| We have not won the midfield battle all season 18:02 - Feb 22 with 2419 views | cbower |
We're not good enough to play 2 in midfield. Almost all games we've been outmuscled in the centre of the park whilst playing 2 or 3 lightweight players in a three behind Delap. With the two in midfield, whoever it has been, being overrun at times in nearly every game, our flair (and lightweight) players have been forced into more defensive work which is not their strength. Sometimes, this means we are neityer an effective attacking force, nor are our fullbacks getting decent protection. I said early in the season we needed 3 in midfield but it just seems a complete no-no.
I'd actually go 352 / 532 myself. Delap is way too isolated on his own. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:06 - Feb 22 with 2379 views | Scuzzer |
Yeah we needed to have a three in the middle in my opinion. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:08 - Feb 22 with 2352 views | gsoly |
I think the issue with this is we’ve recruited for McKenna’s system. We don’t have the wingers to play a 4-3-3. |  | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:08 - Feb 22 with 2343 views | pointofblue |
Felt today was the first home game in an age where we were competitive in midfield. Losing Cajuste to injury was probably the moment any chance of getting anything out of the game was lost. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:13 - Feb 22 with 2327 views | LankHenners |
The midfield was absolutely fine until Cajuste had to go off, and was then made worse again when Phillips followed.
It exposed again that we probably should have recruited more heavily in that area, or at least found 1 other player with Prem experience/quality in there. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:19 - Feb 22 with 2248 views | Vic |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:13 - Feb 22 by LankHenners |
The midfield was absolutely fine until Cajuste had to go off, and was then made worse again when Phillips followed.
It exposed again that we probably should have recruited more heavily in that area, or at least found 1 other player with Prem experience/quality in there. |
Mick Mills has been saying this for a long time. He’s not wrong is he.
I reckon if we invest well in 2 quality MF in the summer we should look good to have a good go at coming straight back up.
I know there will be some strong team in the Championship, but Leicester and Soton will not be among them this time. They are on the way down and we are still very much on the way up. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:22 - Feb 22 with 2219 views | RegencyBlue |
Thought we looked better in midfield today than we have for a while to be honest but it has been a problem all season generally.
I think today encapsulated our entire season in that we don’t create enough goal scoring chances, we don’t take enough of those chances we do create and at the same time we give away very sloppy goals. Only one way that ends! |  | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:30 - Feb 22 with 2159 views | Illinoisblue |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:22 - Feb 22 by RegencyBlue |
Thought we looked better in midfield today than we have for a while to be honest but it has been a problem all season generally.
I think today encapsulated our entire season in that we don’t create enough goal scoring chances, we don’t take enough of those chances we do create and at the same time we give away very sloppy goals. Only one way that ends! |
We did look better and, typically, they’re now both injured. Rains. Pours. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:32 - Feb 22 with 2142 views | homer_123 |
I have to say that today Cajuste and Philips did win the midfield.
The issue today wasn't there but not taking our chances and Son deciding to put in a performance. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:37 - Feb 22 with 2054 views | ZapatasMoustache |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:08 - Feb 22 by pointofblue |
Felt today was the first home game in an age where we were competitive in midfield. Losing Cajuste to injury was probably the moment any chance of getting anything out of the game was lost. |
Agree. Phillips was great and until Cajuste went off we were bossing the midfield. |  | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:41 - Feb 22 with 2026 views | ATL |
The problem all season has been the midfield and its taken McKenna until we enter the final 3rd of the season to realise that Morsy is not a Premier League player and finally drop him. Philips and Cajuste should have been playing together months ago. One of my biggest fear when we go down and lose Philips and Cajuste is that Morsy will still be here when we back in the Championship. | | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:49 - Feb 22 with 1989 views | Wickets |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:06 - Feb 22 by Scuzzer |
Yeah we needed to have a three in the middle in my opinion. |
Me too . |  | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 19:01 - Feb 22 with 1923 views | FrimleyBlue |
The annoying thing is we've seen how productive seeing cajust and Phillips can be in the opponents half. Esp phillips with his passing ability let alone cajuste direct high temp running.
Stick morsy in front of the defence with those two in front. ( well we can't now they're injured.) But that could have worked. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 19:43 - Feb 22 with 1844 views | mellowblue |
3-5-2, I agree, it also gives Sammie S a position he actually fits. | | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 19:46 - Feb 22 with 1814 views | DavoIPB |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:41 - Feb 22 by ATL |
The problem all season has been the midfield and its taken McKenna until we enter the final 3rd of the season to realise that Morsy is not a Premier League player and finally drop him. Philips and Cajuste should have been playing together months ago. One of my biggest fear when we go down and lose Philips and Cajuste is that Morsy will still be here when we back in the Championship. |
Yes but it wasn't today nor at villa. We definitely won the midfield battle today. Philips was superb and so was cajuste. | | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 09:29 - Feb 23 with 1487 views | DJR |
I thought Philips and Cajuste were outstanding in the first half, and that was the view of McKenna. And it was certainly a blow to lose Cajuste so early in the second half.
And when Morsy came on later in the game, I thought he looked a bit pedestrian. |  | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 09:43 - Feb 23 with 1454 views | BlueForYou |
Completely agree with the original post..!, |  | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 12:11 - Feb 23 with 1340 views | Tractor_Boy333 |
Yesterday was the first match where I thought we won battle in midfield especially in first half but when Cajuste got injured we struggled.
I’ve seen lots of hate for Phillips but yesterday he was very good and was probably our best player. I said it last season there were games we should go with 3 in midfield but that’s the system we play. I’m guessing we lose Phillips and Cajuste next season and that has to be the area we invest in. Perhaps Humphrey’s comes back but we certainly need a defensive midfielder as well.
I can’t see Mass, Morsy being starters next season in fact I think Mass will leave and then without the loans we look very short in that area. | | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 12:12 - Feb 23 with 1325 views | DJR |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 12:11 - Feb 23 by Tractor_Boy333 |
Yesterday was the first match where I thought we won battle in midfield especially in first half but when Cajuste got injured we struggled.
I’ve seen lots of hate for Phillips but yesterday he was very good and was probably our best player. I said it last season there were games we should go with 3 in midfield but that’s the system we play. I’m guessing we lose Phillips and Cajuste next season and that has to be the area we invest in. Perhaps Humphrey’s comes back but we certainly need a defensive midfielder as well.
I can’t see Mass, Morsy being starters next season in fact I think Mass will leave and then without the loans we look very short in that area. |
I think Philips has been very good in the last few games he has played, and wasn't as bad earlier in the season as many people made out. | | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 12:22 - Feb 23 with 1295 views | ArnieM |
OP: agree with you. But unfortunately this 100% boils down to an inexperienced manager at this level, and / or manager u willi g or reluctant to change hus approach.
"Trust in the process" clearly isn't working is it. And whose process is it, Ashton's or McKenna's |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 12:25 - Feb 23 with 1278 views | textbackup |
We’ve spent money on tiny attackers as opposed to big strong athletes in CM.
Nobody to blame but those that made the wrong signings. |  |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 23:47 - Feb 23 with 1056 views | Facefacts |
Agree with OP. Once we realised we couldn't attract top players who would've kept us up e.g. Bellingham in our 2 man midfield we could've changed the system to put a bank of 3 midfielders to protect the defence and just hoof it and live off scraps and knock downs.
To think that Sam Morsy with Taylor / Luongo could do the job, we knew they couldn't, but managed to get only loanees clearly unwanted by other clubs and who've been prone to injuries or damaged in some way.
It's just the Premier League eating us up and spitting us out. Has been an English Super League of 17 for a while now. No top player wants to join us. |  | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 07:21 - Feb 24 with 917 views | mikeybloo88 |
Our biggest problem in midfield, and I’ve been saying it all season, is that we don’t have an attacking, creative midfielder who can make a difference to games. We don’t have a Cunha, who is making all that difference to Wolves. We opted to spend on too many lightweight wingers. Sure, our defence and setup hasn’t been good enough at times and Kieran surely has learnt plenty about his and his players capabilities at this level, but going forward we’ve simply not offered enough to give ourselves a punchers chance in games the way Wolves can. |  | | |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 07:30 - Feb 24 with 897 views | SaffronWaldenBlues |
| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 18:19 - Feb 22 by Vic |
Mick Mills has been saying this for a long time. He’s not wrong is he.
I reckon if we invest well in 2 quality MF in the summer we should look good to have a good go at coming straight back up.
I know there will be some strong team in the Championship, but Leicester and Soton will not be among them this time. They are on the way down and we are still very much on the way up. |
On what basis though, Leicester and Southampton have taken 5points off us this season and we’ve had 2 off them. Leicester will finish a few points ahead of us at the end of the season.
The idea we’re about to walk the Championship isn’t really based on reality, there’s going to be changes here and there are clubs in the Championship who are going to be looking to get promoted again too. Our double promotion sides been ripped up already and those left will be older, our better players will be sold, and we’ll be left with the guys who didn’t get Hull, Blackburn and Sunderland promoted. They may do the business for us, but nothing is a given. As far as the quality of the league goes, we have struggled most against the poorer sides this season! |  |
| An East Anglian Town overtaken by Londoners |
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| We have not won the midfield battle all season on 07:55 - Feb 24 with 817 views | OldFart71 |
You are right but unfortunately we don't have anyone to fill that third space and to be honest we struggle to get two who are consistent, can do 90 minutes and keep up with other teams young guns. You only have to take a look at Man Utd where a couple of games they played Erikson and Casimiro in midfield. Two high class players in their day, but just not mobile enough. | | | |
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