| Midfield issue 08:26 - Apr 6 with 1268 views | Martus |
Our biggest issue this season has been our midfield.
We've lost so many points this season from winning positions and it's a stark statistic - 25 points dropped fromm being in the lead.
The biggest issue I see - is when we aren't in control of the game - our midfield can't get the ball and keep it under pressure. In cotlntrast - the Wolves midfield (Brazilian internationals) were able to recieve the ball and keep it.
When we are under pressure - we rush and cause ourselves our own issues. Morsy can hold the ball and yrun, but has been caught out alot this season. Cajuste is our best midfielder by far - but gone in the summer.
Our biggest target in the summer are CM's who can hustle and run like our 2 from last season, but who can keep the ball under pressure and move the ball quickly. Not an easy task - but we are crying out for it |  |
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| Midfield issue on 09:14 - Apr 6 with 1172 views | BloomBlue |
We need to get in some CMs who 1) good enough to help us win promotion but more importantly 2) good enough for the Prem.
We don't want another big rebuilding program when we're promoted to the Prem again.
Look at Brentford, promoted in 2021 and they still have 5 players playing regularly in their Prem team who were playing for them in the Champ 4 years ago, and Brentford not doing too bad. You can get Championship players, of PL level. |  | | |
| Midfield issue on 09:19 - Apr 6 with 1154 views | Blue_Heath |
| Midfield issue on 09:14 - Apr 6 by BloomBlue |
We need to get in some CMs who 1) good enough to help us win promotion but more importantly 2) good enough for the Prem.
We don't want another big rebuilding program when we're promoted to the Prem again.
Look at Brentford, promoted in 2021 and they still have 5 players playing regularly in their Prem team who were playing for them in the Champ 4 years ago, and Brentford not doing too bad. You can get Championship players, of PL level. |
This is where we went wrong, too much change, we needed to buy less but better quality and premier league experienced. There must be Brighton, Fulham, Forest etc players who have been in the dogfight stayed up and now barely play we could have purchased?
Their experience would have given us a chance. It was obvious Morsy/Luongo/Taylor are not premier league quality. That was alongside Delap and Hutchinson where money should have been spent rather than tens of £m's on the defence to barely improve it, if at all? |  | | |
| Midfield issue on 09:34 - Apr 6 with 1108 views | Herbivore |
| Midfield issue on 09:19 - Apr 6 by Blue_Heath |
This is where we went wrong, too much change, we needed to buy less but better quality and premier league experienced. There must be Brighton, Fulham, Forest etc players who have been in the dogfight stayed up and now barely play we could have purchased?
Their experience would have given us a chance. It was obvious Morsy/Luongo/Taylor are not premier league quality. That was alongside Delap and Hutchinson where money should have been spent rather than tens of £m's on the defence to barely improve it, if at all? |
Which experienced Prem players from those sides are you thinking of?
I'd say some of our more Prem experienced players have been some of our biggest disappointments. Johnson has shown glimpses of quality but has largely been pretty poor and he played a decent amount of games at West Ham. Phillips was an England international not so long ago, loads of Prem appearances, but hasn't done anywhere near enough. |  |
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| Midfield issue on 09:41 - Apr 6 with 1075 views | SWLondonBlue93 |
I can't decide whether the issue here is a lack of quality in CM or if it's also partly down to our system. Would having Cajuste and a player of equal ability in there be enough to control games? I'm unconvinced. | | | |
| Midfield issue on 09:46 - Apr 6 with 1051 views | Herbivore |
| Midfield issue on 09:41 - Apr 6 by SWLondonBlue93 |
I can't decide whether the issue here is a lack of quality in CM or if it's also partly down to our system. Would having Cajuste and a player of equal ability in there be enough to control games? I'm unconvinced. |
There was some interesting tactical analysis of us last season where at times in games, Chaplin and Broadhead would drop in to create a 'box four' in midfield and that enabled us to overwhelm teams in the middle and get control of the game. Broadhead and Chaplin haven't featured much this season and the players who've played instead are very different in terms of the traits they bring and I don't think we've been able to create that 'box four' effectively often enough. The link between the tens and the midfield has been a big issue this season, not helped by injuries meaning more rotation in those positions than we'd ideally have liked. [Post edited 6 Apr 9:59]
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| Midfield issue on 09:47 - Apr 6 with 1036 views | Blue_Heath |
| Midfield issue on 09:34 - Apr 6 by Herbivore |
Which experienced Prem players from those sides are you thinking of?
I'd say some of our more Prem experienced players have been some of our biggest disappointments. Johnson has shown glimpses of quality but has largely been pretty poor and he played a decent amount of games at West Ham. Phillips was an England international not so long ago, loads of Prem appearances, but hasn't done anywhere near enough. |
Off the top of my head (not being an expert in PL football) someone like Tom Cairney from Fulham, Willock from Newcastle or Solly March at Brighton? All rarely featured this year from what I have seen? | | | |
| Midfield issue on 09:56 - Apr 6 with 991 views | Garv |
The 'biggest issue' this season is different depending on who you ask. Plenty say our defence is pathetic, lots like yourself say the midfield can't control games, and lots like me say our attack isn't threatening enough and far too lightweight. Some have even suggested if Palmer was in goal from the start we would still have a hope of staying up.
When the biggest issue is essentially 'everything' I think that probably says it all. I think we've been naive at times and not done ourselves justice, but ultimately we just aren't good enough no matter what tactics, formation or team we pick. |  |
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| Midfield issue on 09:57 - Apr 6 with 986 views | bsw72 |
| Midfield issue on 09:47 - Apr 6 by Blue_Heath |
Off the top of my head (not being an expert in PL football) someone like Tom Cairney from Fulham, Willock from Newcastle or Solly March at Brighton? All rarely featured this year from what I have seen? |
Willock not featured due to injury, Cairney played 19 times, so def squad player, Solly March suffered bad knee injury which he only came back from in Dec, and has suffered more injuries in 2025.
Not sure how easy it is to land the type of experienced midfield we keep talking about, we tried with Phillips and Cajuste with mixed success. |  | | |
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| Midfield issue on 09:58 - Apr 6 with 985 views | Herbivore |
| Midfield issue on 09:47 - Apr 6 by Blue_Heath |
Off the top of my head (not being an expert in PL football) someone like Tom Cairney from Fulham, Willock from Newcastle or Solly March at Brighton? All rarely featured this year from what I have seen? |
Cairney has 19 Prem appearances and Willock has 26 so they're both solid squad players at their current clubs. Not impossible to have prised them away but I don't think it'd have been cheap and who knows what kind of wages they're on? March has barely played but he barely played last season, think he's had injury issues hasn't he? Not sure he'd have been what we needed.
What would have been ideal would have been for there to be a Ross Barkley type available as there was for Luton last season. Someone with real top draw pedigree who needed a home and a bit of love. I think we thought Phillips would be that player but it really hasn't worked out. | |
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| Midfield issue on 09:58 - Apr 6 with 985 views | bournemouthblue |
In the summer I thought we had to get more mobility in there and it didn't really happen
Cajuste is a quality player, Phillips I dont think is as bad as a lot of people say but certainly a shadow of the player who played for England.
I suspect whoever gets him next season will benefit sadly from his loan with us.
In isolation they are bigger and tougher than what we had but where was the black market Kante with pace and energy we were crying out for?
We never targeted this profile of midfielder I was suggesting, it's one of a catalogue mistakes we have made and let's be honest, we probably needed a perfect summer to stay up really
I can't get my head around not getting another number 9, Strand Larsen showed the kind of striker we could have had on the books to rival Delap and Hirst
I don't buy the argument that people weren't out there either, I just think we put too many eggs in the Broja basket and were too stubborn with the other options
I wasn't against not resigning Keiffer more provided we found better, Delap has been a find but we haven't had that third option to take the strain off himself and Delap and offer us some different options [Post edited 6 Apr 10:00]
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| Midfield issue on 10:02 - Apr 6 with 932 views | bsw72 |
| Midfield issue on 09:58 - Apr 6 by Herbivore |
Cairney has 19 Prem appearances and Willock has 26 so they're both solid squad players at their current clubs. Not impossible to have prised them away but I don't think it'd have been cheap and who knows what kind of wages they're on? March has barely played but he barely played last season, think he's had injury issues hasn't he? Not sure he'd have been what we needed.
What would have been ideal would have been for there to be a Ross Barkley type available as there was for Luton last season. Someone with real top draw pedigree who needed a home and a bit of love. I think we thought Phillips would be that player but it really hasn't worked out. |
Barkley is an excellent example, the fact he was snapped up by Villa as a squad player shows the challenge we face. | | | |
| Midfield issue on 10:02 - Apr 6 with 930 views | Herbivore |
| Midfield issue on 09:56 - Apr 6 by Garv |
The 'biggest issue' this season is different depending on who you ask. Plenty say our defence is pathetic, lots like yourself say the midfield can't control games, and lots like me say our attack isn't threatening enough and far too lightweight. Some have even suggested if Palmer was in goal from the start we would still have a hope of staying up.
When the biggest issue is essentially 'everything' I think that probably says it all. I think we've been naive at times and not done ourselves justice, but ultimately we just aren't good enough no matter what tactics, formation or team we pick. |
The gap is just too big to bridge. People keep overlooking that we're doing better than Leicester and Saints who only had one season out of the Prem and how haven't had anything like our bad luck with injuries to contend with over the course of the season. The Prem is now about 8 very good sides, 9 solid midtable outfits, and whichever 3 poor mugs come up for a season from the Championship. You need at least one of those 9 solid midtable sides to suffer some sort of crisis to have even a glimmer of a chance, for half a season it looked like that might be Wolves but they've shown that they're a quality side since their change of manager. People talk about losing the midfield battle yesterday, we were up against two Brazil internationals in there. [Post edited 6 Apr 10:06]
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| Midfield issue on 10:58 - Apr 6 with 745 views | Blue_Heath |
| Midfield issue on 09:57 - Apr 6 by bsw72 |
Willock not featured due to injury, Cairney played 19 times, so def squad player, Solly March suffered bad knee injury which he only came back from in Dec, and has suffered more injuries in 2025.
Not sure how easy it is to land the type of experienced midfield we keep talking about, we tried with Phillips and Cajuste with mixed success. |
As I said I am not a PL expert as I don't focus much on others but just players who are premier league quality that I haven't seen play much this year who realistically we might have got. Injuries aside Cairney would surely want to play every week? Just looked at stats only 2 starts. Ogbene got injured as did Szmodics so not sure that is an argument, not sure either Willock or March would have featured in starting line ups that much?
Phillips was a very expensive gamble and I think Cajuste looks better than what he is due to what else we have. Not a bad player but possibly a case of standing out in a poor midfield.
As I said I am no expert but from those clubs we should be better than and aspiring to catch up there must be some players in there, it's not always about being an international or having the biggest name, we needed some experienced honest hard working pros. | | | |
| Midfield issue on 12:40 - Apr 6 with 662 views | BrianTablet |
| Midfield issue on 09:46 - Apr 6 by Herbivore |
There was some interesting tactical analysis of us last season where at times in games, Chaplin and Broadhead would drop in to create a 'box four' in midfield and that enabled us to overwhelm teams in the middle and get control of the game. Broadhead and Chaplin haven't featured much this season and the players who've played instead are very different in terms of the traits they bring and I don't think we've been able to create that 'box four' effectively often enough. The link between the tens and the midfield has been a big issue this season, not helped by injuries meaning more rotation in those positions than we'd ideally have liked. [Post edited 6 Apr 9:59]
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