players, but nevertheless I am keen to see how the attacking side of his game really goes ... my early prediction is we will not see an endless highlights reel of defence-splitting through balls, 1-2s on the edge of the box to set players free for shooting opportunities, technical dribbling to beat a couple of men and get shots away etc.

Our problem is though we have a team of slow positionally inept Kantes and absolutely none of the types of players you need to pair that midfield profile with tonbe effective. Gueye Schneiderlin McCarthy will all look to win the ball and just recycle it backwards or sideways. We don’t have anyone in the team who can dictate play and create from deep.

 

[Brisan123]

I'm lucky; I've seen Alan Ball, Colin Harvey, Howad Kendall, Peter Reid and Paul Bracewell.

I’ve seen the vision play
Granted I was only a kid and knew SFA but the hush and the anticipation in the crowd every time he got the ball told its own story

 

[Stephenlloyd]

The centre of midfield is the the heart of your side and if we are going to play davies who by the way is nowhere near good enough and schneiderlin who is average then it's not going to end well,and gana by the way gets a free ride with a lot of fans as well.

I’ve said the same for a while. The worst midfield I’ve seen in years. And Gana is not good enough if we want to kick on.

Also when the Irish Viera comes back, he won’t make a difference either

 

[Brendan Janus]

I’ve said the same for a while. The worst midfield I’ve seen in years. And Gana is not good enough if we want to kick on.

Also when the Irish Viera comes back, he won’t make a difference either

Bang on, our midfield is woeful !!

 

[BlueToff]

Our problem is though we have a team of slow positionally inept Kantes and absolutely none of the types of players you need to pair that midfield profile with tonbe effective. Gueye Schneiderlin McCarthy will all look to win the ball and just recycle it backwards or sideways. We don’t have anyone in the team who can dictate play and create from deep.

Gueye actually looks to press us forwards, mate. It's just that his passing when in the final third isn't good enough/sharp enough to break through lines.

He was a big miss on Saturday though because he does actually commit people with his running. Davies could have tried to do that more than he did but he had a poor game.

Gueye is our best player in terms of tackling, pressing etc in midfield. I'm really looking forward to seeing him with Gomes because I think Gomes - unlike Schneiderlin - has that ability to craft in the final third as well as offer a passing option when playing out from the back.

 

[BlueToff]

Bang on, our midfield is woeful !!

We have Bernard and Gomes still to come in. Both quality players, albeit Bernard will likely be used wide at first.

 

[Brendan Janus]

We have Bernard and Gomes still to come in. Both quality players, albeit Bernard will likely be used wide at first.

Hope they are better than the current incumbents !

 

[BlueToff]

Hope they are better than the current incumbents !

Our midfield against Saints performed really well.

In both away games, the red cards negated our midfields to an extent. We looked to play on the counter because we had pace up top. It made sense.

Nobody played particularly well in that area against Huddersfield. But it's one bad game out of four.

I actually think Gylfi was too high up against Huddersfield. Against Saints, Gueye was pushing up and plugging that gap. For whatever reason, Davies didn't manage it on Saturday.

Saturday was an example where we lacked that creativity from deep to get the ball into Gylfi and start to work it in the final third.

Rooney - at his *best* last year - did this very well. One of those games was the Huddersfield home game.

It'll come. We've got decent players to come in and we have good footballers in there. It's one bad game. It happens.

 

[DRAGONZ_RULE]

Our problem is though we have a team of slow positionally inept Kantes and absolutely none of the types of players you need to pair that midfield profile with tonbe effective. Gueye Schneiderlin McCarthy will all look to win the ball and just recycle it backwards or sideways. We don’t have anyone in the team who can dictate play and create from deep.

Yes i certainly don't disagree with this statement, more pointing out that people are using Kante and Fernanindho as a stick to beat Gueye with, and doing so by suggesting that they are excellent play makers which we have not actually seen evidence of in reality.

That's still not to say they aren't better players... One starts for the WC Champions and the other starts for Brazil, haha... But it's a fallacy to suggest their incisive forward passing is what separates them from Gueye.

 

[messymascot]

If everyone is fit Gueye and Gomes would be my 6 and 8. McCarthy would be on the bench Schneiderlin would be 4th choice. Davies would be loaned out as I he needs to play regularly to improve where he lacks at the minute.