No defensive midfielders

[Matt Morriss 69]

Pilkington, Fox, Hoolahan, Surman.

None blessed with defensive ability, and i think its one of the first times this season weve started without either Crofts or Johnson, who i dont think have added the defensive steel they were supposed to.

We controlled the midfield well yesterday, however Bolton were terrible. Do we think we can continue against the better teams without Johnson or Crofts?

[grantroederdisaster 0]

I like Johnson whos added something to our game but hes not as good as some make out. Hes slow and not very mobile!

 

Crofts will always be a 110% slogger but hasn''t the quality and like Johnson mobility needed to be a consistantly adequate Premiership player!

 

Although you need a squad and both are certainly good enough for that!

 

Yesterday was a great performance considering the upheavals the team had to contend with but Bolton were powderpuff and 90% of games in the top flight will be much harder than that, though I''d have no problems putting Bennett at RB again and Naughten at CB if we had to. Russell Martin in my opinion is better at CB than RB in this Division cause at RB his lack of pace gets exposed to much!

[Canary_on_the Trent 0]

I''ve been calling for Lambert to look for a more rounded holding player for a while now.

Not all teams will sit off like Bolton yesterday.

[pete_norw 0]

[quote user="Canary_on_the Trent"]I''ve been calling for Lambert to look for a more rounded holding player for a while now. Not all teams will sit off like Bolton yesterday.[/quote]

How about Mr Blobby,he''s nice and round

[Salopian 1]

Nerxt week at Swansea we shall need something special creatively from the midfield against a very tough defence. We shall also need real mobility to counter the pace of Sinclair and others.

 

The implications? I doubt if steel on its own will do. Neither Johnson nor Crofts are particularly quick, so there could be an argument for Bennett. The problem is to accommodate Pilkington, who has become a "must play" every bit as much as Wes. I think that we could revert to the lone striker plus Wes behind, with two wingers plus Surman and one other in the midfield.

[Gingerpele 0]

Swansea next week will be interesting.

When we played them at Carrow Road, we let them have possession, just sat back and hit them on the counter, Swansea probably had between 60-70% of the ball that game, but because we didn''t pressure much up the field, but kept tight at the back, all they could do was pass it around in their own half and the middle, and whenever they got to the final third the options were severely limited.

I hope Lambert goes for the same approach, I think we could stick with the same team, and do very well, well by the same team, I mean same midfield and attack, not sure on the defence yet, Whitbread will probably be fit I reckon, so him R.Martin CB, Naughton at right and either Drury or Tierney LB.

As for defensive midfielders, half the time Johnson doesn''t appear to ever be near the ball to actually win it (Fulham first half) and other times he''s a pretty good all round players, wins the ball and passes it around well enough (Fulham second half), Crofts seems to have turned into Gary Holt. And Fox doesn''t appear to know what a tackle is, so all we have in midfield a lot of the time, is chasers. Which is still good enough, it puts pressure on the other team, and it obviously works some of the time... But not all of the time.

[Jacko 0]

Fox is a defensive midfielder and very good one. The main hallmark of a good holding midfielder isn''t the ability to thunder into massive challenges. It''s the ability to accept the ball off the back four, sometimes under pressure and then passing the ball quickly getting the team on the move. I think he should start the vast majority of games because I don''t think anyone else in the time can do what he does.

[ZLF 335]

The midfield defend as a team;  Fox puts in as many tackles as crofts and BJ together but can also pass far better;   surman consistently covers more ground than any other player in a mtach,  working back well.   Wes & pilkington consistently defend deep so I agree that we dont have defensive midfielders,   but those 4,  our best 4 midfielders this season,  are creative midfielders who can keep possession while defending well too - works well in a diamond.

I would use the same 4 in a 4 man midfield, my preferred 4-2-3-1 with surman and fox deep and bennett joining pilkington and Wes further up the pitch.  In howson we may now have an alternative for Wes,   the rest are decent squad subs only 

 

  

[Gingerpele 0]

[quote user="Jacko"]Fox is a defensive midfielder and very good one. The main hallmark of a good holding midfielder isn''t the ability to thunder into massive challenges. It''s the ability to accept the ball off the back four, sometimes under pressure and then passing the ball quickly getting the team on the move. I think he should start the vast majority of games because I don''t think anyone else in the time can do what he does.[/quote]

Holding midfielder and defensive midfielder are two different things aren''t they? You get your passers (Fox, Alonso etc) and you get your ball winners (Essien, Busquets).

[Jacko 0]

I think those two you have mentioned are effectively a fusion of the two. Hence why they are the best in the world at what they do. But I remember reading an interview with Xavi where he couldn''t understand the English obsession with tackling.

He didn''t understand how a big challenge could come in and the ball would then be hacked into the stand getting a standing ovation from the crowd when you have given the ball completing defeating the objective of winning it back in the first place.

[Gingerpele 0]

Well Lambert then appears to have the Xavi way of thinking. We aren''t big tacklers, we either pressure all over the pitch, or sit back and wait for the ball to come to us, then counter. Lambert to be the next Barca manager?

[lake district canary 0]

I''ve been hoping all season that we would have the nerve to play without Johnson or Crofts type of player.    Just play the best footballers and let the  team play.    They can all tackle and harry the opposition when needed.    You put the best ball players on the field and because they are the best ballplayers will be able to keep the ball away from the opposition more easily. As happened yesterday.

 

Against Sunderland we couldn''t keep the ball - why? Because we were being defensive minded - and we still got beat good and proper.  It shows that the best approach is a positive one.   Put your best passers, ball players, whatever you want to call them on the pitch and you are more likely to get a performance.   Thats what happened yesterday.   Its what Swansea do too and they are doing pretty well too.  

 

We are developing as a club and as we near the stage of staying in this league, we can afford to experiment with a more progressve type of play and take that into next season.