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Wishbone

Central congestion

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Tettey, O''Neil, Johnson, Howson, Vadis, Andreu, Hoolahan, Mcgrandles and Dorrans to come....which central midfielders do you think Alex Neil will play?

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Personally I don''t rate O''Neil, Johnson, Howson, (Injured or out too much) Tettey (Useless in every aspect apart from the defensive side of the game) McGrandles isn''t ready yet and I haven''t seen enough of Vadis to make a judgement, Hoolahan isn''t a conventional CM and is past his best. I''ve been complaining that CM has been our weakest position for years and I''m very pleased AN also recognises this with the signing of Andreu and hopefully Dorrans in a few weeks. Dedicated DM''s were useful when we were under pressure every week in the PL but at the moment we need complete central midfielders to build our team around

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[quote user="Wishbone"]Tettey, O''Neil, Johnson, Howson, Vadis, Andreu, Hoolahan, Mcgrandles and Dorrans to come....which central midfielders do you think Alex Neil will play?[/quote]Not all of those players are central midfielders.Hoolahan is more of a winger / deep lying attacker. He''s better in the hole, because he doesn''t have all of the attributes you ideally need a CM to have. Same goes for McGrandles.O''Neil, Tettey, Johnson, Vadis, Howson and Andeu are though. If Dorrans comes in he has played RM a lot as well as LM. And O''Neill is also considered a RM/CM in the same vein that Johnson has returned to that role, which he had played before whilst at Leeds.No problem with that many players as long as they can play more than one position well.I would argue though, that we do lack what I would call a ''solid and robust'' midfield. I think sometimes against more physicaly teams, or teams that will push us a bit harder, we need more strength throughout the midfield. You also need them to be able to find a pass.You could look at a midfield of Redmond, Johnson, Howson and E.Bennett and consider it has a nice attacking and forward thinking look to it. But on the other hand you know that defensively, they are not going to be the best midfield as their all round ability isn''t great.Then consider a midfield of say, Johnson, O''Neil, Howson and Dorrans and you start to think that actually, you have four players who will battle for everything, have the ability to create and even score goals. Some will question Johnson, and I get that, but his effectiveness on the left this season has been a bit of an eye opening in how well he has taken to that role.Now I have sort of put out two extremes to highlight the example. But I do feel that as long as we don''t have a stupid number of overall midfielders it might not be a bad thing if it gives us more options rather than three players fighting for one spot.

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It looks like loads of players for the one position, I agree - but as we''ve seen recently - we clearly are lacking in the middle of the park. Some of those listed are kids and a few of them are ''practically'' always injured.

Bradley Johnson and Wes are the only midfielders I think bring anything to our team. The others are passengers...

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Gary O''Neill is the most accomplished midfielder on City''s books defensively and going forward. His distribution is more precise and accurate of short and long passes than the others except perhaps for Wes. However gets around the pitch better than Wes and produces more precise crosses. Vadis may be his equal but who knows. Unlikely Andreu will be as adaptable as GO.

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With Vadis now fit, and Howson available again, we certainly have a bit more to choose from this week!

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I wouldn''t call Vadis fit yet. Needs more game time. Perhaps another week at least.Today was his first game back and it was a development squad behind closed doors friendly. In other words a shared training match more or less.

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I agree with chicken; it is likely to be another couple of weeks before Vadis is considered fit for the first team. Pity, because I''m hoping he can bring some extra attacking quality to the midfield.

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I''d hope we have Vadis on the bench this week.

If we get Dorrans and then suddenly have all the options fit, I think we''d likely see Tettey deep with Andreu and Dorrans more forward thinking. Johnson might get a game on the wing. It''s hard to see all of Howson, Wes, Vadis and O''Neil not playing though but very rarely will all our CM''s be available!

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Wishbone wrote the following post at 04/02/2015 11:25 PM:

Tettey, O''Neil, Johnson, Howson, Vadis, Andreu, Hoolahan, Mcgrandles and Dorrans to come....which central midfielders do you think Alex Neil will play?


Out of the 9 above - not all are available :-

 

Vadis - not fit yet

Hoolahan & Andreu - only if we play a 3 or as one off the stiker

O''Neil - thought he was injurred

McGrandles - L1 standard (Full back picked over him in last home game)

Dorrans - not one of our players

 

If AN playing a midfield 2 he has a choice of Howson, Johnson, Tettey - if it stetches to 3 which it probably will you can add Hoolahan or Andreu to that & possibly Bennett

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I''m going to add to that Newton my friend.

If it''s a 3 then depending on the formation I.e 2 sitting and 1 advanced he could actually play Johnson and Tettey with Howson as the advanced.

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u right he could RTB

He probably will - listening to him last week on the radio he seemed to favour winning the midfield battle - he stated brentford were on top in this area & thats why they won

He was right we were too open

 

Probaly Hooly & Andreu will be on the Bench - looking forward to saturday

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[quote user="Newton"]

u right he could RTB

He probably will - listening to him last week on the radio he seemed to favour winning the midfield battle - he stated brentford were on top in this area & thats why they won

He was right we were too open

 

Probaly Hooly & Andreu will be on the Bench - looking forward to saturday

[/quote]If his clearance comes through. It hasn''t yet.

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