Doc IMO is not suited to the defensive midfield role, he is susceptible to mistakes and his first touch is not good enough. He brings energy to the side, as does Slater, but Slater is much better on the ball than Doc. He is a reasonable squad player, but I think he is not up to the level we are at or are hoping to achieve.
Bird’s not a very physical player tbh. Rosenior seems obsessed with having stick insects and the vertically-challenged in those holding midfield roles. Only Docherty provides any sort of physicality in that position and he’s not good enough on the ball and will probably leave. Bird would be a good back-up to Seri but he doesn’t offer anything we don’t already have. Seri, Slater, Morton and Bird if we sign him are all lightweight. For the team that makes the fewest challenges in the league, we’re sorely missing physicality in that department. Also, Warne has been playing Bird as a #10 this season with Smith and Hourihane behind him.
Out of interest, where have you got that info about Bird's position from? I've just looked at the last three league game match threads on the Derby forum and Bird's been the deepest playing midfielder in all of them (alongside Hourihane). Though I also notice that their fans seem keen on going for Joe White to replace Bird if he comes to us and he is an attacking midfield player.
He was playing him as a #10 before he got injured. He played as a #10 recently against Northampton as well with Hourihane as the deepest midfielder.
It's maybe that Liam doesn't think we need a physical type in a deep position. I am not sure what Seri's plans are, whether he will stay after his contract finishes, Tyler Morton would be the ideal replacement, he is not physical but like Seri technically very good. Maybe Bird is seen as a long term replacement for this position, as Tyler is likely to be out of our price range.
We need another energy midfielder alongside Bird in january to be honest. Doc was close to going and I would wager that's back on the table now that he's fit. We'd never get him but if we were looking at league 1 someone like Cameron Brannagan would fit the bill. Good on the ball and has enough about him to fit a championship midfield
To be fair. You can have a Seri/Morton type as your deepest player. I do agree though we need someone to help stop transitions. Slater was patching that hole at points and you can see the gaps now he's been out.
Didn't he even say as much (doesn't think we need a physical type, not that the earth is flat, which it isn't)? He knows way more about football than I do #obvs, but on this he is very wrong.
He said something along the lines of "not every team needs certain types of players" and I'm probably hugely misremembering so could be a bit off. Could be justification as to not getting certain targets maybe. He's always championed he's happy with the current squad but that is just media talk
He is wrong because the best teams with managers much more experienced and better than he is all have physical ball-winners as the anchor of their midfields. They've spent tens of millions on them in fact. Arteta had Partey but he wanted Rice as an upgrade so he asked Arsenal's board to shell out for him. Chelsea wanted a young, athletic ball-winner and were prepared to spend over £100 million on Caicedo. In the end, they bought three (Caicedo, Lavia and Ugochukwu). Man City have Rodri. Real Madrid have Tchouaméni and Camavinga. PSG recently bought Ugarte. I think it's just copium by Rosenior because he doesn't have as much pull as he thinks he does in signing players and he also prefers younger, impressionable players to mould in his image instead of experienced and established pros. Ball-winning defensive midfielders are usually leaders in the dressing room and quite assertive characters. He wants someone like Bird who he's worked with before and can have him under his thumb. He's also obsessed with possession and ball-retention so having midfielders capable of winning the ball back is at the back of his mind. 'If we have the ball a lot we won't need to win it back as much' seems to be his philosophy. It's flawed though because we won't have 70%+ possession every game like against Huddersfield. Some games we'll be under the cosh and other games we'll play against a team that sits deep but counter-attacks with pace and we need a mobile but physically-strong and aggressive midfielder to combat that.
Yep. Maybe not 100% (bit of conjecture in there) but near enough how it seems to me too, and I'd guess many others.
Huh orange are you sure you’re replying to the right person. I haven’t posted for ages now. Other than earlier when I mentioned about another lb as suggested by HT2. I have no idea what your to say to your reply…sorry
Don't believe all you see, it'll also make Greenland look far bigger than it actually is. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
The greatest club side ever had Busquets anchoring their midfield, who Harry Vaughan could beat in an arm wrestle.
I'd argue that's down to having one of the best CB pairings in the league and generally being in control of games. As we saw against WBA we are a bit poor in transition which Slater often sorted
