The problem is the Midfield

[Salopian 1]

The manager had spotted what we have all seen, that if Hux is playing, and also Ashton and Mckenzie, then we have an ineffective midfield of only three.

His solution at Southampton was to make Hux a striker, drop McK and have four across the midfield. The result was that when Hux wandered Ashton was on his own in the centre. Worse still, they regarded him as a target man, and supplied him with plenty of high balls to knock down to a non-existent fellow striker.

The Quandry is:
Should we drop Hux, have two strikers and four in the midfield? As he is our only danger man, the answer must be no. The service from the midfield is so poor that we need him.
Should we play him as a midfielder, or as one of a front three?- these amount to the same. Yes, but only if we have sufficient quality in the midfield.

There is the centre of our problem - in ineffective midfield. Marney, who cannot take corners, but otherwise pumps long balls from the touchline to Ashton marked by one or two defenders, makes little other contribution. Yesterday Brennan seemed to be more effective, but seems to lose his nerve or run out of ideas when he gets in the final quarter of the pitch. Hughes makes too many bad passes. Safri is consistently good but hardly brilliant, while the jury is out on Jarrett, - he seems a little lightweight.

Compare our four with Southampton''s two - Quashie and Oakley, never mind the other two. They were much more threatening, and provided greater variety in attack than us. I am sorry to say, that if our midfield are all fit now, it is beginning to look as if we have one of the weakest midfields in the division! And with all due respect to Worthy they are not exactly numerous.

[Alex Harvey-Jones 0]

What about a team of

Green

Colin Shacks Fleming Brennan

Safri

Marney Hughes

Huckerby

Ashton McKenzie

That way Huckerby can drop deep into midfield but also play in the hole between the front two. Ashton can win headers and high balls while we can play balls into McKenzie with his pace. Safri can provide a holding and passing role while Hughes can use his energy and Marney his passing in midfield!

[huck tastic<IMG src="http:new.pinkun.comforumsimagesline.gif"><BR><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Bryan Hamilton could turn this around...<BR><FONT> 0]

[quote]The manager had spotted what we have all seen, that if Hux is playing, and also Ashton and Mckenzie, then we have an ineffective midfield of only three. His solution at Southampton was to make Hux a ...[/quote]

Dead right. Superb post.

Huckerby is the key player. We''ve got the best out of him playing in the wide left role, and basically accepting that there is going to be a vulnerability down that side when we lose the ball. The first time we tried this I think was the 4-4 draw at Rotherham, and I remember 3 of their goals coming from crosses or build up play down that side. Other side of the coin of course, Huck going forward tore Rotherham to shreds, as he did repeatedly that year.

Huckerby is far less effective centrally. He doesn''t like high balls, or playing with his back to goal and he''s not a natural finisher. Its far easier for sides to mark him tightly when he plays in the middle and when he drifts left it just isolates his strike partner. Worthington seems though to persist in the idea of ''shoring up'' the left hand side with a Brennan or Charlton for perceived tougher away games, even though it seems really just to render us fairly toothless going forward.