Guest Col city fan Posted 26 November 2016 Posted 26 November 2016 Just now, jim5000 said: The thing is, the other players have been poor but in most areas of the pitch you can get away with being a limited, specialist player. Midfield is obviously the heart of the team and has a massive impact on attack and defense. Amartey and King were not doing that much worse than the others, it's just the impact on the game of having a poor midfield pair is huge. Well done mate. You get it. Nail on head.
dayday Posted 26 November 2016 Posted 26 November 2016 4 hours ago, Col city fan said: Are all those people saying Amartey is ok, because they are HOPING he'll be ok? Because he's young and learning etc.? The player I see is cumbersome, will never score many goals, doesn't read the game, looks afraid and finally, is good in the air (there's a positive) Genuine question....this forum has always surprised me in terms of how some posters see football and footballers. But is anybody genuinely seeing something I'm not, in Amartey? We have nearly lost there today, at home, against Borough. And we now have a run of difficult games. Am I missing something? I think you are being harsh, he's playing because the recruitment has been shit. I actually think in time he will be a good addition it's just he's been thrown in the deep end. Im sure whatever happens this season he will become a better player for it, whatever happened to learning your trade.
shade Posted 26 November 2016 Posted 26 November 2016 5 hours ago, Col city fan said: Are all those people saying Amartey is ok, because they are HOPING he'll be ok? Because he's young and learning etc.? The player I see is cumbersome, will never score many goals, doesn't read the game, looks afraid and finally, is good in the air (there's a positive) Genuine question....this forum has always surprised me in terms of how some posters see football and footballers. But is anybody genuinely seeing something I'm not, in Amartey? We have nearly lost there today, at home, against Borough. And we now have a run of difficult games. Am I missing something? a few marauding runs, few decent tackles...
sm1 Posted 26 November 2016 Posted 26 November 2016 The problem with our CM, more so then the players, is we play one player less then most teams, so any weaknesses are highlighted. If a lot of other CMs in the PL played in a two man midfield like ours they would look limited too. Only a freak of nature like Kante made it look easy, without him its nigh on impossible, hence why very few teams play this system.
sdb Posted 26 November 2016 Posted 26 November 2016 Neither CM is terrible but neither is great either, so we bypass them, making us incredibly easy to play against. Our 2 slow CB's are exposed and our 2 lightweight strikers are left to feed off long (mostly aimless) balls. Not a great recipe for success.
Livid Posted 26 November 2016 Posted 26 November 2016 I agree with the OP and a lot of what has been said on this thread. Centre Midfield is the engine room of the team. Mendy was meant to be Kante's replacement. They cover defensively and drive us forward, if we were at full strength in CM the defence wouldn't be so exposed, they obvious miss Kasper as well, and better service would be given to our forwards. We could get away with Drinkwater, carrying the team was taking its toll on his game, and a n other for the odd game but not for a third of the season, and now Drinkwater is injured we're screwed. King and Amartey are stop gap players. Wether Amartey can bridge the gap to be a starter who knows, but he's not at that level right now. I thought the price Sporting were asking for Silva was extortion but in hindsight we should have paid up.
bpfox Posted 26 November 2016 Posted 26 November 2016 we need William carvalho the bloke is quick has a great touch and his passing is great, I also think we could do with two new midfielders that how poor our lot are at present, but CARVALHO IS A MUST EVEN AT 30 MILLION, or are season is gone.
RoyFox Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 Amartey is basically a black Dean Hammond. Same attributes, same potential. Today we fielded a worse center midfield pairing than our Championship winning side. Anyone thinking Amartey is going to be 'great' is deluded, he doesn't have any vision to pick out a man. No creativity whatsoever. He also let Negredo through for the first goal, sadly he doesn't have any awareness defensively either. However it's not his fault, it's down to sh*te recruitment, Vardy and Mahrez massively underperforming, an ageing defensive partnership (hindered by a lack of midfield protection) and a reserve goal keeper with zero prescence, who's sketchy at crosses and becomes nervy under the slightest bit of pressing.
Royston. Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 stating the obvious drinkwater and kante bossed it last season. lose kante replace him with mendy who gets serious injury and our back up players amartey and king are expected to cut it at this level which they arent. we missed out on silva in the summer but did we have no other midfield options lined up to recruit? we're limping towards the next window and cr's formation is highlighting a painful vulnerability. is no one in the back room staff or even the players even suggesting to cr we need a midfield three?
sylofox Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 6 hours ago, Matt said: Defence is my big worry. The midfield is a concern but not a big a concern as the defence. Wes can go i'm afraid, I'm quite sure what happened to him last season but normal service has resumed. Who is going to take Wes on his new contract? No prem side would want him and no championship side could afford him. As I said in another thread our squad is getting like the squad Sven left. To old not good enough on huge wages with long term contracts. How many Gally's do we have now? 5 hours ago, stevelcfc said: The whole team is the problem, there's not one area of the pitch we can say at present is quality. Won't argue with that.
Foxxed Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 If Drinky is the only decent central midfielder at current, play him in the centre alone, with Shinji dropping back. Vardy Mahrez Shinji Gray Drinky Albrighton Fuch Huth Morgan Simpson Use Slim as an option up front if either Vardy or Mahrez aren't up to it. Musa as a option for Gray.
Donut Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 The biggest problem with the squad is a complete lack of technical ability. In all positions. I simply cannot believe how bad, and how little confidence any of our players have in passing the ball. Some players dont even want the ball.
J.Lisemore Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 Unfortunate for Amartey that he's been chucked into the deep end with our lack of CM's, through no fault of his own. King on the other hand has no excuse, he's the more experienced and should be at least trying to take the game by the scruff of the neck, but no.. again he goes into hiding playing pointless sideway/backward passes. Both are too timid and if we carry on playing 4-4-2 with this pair, we won't be far off relegation by May.
Royston. Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 22 minutes ago, Foxxed said: If Drinky is the only decent central midfielder at current, play him in the centre alone, with Shinji dropping back. Vardy Mahrez Shinji Gray Drinky Albrighton Fuch Huth Morgan Simpson Use Slim as an option up front if either Vardy or Mahrez aren't up to it. Musa as a option for Gray. drinkwater is hindered enough even when he has a defensive partner so not sure how effective he'd be on his own. unless there is another freak of nature out there capable of doing the work of two players then we need two players doing the dirty work while drinkwater concentrates on making things happen.
Royston. Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 20 minutes ago, Donut said: The biggest problem with the squad is a complete lack of technical ability. In all positions. I simply cannot believe how bad, and how little confidence any of our players have in passing the ball. Some players dont even want the ball. yeah what the fúck do you do if youre simpson, morgan, huth or fuchs??? you cant help but hoof it because no one wants it unless its drinkwater dropping back or a risky ball out wide to a light weight mahrez, vardy dosent want it to feet either.
Spicer Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 Whilst I agree midfield is a huge problem, it is not the only problem. In my opinion our defense is just as bad. Morgan especially has been poor this season with Huth also playing much worse than before. We are so easy to cut through. I agree with the earlier posts about how today's central midfield was worse than the one that gained us promotion. (James-Drinkwater)
Guest Col city fan Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 6 hours ago, Spicer said: Whilst I agree midfield is a huge problem, it is not the only problem. In my opinion our defense is just as bad. Morgan especially has been poor this season with Huth also playing much worse than before. We are so easy to cut through. I agree with the earlier posts about how today's central midfield was worse than the one that gained us promotion. (James-Drinkwater) Yes it is. If you think about it, it's actually quite amazing that the Champions of England could yesterday field that central midfield pairing. One that is worse (or no better) than the one that got us promoted. Its ridiculous.
Nick Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 I agree with the OP though do not think we'll go down - that's taking it too far. I think Mendy, King and Amartey will be second choice for the central midfield positions but for me that means we need two first choice players. One of these is Drinks the other is floating round out there somewhere - let's hope it's Adrien Silva in 6 weeks time. We need some serious quality in there long term - I do wonder if our interest has waned though as I think anyone we buy, Raneiri would prefer them to be eligible for CL selection.
yorkie1999 Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 In hindsight we should have never rewarded the players with massive contracts. We should have paid them a bonus for winning the league and if they wanted to go, let them and then replaced them. We're going to end up with 34-35 year old players stuck on massive wages. Why we bought slimani, god knows, ulloa is just as good. Kante was the only position we needed to do something about. What did Walsh say, we play drinky down the middle and kante either side of him, well there's the answer, should have bought a couple of cms and gone 3 in the middle. And also huth and Morgan, bless em, need to realise that they're not the heart of some super skillfull Italian defence with amazing ball control, but a couple of beefy cloggers.
RoyFox Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 1 hour ago, yorkie1999 said: In hindsight we should have never rewarded the players with massive contracts. We should have paid them a bonus for winning the league and if they wanted to go, let them and then replaced them. We're going to end up with 34-35 year old players stuck on massive wages. Why we bought slimani, god knows, ulloa is just as good. Kante was the only position we needed to do something about. What did Walsh say, we play drinky down the middle and kante either side of him, well there's the answer, should have bought a couple of cms and gone 3 in the middle. And also huth and Morgan, bless em, need to realise that they're not the heart of some super skillfull Italian defence with amazing ball control, but a couple of beefy cloggers. Disagree about Ulloa being as good as Slimani. Slimani is much more of a threat and an upgrade IMO. Ulloa isn't able to press for 90 minutes, Slimani can and is happy to do so.
justfoxes Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 The problem is a lot more than the Midfield!
Chico1958 Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 I watched the MOTD and Sky play backs We looked brilliant What's the problem All joking aside, nothing's going to change unless James and Mendy have a miraculous recovery. Over to you Claudio, work your magic But on the same subject, Slimani really looked like he cared at the end of the game........... Pride that's what we're missing
foxes21 Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 Remember Pre-Season? Liam Moore played in the 4-4-1-1, as a holding central midfielder. Protecting the back four and linking the play. That was going to be Mendy's role and it would of allowed Drinkwater more creative freedom. I don't think we should write off the 4-4-1-1, until we've seen Mendy in this role & how well he protects the defence & links with Drinkwater. Pre-Season interview with Claudio: 'We can still play 4-4-2 without Kante, but we must play it a different way'. The idea is to have one CDM (Mendy), and one attacking CM (Drinkwater) instead of two box to box CM's (Drinkwater, Kante). Unfortunately the personel (Amartey, King) aren't good enough at CDM so Drinkwater's having to do both roles. But Mendy could be the answer.
Chico1958 Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 I'd rather forget pre-season It was embarrassing, whoever thought up that idea needs shooting Along with some others I hasten to add Amartey, 21 years old. Bet he thought he was coming to a Team on the up not a relegation scrap. BUT............... We're still in the Champions League
Fox92 Posted 27 November 2016 Posted 27 November 2016 Absolutely shocking first goal to concede yesterday. Negredo knocks the ball wide then jogs through our midfield to finish. How Amartey or King doesn't pick him up is beyond me and both need to watch that goal back time and time again this week. I would honestly go with James next Saturday if he's fit. Can't be any worse.
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