Not sure Iborra offers any more than Silva in a defensive midfield role. Both can be slow and get caught dwelling on the ball in dangerous positions. And neither are great ball winners either. I prefer my defensive midfielders to live up to the title and be good defensively. Leave the creative stuff to the ones playing further forward.
When Mendy gets fit? When has he ever been fit? He's the most injured player I can ever remember. What is his latest injury and when did it happen? Did he play much when he was on loan? Per playing minute for us he must be the most expensive player we've ever had.
Thats the complete issue though.... Silva ISNT living up to his title (or reputation)
I think the central midfield position is the next one to address. Ndidi is obviously fine, but all the other options really aren’t bringing much to the team. Hopefully Choudhry will flourish eventually, but in the meantime it’s just a player that’s not making a telling contribution.
Definitely need to move some on from centre mid before buying though. James is surely surplus and Kingy (as much of club legend he is). I guess if you kept King you’d move on Iborra or Silva and of course there’s Mendy. You’d probably want 5 in the position so Ndidi, Choudhury, 2 of Silva, Iborra and King plus a new signing but it’s one of them where just make sure any new signing is both a massive improvement and has a different style to what we already have as we have done enough stocking up on quantity not quality since the title win
Silva and his Portuguese sidekick William Carvalho are the same type of players. They are what Eric Cantona would call water carriers. They make themselves available for passes from team mates then just pass the ball on to the nearest player in space without any meaningful ambition. They suit that team well but have no defined strengths to their game. They aren't strong defensively and they aren't creative. Silva is no better than Andy King. His stats might look good because he makes plenty of passes, but there's no end product. It can be a problem trying to bring in players from southern European leagues who look good in their own environment with twenty odd easy games a season, and getting them to adapt to the speed and intensity of 38 competitive Premier League games. Pereira on the other hand has a more defined role and looks more the part.
More I think about it, the more I think that Ndidi could be the problem - Silva had to address him continuously straying from position and losing the ball in silly areas when he was supposed to be a more solid presence in the middle and lay off the ball to the wingers.
Ndidi is the only midfielder we have that does his job week in and week out. He wins tackles, breaks the opposition play up. He needs someone next to him who is more ambitious and creative with their play
Ndidi is really good at pressing and winning the ball but afterwards what does he do? More often then not he ends up losing the ball while out of position. He needs to learn how to pass 10 feet.
I’d quite like to see James next to N’didi in this system... or am I going crazy!? I actually rate James a lot
