Midfield what options do we have

[reynard]

Bearing in mind we have no money available for loans and transfers unavailable until january we appear to have to make do with what we have. so what do people think is our best midfiled bearing in mind the following.

hughes seems to be next to useless most of the time

wide right is a problem area as low does not look good enough and Sylla was hopeless.

we have already tried stearman and maybury out of position and both have been found wanting.

wide left we only seem to have porter or perhaps tiatto.

central midfield has williams (currently injured) johnson (looks well past it) wesolowski (talented but massively inexperienced)

to me a possible option would be to play weso and tiatto in the middle with porter on the left and somebody on the right (possibly one of hammond or Hume)

the only other option is to try more youth team players which may be too much of a gamble.

what does anyone else think?.

[Thracian]

Bearing in mind we have no money available for loans and transfers unavailable until january we appear to have to make do with what we have. so what do people think is our best midfiled bearing in mind the following.

hughes seems to be next to useless most of the time

wide right is a problem area as low does not look good enough and Sylla was hopeless.

we have already tried stearman and maybury out of position and both have been found wanting.

wide left we only seem to have porter or perhaps tiatto.

central midfield has williams (currently injured) johnson (looks well past it) wesolowski (talented but massively inexperienced)

to me a possible option would be to play weso and tiatto in the middle with porter on the left and somebody on the right (possibly one of hammond or Hume)

the only other option is to try more youth team players which may be too much of a gamble.

what does anyone else think?.

Hammond, Hume, Weso, Porter.

Options: Gradel/Low...KIng/Williams/.... Tiatto

[lildave3]

I think u might aswell give Gradel a chance, playing well in academy and porter has proved you can make the step up. As for the centre it should be williams when he gets back alongside wesolowski. Today we had Johnson and weso who are 2 defensive minded midfielders, williams likes to attack and i think those 2 would work. Porter is now fist choice left sided midfielder imo.

[woznotwos]

Hammond, Hume, Weso, Porter.

Options: Gradel/Low...KIng/Williams/.... Tiatto

may aswell suck it and see , we have no option at present do we

[Maybes]

Hammond, Hume, Weso, Porter.

That would make for interesting viewing. Cant be any worse than it is at the moment though

[Daggers]

Bearing in mind we have no money available for loans and transfers

Considering that we are taking in old, (never)has-been players on trial would indicate that there is some money in the pot...it just needs spending in a wiser fashion.

[dandannieldanok]

My midfield would be:

Gradel - Williams - Wesolowski - Porter

Wasn't impressed at all with Weso and Porter yesterday so I would be looking hard for loan players.

[Floating Fox]

Hammond, Hume, Weso, Porter.

Options: Gradel/Low...KIng/Williams/.... Tiatto

hammond and Right Wing should never go toghether.

I really doubt it will ever work, but then agains, what else can we do with the right wing

[filbertway]

hammond and Right Wing should never go toghether.

I really doubt it will ever work, but then agains, what else can we do with the right wing

Put gradel there

[Thracian]

hammond and Right Wing should never go toghether.

I really doubt it will ever work, but then agains, what else can we do with the right wing

Imagine we'd have the 100% commitment of Hammond on the right Saturday and all three of our strikers. Someone would have had to mark Hammond. You cannot leave a guy that fast roaming free within sight of your penalty box and Colchester never needed to worry about Hughes for a minute.

Hammond's presence would therefore have provided two things...speed, strength and thrust from the right plus space not just for two strikers but for three because of having Hume coming through from midfield. We'd have pissed all over Colchester and they couldn't have done anything about it because they wouldn't have had the speed and mobility.

Weso would have played better too cos Hume would always be offering some help and Porter would have got more space because of the Colchester back line being stretched to the limit.

[Fez of Mahrez]

Imagine we'd have the 100% commitment of Hammond on the right Saturday and all three of our strikers. Someone would have had to mark Hammond. You cannot leave a guy that fast roaming free within sight of your penalty box and Colchester never needed to worry about Hughes for a minute.

Hammond's presence would therefore have provided two things...speed, strength and thrust from the right plus space not just for two strikers but for three because of having Hume coming through from midfield. We'd have pissed all over Colchester and they couldn't have done anything about it because they wouldn't have had the speed and mobility.

Weso would have played better too cos Hume would always be offering some help and Porter would have got more space because of the Colchester back line being stretched to the limit.

God this is how desperate we've become, we're selecting godawful strikers on the right wing simply to occupy Colchester United's left-back.

[Thracian]

God this is how desperate we've become, we're selecting godawful strikers on the right wing simply to occupy Colchester United's left-back.

You're quick to knock someone else's idea, which is dead easy, so what are yours? . I gave my reasons for suggesting Hammond and I think they're good ones seeing as we could play 4-3-3 as easily as 4-4-2 and the only time we scored more than one goal this season in the League was when Hammond played.

It's dead easy to be negative. In fact it is symptomatic of everything that is wrong at City right now. But if you have a better solution fire away.

[Bert]

We're better off playing with 3 centre mids consisting of Williams Weso Tiatto, with Stearman and Porter as wing backs. IMO.

[Fez of Mahrez]

You're quick to knock someone else's idea, which is dead easy, so what are yours? . I gave my reasons for suggesting Hammond and I think they're good ones seeing as we could play 4-3-3 as easily as 4-4-2 and the only time we scored more than one goal this season in the League was when Hammond played.

It's dead easy to be negative. In fact it is symptomatic of everything that is wrong at City right now. But if you have a better solution fire away.

Not really. It's barely worth it anymore. We haven't got enough good players to make a decent team.

At a push I would say Hume on the right and encourage him to push up and play behind the strikers as much as possible. I think he has the energy to do it and will be more effective than anyone else. But even then you're left with Fryatt and O'Grady up front who will struggle to score fifteen goals between them this season. We're all fighting a losing battle trying to fashion a diamond out of a lump of shit here.

[ithuriel]

id keep porter on the left wing , given support he is a cracking little player and id have another wide player on the right , low or gradel , possibly even hume or hammond.

its the center pairing thats the problem. possibly weso and williams or maybe even twatto. twatto isnt much cop out on the left wing because he comes inside to much and is to defensive but why not see if those negative attributes for the left wing position would work in central midfield.

kisnorbo didnt work well in midfield but works excellently in defence.

[Joe.]

I reckon Elvis could do a job wide right. It's worth a try. If not bring a youth academy player up such as Gradel. he would surely take players on and create some chances for our strikers to feed on. At the moment they are only getting scraps and it's not fair because they are the ones who are criticised when we do not score. Andy Johnson as you all know is a waste of space, time and money and needs to be sent to play in the mickey mosue league. That's if they accept him of course. Despite Hughes poor performance against Colchester, you have to remember he isn't a winger and I think he does a good job in the centre. Maybe when Williams is back we may have a bit of flair if he is willing to put the effort in and we have Wesolowski if needed. If we keep giving Levi a chance he will develop into a great championship player once he is not afraid to take players on because everyone knows he can. He also puts a great cross in and can really be a key player for this club in months to come if he plays to his full ability.

[ROSSINDA]

I think u might aswell give Gradel a chance, playing well in academy and porter has proved you can make the step up. As for the centre it should be williams when he gets back alongside wesolowski. Today we had Johnson and weso who are 2 defensive minded midfielders, williams likes to attack and i think those 2 would work. Porter is now fist choice left sided midfielder imo.

Spot on, but I would have Hammond or Low (if he can be bothered) on the right. I have said in some of my very old posts when CL was manager that Hammond IMO is better suited as a winger. He's an OK crosser, but he has pace, and is willing to work and more importantly he will try and take player on and give the oppositions defense something to think about

[Thracian]

I reckon Elvis could do a job wide right. It's worth a try. If not bring a youth academy player up such as Gradel. he would surely take players on and create some chances for our strikers to feed on. At the moment they are only getting scraps and it's not fair because they are the ones who are criticised when we do not score. Andy Johnson as you all know is a waste of space, time and money and needs to be sent to play in the mickey mosue league. That's if they accept him of course. Despite Hughes poor performance against Colchester, you have to remember he isn't a winger and I think he does a good job in the centre. Maybe when Williams is back we may have a bit of flair if he is willing to put the effort in and we have Wesolowski if needed. If we keep giving Levi a chance he will develop into a great championship player once he is not afraid to take players on because everyone knows he can. He also puts a great cross in and can really be a key player for this club in months to come if he plays to his full ability.

The big reason I'd go for Hammond right now is his speed, strength and stamina. We need some of that. Gradel's got everything but he is not a full-strength footballer yet though he could offer something from the bench.