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muzzy1981

Midfield Rotation

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I'm starting to come round to the suggestion we need a midfielder. But I still don't think we need two prolific strikers. As I said when we were considering signing Heskey, if the strike partner contributes enough it's fine to only have the one goalscoring stiker, like Nugent. We've goals all over the pitch, we're on course to score a lot more than last season and a lot of people were suggesting our attacking options were good enough last year.

I don't think we need two strikers either Mark. Unless Pearson is actually thinking of selling Futacs, or even loaning out Schlupp or Vardy. To me we don't have goals all over the pitch, of course defenders score goals but on a consistent basis, or actually capable of scoring goals game by game, we really only have Nugent, Waghorn, King and Knockaert who have the capabilities of scoring regularly. Of course Morgan, Whitbread, Dyer, Marshall and Vardy will chip in now and then, but teams around us especially Cardiff have about nine players who are capable of scoring goals regularly.

One main thing as I mentioned at the start of the season, to get promotion you need a midfielder who is capable of scoring 15+ a season. King did that in our play-off season, last season though he was injured for a part of it and when fit his goals seriously dried up. Get him scoring goals, then the play-offs are a certain.

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But evidence shows Babylon, that we struggle in that area at times.

We only have three central midfielders, all of which are similar players. Like the poster mentioned with Cardiff having those four central midfielders, you can also add Kiss and Lappin to that list. Palace have Jedinak, Dikgacoi, Garvan, Williams, Moritz plus Darcy Blake can play in midfield, Middlesbrough have great options in my opinion possibly the best set of central midfielders in the league with Leadbitter, Thomson, McEachran, Haroun plus Zemmama and Rhys Williams can play in that role. Even though I think Hull are similar to us, they have more central midfielders than us, McKenna, Koren, Evans, Cairney, Olofinjana and Meyler.

And people said our central midfield options last season were ridiculous, because we had too many. Take a look at those teams, they are getting success with about 5-6 central midfielders on their books.

Yes I agree with all the above, I started looking at other teams too and noticed a pattern particularly in terms the top teams giving more players a run in CM, most likely to give players a break, centre mid is the most demanding positions on the pitch.

King and Drinks have been fantastic this season, but they need the occasional rest, one for physical reasons and two so they fight/perform better to keep their place. James, Wellens or Knocky in CM should feature more IMO in the short-term but a new addition might be useful.

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Yes I agree with all the above, I started looking at other teams too and noticed a pattern particularly in terms the top teams giving more players a run in CM, most likely to give players a break, centre mid is the most demanding positions on the pitch.

King and Drinks have been fantastic this season, but they need the occasional rest, one for physical reasons and two so they fight/perform better to keep their place. James, Wellens or Knocky in CM should feature more IMO in the short-term but a new addition might be useful.

Agreed, apart from the Wellens bit :thumbup:

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I don't think we need two strikers either Mark.

I wouldn't go that far! lol

Unless Pearson is actually thinking of selling Futacs, or even loaning out Schlupp or Vardy. To me we don't have goals all over the pitch, of course defenders score goals but on a consistent basis, or actually capable of scoring goals game by game, we really only have Nugent, Waghorn, King and Knockaert who have the capabilities of scoring regularly. Of course Morgan, Whitbread, Dyer, Marshall and Vardy will chip in now and then, but teams around us especially Cardiff have about nine players who are capable of scoring goals regularly.

One main thing as I mentioned at the start of the season, to get promotion you need a midfielder who is capable of scoring 15+ a season. King did that in our play-off season, last season though he was injured for a part of it and when fit his goals seriously dried up. Get him scoring goals, then the play-offs are a certain.

King has 4 so far, he's about on course for 10 goals. Knockaert has 4 as well so he should get into double figures. Marshall has a few despite not being a regular starter.

I don't see how you can think our attacking options aren't good enough, and think that we don't have goals all over the pitch when we're on course for well over 70 goals this season.

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King has 4 so far, he's about on course for 10 goals. Knockaert has 4 as well so he should get into double figures. Marshall has a few despite not being a regular starter.

I don't see how you can think our attacking options aren't good enough, and think that we don't have goals all over the pitch when we're on course for well over 70 goals this season.

On evidence of teams getting promoted, you need a goalscoring midfielder, King or Knockaert need to score between 10-15 each I think. I believe our attacking options are good enough, and course we have goals all over the pitch, but how many of them are capable of scoring on a consistent basis, not many in my opinion, unlike Cardiff who have better attacking options than us, and have about 9 attacking players capable of scoring goals regularly.

It's the strikers I worry about, Futacs, Schlupp and Vardy are not regular goalscorers, and you can add Waghorn to that list when off form.

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You do confuse me sometimes kingfox, more banter?

I confuse myself.

Of course most players can score goals, but how many are capable of scoring on a regular basis is what I mean.

I believe only four, while the rest will chip in with the odd goal.

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I confuse myself.

Of course most players can score goals, but how many are capable of scoring on a regular basis is what I mean.

I believe only four, while the rest will chip in with the odd goal.

Four regular goalscorers with others chipping in the odd goal isn't good enough? :blink:

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Four regular goalscorers with others chipping in the odd goal isn't good enough? :blink:

Yes, but you need certain things to gain promotion.

A goalscoring midfielder who can manage 15+

A regular goalscoring striker

Can King manage the first, and can Nugent manage the latter.

11 goals for Nugent so far, can he get around 25-30?

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Yes, but you need certain things to gain promotion.

A goalscoring midfielder who can manage 15+

A regular goalscoring striker

Can King manage the first, and can Nugent manage the latter.

11 goals for Nugent so far, can he get around 25-30?

You don't need a striker who can score 25-30 goals at all.

As for whether King can manage the first, well I think it's irrelevant, if Knocky and King can get 20 between them, and say Marshall adds another 6 or 7 as they are all just about on course to do, is that not good enough?

As I've said earlier, if we match our start to the season in the second half we'll have about 75 goals, that's a lot more than Reading needed to win the League.

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You don't need a striker who can score 25-30 goals at all.

As for whether King can manage the first, well I think it's irrelevant, if Knocky and King can get 20 between them, and say Marshall adds another 6 or 7 as they are all just about on course to do, is that not good enough?

As I've said earlier, if we match our start to the season in the second half we'll have about 75 goals, that's a lot more than Reading needed to win the League.

Can't say much more, it's just one those things where we will have to wait and see.

Evidence of teams getting promoted, had at least one goalscoring midfielder who managed around 15 goals, and a main goalscoring striker.

Not so Reading, but all there strikers chipped in with a reasonable amount of goals between them, proper team effort :D

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Not so Reading, but all there strikers chipped in with a reasonable amount of goals between them, proper team effort :D

Yeah but as I say, we're on course half way through the season to exceed their total with our current players.

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Rotation wouldn't be a bad thing, I don't think we would lose too much bringing in James for king or drinky or Marshall for knocky or Dyer.

But other than that we don't have too many options, others have mentioned we looked tired against millwall.

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Oops double post, so while I'm here, what does every think is a bigger priority this season? Developing the younger players as a squad and growing them and developing them together for a better long term future? Or promotion, possibly using loans and fading stars such as Jason Roberts with reading last season?

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While we continue play 4-4-fooking-2 with 2 men wide and 2 men up we will continue to put an enormous workload on our centre midfield paring.

There will be times when they are not at their best or when the opposition close them down and we need to be able to deal with this, at the moment we are not.

To my mind it is simple, change the setup, play another man in midfield to ease their burden. Some suggest that this should be some kind of defensive 'hard man' but I disagree, we are defensively sound (look at the stats), winning possession isn't really the issue.

It is what we do with the ball that is the problem, when we are not playing well our defenders and centre midfield have few options and their passes go astray and they start playing the ball long, that is the issue.

We need to set up so that we have runners available to hit, players dropping off short, in fact all round mobility to play the ball quickly out of defence, NFP's conservative tactics on saturday were the opposite of that, Knockaert and Dyer played in deeper roles to make us more solid and our fullbacks rarely allowed to get forward, so no one for our defenders to play out to.

The result, long balls up to the front men, neither of whom are remotely suited to that tactic.

So, not rotation but reinforcement......... :thumbup:

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