Centre Midfield

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Just drop Siggy a bit deeper. This isn't that complicated. Stop forcing everything wide. Part of this is on Silva. He knows what Palace is going to do.

And look, if the personnel isn't playing well, we have options now.

But look, we had to play Schneiderlin, DCL, had no real wide attacking bench option, and we still created some clear chances. They aren't very good, but they are tough to break down. Conditions definitely helped when a team was packing it in.
 
I've had a novel thought.

Let's not write the team off after one match eh? Bloody hell, sometimes this place (and some people) are definitely weird. One game, that's all it's taken. Write off a new player for half a match and one who hasn't played yet. Chuffing hell.
Our team was weaker then the 0-0 we got there towards the end of last season. No Gana or Zouma. None of our new signings started, should we be surprised we didn’t go on and win the game? but if we’re going to challenge for the top 6, it games like this we needed 3 points in. However I am getting slightly concerned about our goalscoring judging by pre season and the palace game.
 
Just drop Siggy a bit deeper. This isn't that complicated. Stop forcing everything wide. Part of this is on Silva. He knows what Palace is going to do.

And look, if the personnel isn't playing well, we have options now.

But look, we had to play Schneiderlin, DCL, had no real wide attacking bench option, and we still created some clear chances. They aren't very good, but they are tough to break down. Conditions definitely helped when a team was packing it in.
Siggy can't drop deep. He isn't athletic enough to cover the amount of area needed of that position and he would rather be out of position defensively compared to offensively. We either need to have 2 mobile CMs/CDMs with Siggy or he needs to be dropped and have any assortment of the remaining mids in the center. Having Siggy Gomes and Schniederlin is about as bad as it gets when transitioning to the attack at speed. I would say even Gomes and Siggy is a borderline bad combo and only reason it worked as well as it did was because Gana was an absolute work horse.
 
Siggy can't drop deep. He isn't athletic enough to cover the amount of area needed of that position and he would rather be out of position defensively compared to offensively. We either need to have 2 mobile CMs/CDMs with Siggy or he needs to be dropped and have any assortment of the remaining mids in the center. Having Siggy Gomes and Schniederlin is about as bad as it gets when transitioning to the attack at speed. I would say even Gomes and Siggy is a borderline bad combo and only reason it worked as well as it did was because Gana was an absolute work horse.
Gomes / Siggy is a bad combo. No question. That was my entire point last year where people thought I was denigrating Gomes. That's why I wanted to see Doucoure or someone similar here. We'd just push Siggy into Bernard's spot or just sit Gomes.

Siggy only needs to drop when we are in possession. He can also sort from distance. Or sit him and play Iwobi. Or play Delph/Gbamin and Gomes in front of them. At least we have combinations when everyone is healthy. Our 4-4-2 defending is fine with him up top, though.

I would like to see Sigurdsson play with Kean, though.
 
I have davek on ignore so I haven't seen this thread but I wouldn't be so concerned yet. There are a lot of pieces in there and between Delph, Gbamin and Gomes we should be able to fashion something decent so long as Silva has any worth as a manager. The far bigger concern to me is the players who are receiving the ball from the midfield. Richarlison isn't exactly reliable at retaining the ball, Sigurdsson plays far too high up and doesn't have any ability to carry the ball and Bernard is probably above average at moving the ball forward but has other problems.

The short story is the central midfielders themselves are fine and they will do better if we can sort out the front line and give them more consistent options to pass the ball too.
 

Ok so no ball carrier.
Take the left side. Both Iwobi and Digne are the ball carriers.

Delph is the feeder, the linker, you don't need another ball carrier.
you need a player which has more vision of the field, Digne and Iwobi need this type of player.
he makes more of the macro decisions, they the micro decisons with ball at feet.
he's the outlet, the one that switches the play or he's the one that keeps the ball at their feet or provides the defence splitting pass for them,
one of my main critiques of Silva is he hasn't set up these type of successful consistent partnerships

Not only does Delph have this role, he would also juggle this with the JP partnership,
covering, screening or pressing in event of ball turnover
or providing the outlet for ball retention and switch of play - from anywhere on the field.

So you should always have a 3-2 or 2-3 defensive set up as we enter the opp half, depending how advance the far sided fullback advances. That's a pretty stable platform to attack, 5 attacking and 7 involved in ball retention, more if you have to retreat through the CBs to maintain possession.

So Delph's role is critical and different from the other two midfielders. Why the left side? Because Digne is so good in attack, thus you need a player like Delph to take advantage.
That's not to say Coleman doesn't advance, just that the dynamic is a bit different with either Sig or JP playing Delph's role.
If JP plays the role Delph sits more centrally.

Sig role? - traditional box to box. Again he doesn't have to be the ball carrier, he has Coleman and Richarlison.
He also has Kean who can drop central or left to provide another option on the ball.
Critically if Kean loses the ball under pressure the is more cover than when Sig loses it now.

His vision and passing is pretty damn special.
And from a midfield position, in build up, he has more space to execute what he is good at than in the advance role.
If it is true that he is not a ball carrier and he is pressed, then he is given a lot more outs to to play to in this position.
But he is better than being made out carrying the ball. He's better than Fellani, better imo than Barkley.
Is Cahill thought of as a ball carrier, as good as any box to box.

And from this position, like Cahill he can score goals and win matches. The way the side is set up, with the focus more on Digne, Coleman, Iwobi, Rciharlison adn Kean, Sig gets what he is best at, make runs into space from deep and reek havoc around the box, all in the confidece and knowledge he has Delph and JP covering.
Silva has said that he wants his right winger to run a more cental, direct line. What he really needs is Sig running that line as a box to box.
If not Sig then Gomes.

Whoever it is, these mixture of roles is not uncommon across a 3 man midfield

Anyways, thats me done for excessive rambling.
It one or two sentences until the City game.

The bit in bold, would you suggest that be Gylfi? Because I just don't think that's what Gylfi's good at. He can rake a 30-40 yard pass, but I don't think it's his strongest suit. He's never been a playmaker in the traditional sense. So I think Gomes would have to be the player doing that. He has that burst of pace/power that gets him past people and his passing in terms of switching the play is the best in the side.

I don't think he's awful carrying the ball. He's good. But would he be able to dribble past a crowd of players at pace? I don't think so...

It's certainly not a bad idea though, and I get what you're saying. It's good to have options and hopefully Silva will be flexible in his set up once everybody is fit.
 
catching up with this forum after the weekend. The person who started this post suggests after 20 mins Gbamin is 2nd rate (the player stated himself he was not ready) but we should have got Drinkwater (who has not kicked a ball for at least a season) truly baffling.
 
Gbamin and Davies will do fine. Least it has a bit of balance to it. Silva arguably made a mistake in bringing on Gbamin rather than Davies for Gomes as we pretty much lost our attacking edge then. I think people are worrying too much about The individual players. Of greater concern is the overall shape and balance. Silva needs to solve the Siggurdson conundrum and make better use of Bernard if we want to improve our attacking play and make ourselves more competitive in midfield.
 
I've had a novel thought.

Let's not write the team off after one match eh? Bloody hell, sometimes this place (and some people) are definitely weird. One game, that's all it's taken. Write off a new player for half a match and one who hasn't played yet. Chuffing hell.


We do it every year. Palace away is always a slog, and we started with basically the same 11 as last year except weaker (being without Gana). The likes of Kean and Gbamin will need plenty of time to acclimatize and if we can pick up a decent amount of points while they do, our outlook will be good for the season imo.
 
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This is going to be a real problem area this season.

Delph
Davies
Gbamin
Gomez
Schneiderlin

Gomez aside* that's looking very second rate.

Baningime cant get a squad number, so I dont suppose he's anywhere near an appearance.



*harsh on Gbamin, but taking this first appearance as evidence anyway.
Not sure you can judge him and therefore the entire midfield on his first appearance.
He was a substitute which is difficult. It takes 20 minutes to get the pace of the game.
He was also filling a position he does not play.
I think he's only had one weeks' training.

Far too early to judge
 
Not sure you can judge him and therefore the entire midfield on his first appearance.
He was a substitute which is difficult. It takes 20 minutes to get the pace of the game.
He was also filling a position he does not play.
I think he's only had one weeks' training.

Far too early to judge
That's why I said it was 'harsh'.

I'm looking at the unit as a whole, though. If Gbamin is the next big success story for the club, we'll be ok. But failing that we look weak in that department. It's like we sleepwalked into this because we were all focussing on how crucial it was to get a CB in during the final days of the window. I'm certainly guilty of it. It never fully registered how paper thin we'd look without Gueye there, and the alarm bells only rang on Saturday against Palace. If they can stroll through the centre of the pitch imagine what good teams will do!
 
Gueye was a great player don't get me wrong but I think some people have short memories & forget his game only went up a level after Jan. Until then the majority probably would have took the money. I was/am a big fan of his & short term we might feel his loss but I genuinely think Gbamin will be a great signing.
 
Does anyone know what Tom Davies is? Thought he was a DM for a while? I feel like he needs to be told do one one think and then someone needs to really help him become that thing. He could be great if he is helped and he could fill some of the void left by Gana.
 

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