Midfield

[Babylon]

The midfield = Dyer, Wellens, King, Gallagher - that is PEARSONS midfield. They are all HIS players. Something underlying wrong if they don't want to play for him.

King and Wellens haven't been the same players this year, under Sven also. Dyer was a league one signing and Gallagher was mostly on the bench under Pearson.

You cannot judge him for signings he made three years ago when he was still here. The players are older, the aims are different and so are the circumstances.

[Thracian]

The midfield is:

a. too lightweight - it needs a big, horrible, ball winner in there (this is sooo obvious to me). Gally, King are pussy boys and Abe is too slow

b. not creative - it also needs someone who can run the game, pick a pass and pop up with goals.

Our midfield is shocking...then again, Beckford and Nugent DO get chances, which they spurn all too often.. especially Beckford.

Ummmmm if only it were that simple. All you get nowadays with "big, horrible ball winners" is sendings off. The last one we had was Tiatto and we went a whole season without him being on the winning side if memory serves.

What's changed this season is that a) we've stopped passing and, instead, give the ball away far too easily. b) we don't have people making themselves available to receive passes at close quarters and when we do we don't use them.

[beryllind]

You are wrong as usual ( Grewks was right ). King hasn't suddenly become rubbish, he just is! Yes he did score a few goals for us, which should be a bonus for a midfield player, it shouldn't be the absolute be all and end all of a midfield player. We can always hope he might have a run of goalscoring again, but there is no hope he will ever be a good midfield player, and I mean NO HOPE!

Absolutely Right, couldn't agree more

[burni]

I agree the midfield is our biggest problem out of our areas, not excusing the poor performances but i think the imbalance there isnt helping, i think having two proper wingers at all times may help the fluidity of the midfield making it easier for the two centre mids. be interesting to see if the combination of wellens king and danns (primarily) would improve when we have this. i think having some one like gallagher on the wing only puts more pressure on the centre mids as hes not the best as an outright winger and doesnt put as much pressure down the opositions flanks as an outright winger does.

Confusing myself trying to explain it but it was the right hand side against barnsley where we struggled with danns playing more like a centre mid although it was supposidly 4 3 3 but maybe if we had a winger down there peltier wouldnt of had to do two jobs and may have done slightly better. the side of dyer and konchesky always seems to hold quite well as it is more 'balanced'. ultimately pressure on one area and the whole midfield just seems to have more pressure on it causing it fail at times

[_Fatboyslow_]

He's got no longer than a month with us.

We play the sheep at home at the start of March, could well be that will be make or break time for NFP. would leave around 10 games to play. I dont want another manager of the month as we had with MM, but if we are not better what else can be done? I just hope that NFP can find the answer before then

[cc_star]

We play the sheep at home at the start of March, could well be that will be make or break time for NFP. would leave around 10 games to play. I dont want another manager of the month as we had with MM, but if we are not better what else can be done? I just hope that NFP can find the answer before then

We played Derby at home ages ago, they did is the great favour of not sticking a single tackle in the whole game (much like 1st 45mins at Pride Park last season)

Anyone who thinks Pearson hasn't got to the International break in October is a fool, it's time to support the team else this phase will become more than just a phase...

[Bloomer]

Too many of this team don't have the desire or mental stregnth to change things. Heads drop and attitudes weaken when things don't go well. Instead of upping their input and trying their hardest to make the right things happen too many will leave it for somebody else to change. Something stinks, these guys do not want to bleed for each other. They want someone else to bleed for them. When I think of some of the fighters who have dragged us back in to games in the past,often through their sheer will and personality, I look at this lot and think fick it, who is going to lead us out of this

[Fox92]

Our football needs to change. It is far too direct. Players like Wellens and King need the ball on the floor. I know they haven't performed well this season, but they are never going to get in the game whilst the ball is in the air. And the direct game only works if the team has the target man. Do we? No. I sit and watch Kasper launch the ball forward in the air, missing the midfield who are chasing forward, to Nugent, but Nugent isn't the type of player to win flick ons and hold the ball up. So, because he isn't a big mobile target man, the ball comes back, in the air, having been cleared by the centre half, and our midfield are chasing back again. I watch this every game, all game. It isn't good enough. It doesn't matter if our midfield combination is Xavi and Steven Gerrard, they will never get in the game.

Having said that, our midfield is not strong enough. King and especially Gallagher are too weak for any team.

[blueredswed]

I must say Sven and Mac Pearson is two different manager!

Sven was playing 4-5-1 in a diamond and Pearson is playing 4-4-2 and those player Sven get in was after his system!

As a new manager with a difficult play you got problem....

This is my thoughts

[ithuriel]

Pearson played 4-3-3 recently and tried bypassing our mediocre midfield with long balls from defence.

Think he should go back to a 5-3-2 like he did against palace but that is if he can trust StLedger since Bamba is not here at present??

[cc_star]

I must say Sven and Mac Pearson is two different manager!

Sven was playing 4-5-1 in a diamond and Pearson is playing 4-4-2 and those player Sven get in was after his system!

As a new manager with a difficult play you got problem....

This is my thoughts

Sven played 433 which flopped so he switched to 442(diamond) which worked for a few games until it ran out of steam

Pearson tried to play 442, whch we don't have the players for & it didn't work, he then tried 532 (which worked for 45mins, then he had to revert to 442 because of injury) and now he's playing 433

Which we know hasn't worked for us, but we don't have the personnel to play anything else. The personnel as discovered by Sven after a few games aren't good enough to play 433

I think we should go back to 532

Kasper

Mills Tunchev Konch/SSL

Peltier/Moore -------------------- Kennedy

That way, we should have more natural width to help the midfield trio out, quite often they are over-ran with very few options to pass to and lots of lost possession

[deep blue]

Sven played 433 which flopped so he switched to 442(diamond) which worked for a few games until it ran out of steam

Pearson tried to play 442, whch we don't have the players for & it didn't work, he then tried 532 (which worked for 45mins, then he had to revert to 442 because of injury) and now he's playing 433

Which we know hasn't worked for us, but we don't have the personnel to play anything else. The personnel as discovered by Sven after a few games aren't good enough to play 433

I think we should go back to 532

Kasper

Mills Tunchev Konch/SSL

Peltier/Moore -------------------- Kennedy

That way, we should have more natural width to help the midfield trio out, quite often they are over-ran with very few options to pass to and lots of lost possession

I've just written almost exactly the same on the "Pearson" thread. Hope he gives it a go tonight!

[Guest]

I've said for weeks that the midfield doesn't help in defense and doesn't link with the attack. We can't blame Pearson for players that he signed in order to get us out of div 1. Sven saw the problem and bought in a whole new midfeld sadly it didn't work.

Danns is clearly our best midfield player, Dyer plays with heart and has speed and is a good reserve midfielder (as he was supposed to be under sven), Fernandes was good but now gone. Gally is okay. Our big problem is that wellens is too slow and he thinks he can pass "killer" balls but too often he just balls them up. King has disappeared. We badly need more bite in midield (the lennon type) and more headless chickens who can run for 110minutes (the savage type) but most of all we need an artist who can pass and score (the Muzzy type). until we get a midfield that is part of the team we are in trouble. with a decent midfield our defence will look good. whether our attack does is another question (vassel and Schlupp out) we only have nugent who is any good. Beckford is a major disappointment and howard is almost pensionable.

[Captain...]

Did anyone watch MOTD2 on sunday, did anyone see the analysis of how Swansea midfield played (which was incidentally assembled for less than the price of Matt Mills if you believe the Sun)?

That is how I would love us to play in the middle it was sexual football, but if we picked up any of their players they would get lost because we don't play like that. King tries to play like that but doesn't have the team mates to play like that with.

It is in part the players and in part the formation, there is no point playing quick passing central midfielders if we always hit the channels and play the ball ober the top constantly.