Why is our midfield underperforming (attacking wise)?? After 15 games (incl cup) between them have scored a paltry 2 goals, compared to our defence who have scored 6..and then you have assists - our midfield have assisted in 4 goals, compared to 9 from our defence. Is this because of Mick's style of play, where he likes teams to defend first? Is this the quality and calibre of midfielders, who are just not capable or good enough in going forward and helping out the attack? In my opinion this is a combination of both..MM is a very defence minded manager, his tactics are first and foremost to not lose a game - therefore the players he picks, along with these tactics, means that there is generally a lot of pressure on our forward line scoring and being on top of their game. So what is the solution? The two options which have been banded about on this board, is to either play Taylor or Wordsworth in place of (probably) Hyam. This then gives us either a bit of pace in Taylor, or the possible creativity of wordsworth. The other option i've heard, is to go to a 532 formation. Have the 3 CB's (Berra, Smith and Chambers) play in centre (obviously) with Cresswell and Hewitt as wing backs. This option then gives one of the CM's a licence to play higher up the pitch and support the 2 up front. I personaly would like to see MM try out both of these options..and if they work, then these tactics can be used to change a game that maybe isn't going our way, as opposed to just doing the standard Murphy off Nouble on substitution.
Our best attacking options from midfield are probably Martin and JET... oh ****. We let them go and brought Nouble in
"sigh" - what a sad state of affairs when we sometimes wished we still had martin and jet in our team.
Always liked Martin and JET. Always frustrating but had something extra in there locker that our current starting 11 don't have. In saying that, Taylor may prove to be better than Martin on the Wings if he gets in to the starting 11, and... No.. can't think of a better version of JET we have in our team, which is a depressing thought as JET has now "found his level". The 532 would be the one i'd prefer to see, my only doubt would be if Cresswell and Hewitt would suffer from not having protection from a LM/RM being on the pitch. Cresswell was contained enough by Barnsley on Friday.
In all fairness Tipsy...playing against the likes of Barnsley and Yeovil is not quite the same as Man City and Cheslean and Man Utd. Our midfield should be bossing these games, instead they are playing like a bunch of 10 year olds!
I think if we didn't have skuse and hyam in the centre we would be a bit exposed, I would like to see a bit more creativity out wide, with Anderson and Tunners in both wide positions it is just all a bit predictable. maybe its time for Carlos to replace Anderson, or as others have said change formation.
This sums MM up if its true...sign Kane on loan, and send Marriott out...FFS why doesn't he give Marriott a run out instead of that plank Nouble?
No, but surely he can't do any worse than Nouble. In all the sub appearances Nouble has made, how many goal contributions has he made? How many games has he changed coming on? That, my friend, i can answer confidentally....a big fat zero!
In a backward sort of way it does make sense. Kane's current level maybe excellent championship player. Marriott's maybe league 1. Where's the harm in allowing them both to get playing experience to develop? Although I do agree that Marriott should be playing ahead of Nouble.
Did you watch the game on Friday night? He nearly got on the end of that whipped cross and could have earned us a penalty!
is the Kane thing a definate warky? with regards our dire midfield,i like the idea of cressy and hewitt in wb roles,take anderson out cos in my eyes he's not performimg. put carlos back in there,he showed he still had the desire at the end of last season. and if marriot is on the bench lets give him a run out for last 20. he sure as hell cant do any worse than nouble.
haha I was just joking guys! Haven't seen much of you this season tbh. But the championship as a whole seems to be decreasing in quality? At least in terms of some of the football played. That maybe unfair, but wouldn't be unsurprising as the financial gap continues to grow. Likewise some of the prem teams are becoming more and more defensive and almost scared to win (No NCFC jokes please). Almost feels like football is in a transition from the stereotypical high paced game we used to see and teams trying to play more of a "spanish" style passing game. Although most are no where near good enough yet.
Also good luck if you get Kane! He was pretty rubbish tbh but maybe in the Championship. You look at players like Vokes who did nothing for ages but seems to of found his place now.
TBH honest Warky from my view if that chance he SHOULD have got on to the end of that cross. Kane is going to be a better bet at this time than Marriot, although I do agree that Nouble is not good enough at this level.! As for the pen....I know its been windy this week but....
Anderson and Hyam are half the reason why our midfield is ineffective, they are not Championship players, and the pairing of Hyam and Skuse is just daft, they are too alike. Our lack of goals speaks for itself, Tunnicliffe at least supplies some creativity, and Skuse is a good anchor man, but we have no midfield player with any pace, an important weapon in modern football, we never make any central or flank attacks at speed, because we have nobody to do it
