Midfield Combinations

[kingfox]

How crucial will it be this season, for Nigel to get his midfield combinations right?

 

So far we've seen some very good performances from our central midfielders, while recently we've seen some poor performances from them, recently in the loss against Palace & draw yesterday against Burnley.

 

Playing four across the midfield with Nugent dropping back, proved to be key in the games against Everton, Chelsea for 60 minutes despite losing, Arsenal & Stoke even though we were on the back foot for most of that match. With Nugent dropping back it certainly offered support, and frustrated the likes of Everton, Chelsea & Arsenal's midfield, as he came back, hassled & nicked balls off their respective midfielders. Also in those games we saw the outstanding work rate from Andy King, who worked hard both in a defensive & attacking sense, and at times when necessary kept it simple & wasn't pressurised into mistakes, therefore quite frankly what has he done wrong this season, to warrant a place back on the bench, is it time to introduce him back into the starting 11?. Meanwhile recently though we have seen us not being able to manage with Crystal Palace's pace & physicality, especially from the likes of Jedinak & Bolasie in a game where we probably played the wrong formation, allowing Palace to get too much width in the wide areas, by not playing our trusty 4-4-1-1 formation where our wingers in previous games albeit Manchester United where we played a different formation, were pretty much effective. Yesterday against Burnley, on the ball Drinkwater in particular looked decent & put in a fine performance, but off it he & Hammond were losing out in too many headers, didn't show enough physicality & at times were getting overrun. Was this down to the lack of energy particularly from Hammond, did we need Matty James or Andy King's energy from the start? Was Hammond & Drinkwater's positional sense all wrong at times? 4-4-2 was certainly the right formation to start with, but we saw last season 4-4-2 formation got us promoted, but to close out games we brought on an extra number in midfield to see out the game, should we of done the same yesterday would it of made any difference?

 

Moving onto the Manchester United game, 4-3-3 worked to perfection in that game, purely because Manchester United didn't play any out & out wingers who could threaten us from wide areas, unlike Palace a week later. We played a diamond formation & as the match progressed the likes of Cambiasso, Hammond & Drinkwater were able to nullify United's midfield & stop the likes of Blind & Rooney in particular from playing with pace & fluidity.

 

I think variety in midfield pairings will be crucial this season, I don't think we can afford to go into games by playing the same midfield week in week out, there's going to be games depending on the formation the opposition play, where 4-4-1-1 & 4-4-2 will work & there's going to be games where 4-3-3 will work, more than likely against teams who don't play with out & out wingers.

 

Selection especially in midfield areas could justify our season, and Nigel has a tough task of getting the midfield combinations right, and if that means the likes of Drinkwater, Cambiasso & James not starting week in week out then so be it. At times the likes of Andy King's energy will be crucial to our performances, at times the defensive minds of Cambiasso & Hammond will be crucial to our performances, playing 4-4-1-1 the player to play behind Ulloa, so far which has been Nugent will be crucial to our performances, and as we've seen so far by playing that formation & playing Nugent behind Ulloa, it saw us collect five points from our first four league games. Also with that formation being the most successful in terms of points so far, is it time to introduce Nick Powell into the fold, he would give us another option instead of Nugent? 

 

How crucial will the correct midfield combinations be this season, thoughts?