I think our midfield is far too ****e
Exactly.
Good lord, it's like none of you have watched football before. Under Bruce/Ashley, that's perhaps understandable, but EVERY time we play two of our ****ty midfielders we get over-run in midfield. We MUST have 3 in the middle, and even then it'll be difficult because Bruce keeps picking the wrong ones so they get no time to gel together.
It's why, even when we play 5 at the back, teams score against us for fun because there's just two in the middle who are both so poor they get played around. 4-4-2 would be an absolute disaster; where's Max going to play? As a lazy left winger leaving Lewis 2v1? Or as a striker, and out of position? Joelinton equally isn't going to do well as a LM. And in midfield, who are we playing? Lazy disinterested Willock, who's weak as piss, alongside committed but poor Hayden?! Teams would just walk through that, have huge gaps out wide and be able to easily play between the lines.
3-5-2 makes a bit of sense, but Bruce can't work out how to play it correctly so we end up unbalanced. 4-3-3 suits the personnel we have, the ones who can at least play football. Again, we're a bit knackered because Bruce doesn't know what he's doing (and obviously taking most of the week off, so how we're supposed to learn how to do it is beyond me) but if we at least played to our strengths it gives us a chance.