After the recent string of results, people are quick to blame the defence or the tactics or whatever but ignore the real problem - our awful midfield. Our defence and attack have had the most investment and personally I say that they are quality - above average for this league - but unfortuntely we have a League 1 or below standard midfield that ruins everything good about them. Central Midfielders Danns - is all attack and no defence, runs around but nothing really comes from it. Wellens - tries to do too much and fails most of the time Drinkwater - potential but has been playing at League 1 level previously and it shows King - injured Left Mid/Wing Dyer - runs fast but does sweet FA else Schlupp - converted sticker and plays like one (doesn't know what else to do but shoot) Right Mid/Wing Marshall - see comment for Drinkwater Gallaghar - see comment for Schlupp. Vassell - <injured> As you can see our midfield is threadbare - only 6 of them are actual midfielders and we have no defensive players among them. This means that we have no ball winners, thus no procession which means that the defence is constantly under pressure and our attack is rendered useless. Would be alright if they were good at attacking but that is not the case either - we need a whole new midfield. Expect the next transfer window to be as busy as last year's was - although hopefully not was wasteful as Sven was on the likes of Paintsil and Mills.
In the summer I would sell Wellens given us a midfield of Danns, Drinkwater, King, and at least 1 or 2 new signings We also need at least 1 or 2 more wingers. Lloyd Dyer will only do as a bit part player
Dyer has blistering pace but no end product, panics quite easily and ends up scuffing crosses straight across the ground to defenders. Gally is on and off, but its more off than on. Danns does a good job imo. Drinkwater and Marshall, as said above, have potential. King needs to go back to pushing up the field, it messes up defenders when he used to run in between our attackers, his game has suffered because he tried to do too much of an "overall" game (box to box kind of thing) Wellens ... meh, its easy to say hes too old, but he does a good holding midfielder role, which SHOULD give Danns/King/Drinkwater more flexibility to attack, even though they usually dont push up far enough. I still want Whittingham in the summer if Cardiff fail to go up, hes one of the best in this league at crosses and free kicks (as we all unfortunatly know). .... 95% of his crosses beat the first man ....
Agree with virtually everything you say ... on Wellens - good technical player but has not got the energy etc to break up oppositon attacks .. Oh for a Neil Lennon. Ali Mauchlen or Steve Kember (realise the last 2 may be alien for our younger viewers!)
thing is dyer is slated far too much he plays a role not as a winger but off the strikers in a free role! he created so much against chelsea (top class premier league opposition) and still he is criticised. He is a real tryer and maybe as a winger he lacks the crossing ability but as for pass and movement he is responsible for so many chances created. I don't know why its the common belief that you need out and out wingers in this league?? dyer plays as inside forwards and it is effective!!
You make some good points but if you wanted evidence for why wing play is needed you only have to look back to the Derby game ... Dyer beat the full-back got to the buy-line and pulled it back - Danns converted with keeper stranded - these are the most dangerous crosses of all - not only are the strikers facing the right way when the ball comes in, defenders can quite often put them in their own nets too ..
We need a proper **** of a central midfielder. None of this fancy sideways passing. Someone who will take games by the scruff of it's neck. Lee Catermole, Cheik Tiote, Nigel de Jong... Someone of their ilk.
Gally must be the worst player I've seen at taking corners ! Against Chelsea he was useless.. Everyone went along the ground or just above it to the first Chelsea player on the post.
Everyone is equal at the start of the season, plus i think they could hold out for alot of cash for him.
I'm right behind Nigel but the tactics against Chelsea were so naive. Going toe to toe with them in their own back yard was always going to be suicidal, especially with our midfield. The game was lost after 20 mins. Why didn't Nigel park the bus?
Because it's not how he plays. We'd have been beaten if we'd parked the bus anyway. I'm happy that we played as we did. It made the day much more enjoyable than a 1-0 or 2-0 would have done.
I agree. Why not have a go. We could have parked the bus, had a boring game and lose about 2-0. And then 6000 Leicester fans would of moaned that we sat back. We took Norwich on and won. Blackpool took every team on last season and didnt do too badly at times Better to have a go and lose 5-2 in a one off game rather then sit there and lose.
Who knows whether we would have been beaten. I bet we would have been in the game longer than 20 mins. Surely you should use the tactics that gives your team the best chance of winning with the talent that you have available. If still then go on to lose its not because you have sent the team out with the wrong game plan.
We lost to Chelsea simply because they are better then us. We didnt have the players to deal with Juan Mata or Daniel Sturridge. If we tried to shut up shop we wouldnt of got close to their goal line because Beckford would of been on his own up top and he cant hold a ball up so he would be taking on at least 3 people everytime he got the ball
At the end of the day you can only get out of this league if the team gels. The PL teams that kept the nucleus of there squads all went straight back up. If you are putting a team together for the first time then you cant play attractive football because the team simply wont flow and dont know each other. In those circumstances you need to play dirty football to get out of the league. Look at Saints and Brighton this season - neither squad on paper makes you worried however they have played together for consecutive seasons. When we were promoted from L1 we went straight into the play-offs. Nigel needs to revert to his prefered back 4 and leave them be. If players like SSL start to moan then let them leave - because the rotation is messing us about. Nigel also needs to have any replacements/additions sorted early in the transfer window so they can play and train together.
We have no recognised central midfielders fit for the Hull game. http://www.thisisleicestershire.co....njury-crisis/story-15599600-detail/story.html We have no-one even half decent in the reserves/acedemy too - what a crap squad we have.
Matt Oakley is on the verge of leaving Neil Danns was a doubt for Blackpool but he played. I cant see all 3 missing the game and if they do i think Ben Marshall and Sol Bamba will do a job for us. We have options still. And we could change the formation. Play Mills and St. Ledger at the back with Morgan and Bamba sitting in front of them. Kind of a 4-2-2-2 formation and just leave Dyer and Marshall supporting Nugent and Beckford with Peltier and Konchesky getting forward to support. Sol Bamba will end up going forward anyway so we will still have numbers going forward
The problem with bamba being given a license to attack (i.e. if made a DM or outright midfielder) is that he is usually quite poor with backtracking when possession is lost!
