Central midfield this season...

Okay, I'll try and make my thoughts on our options in central midfield clear.

Carrick: Top class PL midfielder on form, one of the best holding mids in the league. Good passer, makes our team tick, can play with just about anyone.

Fletcher: Good not great player, important when we want to put pressure on the opposition. Great ballwinner, decent passer, struggled a bit this season but probably our most consistant midfielder the last three seasons.

Scholes: Best passer of the ball in the league, just about.(Fabregas?) Need time on the ball these days and has lost his legs somewhat, still devastating if used correctly though.

Anderson: Great talent, potential top player if he can get it together. Basically got everything a CM needs, tenacity, drive, incisive passing, physicality.. Needs to gain some more maturity on the ball, choose his passes better and work on his off the ball-movement, we've got a gem on our hands here.

Gibson: Goal threat, good shooting, underrated passer but should look to dictate games more. Needs a number of things added to his game, mobility, positional sense, defensive awareness and dicipline, making himself available in good positions. Struggles in a mid 2 due to lack of tempo. Not sure about him.

Hargreaves: R.I.P. Although, in CM I thought he was never great for us. A very pedestrian passer of the ball, and I seem to remember him killing the speed of our attacks too often. Great option though and can also play RB and RM.

Best partnership: Carrick/Anderson at present, it would seem. The perfect blend of creativity, willingness to take the ball and make things happen and drive. Defensively the idea of one harrier(Anderson) and one holding mid who closes space and intercepts(Carrick) works fine. Ando, work on your stamina and positioning and this looks really good.
 
The Walrus is spot on in this thread

I'd be happy with our midfield if we had either a dynamic box-to-box player or a creative defence-splitting sort. (Both is too much to ask.) But we don't have either, except for Scholes and Giggs who can't play every game.

If Anderson carries on improving we'll be alright, as he combines high energy and decent tackling with dribbling and flair. Him and Carrick is a well-balanced combination. But if he doesn't step up - and assuming someone like Pogba doesn't emerge as a world-class player - we really need to bring someone in, it's been years now since our CM was really top level.
 
We desperately need a defense splitting midfielder. Someone who plays in the hole and can provide a goal threat from central midfield.

Got no idea who that could be though.
 
The_Midfielder said:
One thing i do not like about Anderson is his unwillingness to go to spaces and be available for a pass...
Many times i noticed today.. he would just sit in the center circle and wait for the vall to arrive... and at one time, when Rafael and carrick had the ball towards the right.. he waited in the center circle standstill until the ball arrived to his feet....

Unless he regularly goes to make himself available for the balls.. , I doubt he will reach the next level...
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I put that down to laziness rather than unwillingness.. in fact one thing which marks Anderson out as such a promising player is the willingness to receive the ball under pressure and still do something positive with the ball, his problem is doing it consistently throughout 90 minutes and dominating a game from start to finish.

Its a physical and slight concentration issue and he has to deal with it sharpish for his and our sake.
 
Fletcher was shite in the middle today. He actually looked better at right back. Carrick wasn't as bad, but he was poor also.
 
We do need a midfielder who can pass forward better and has the skill/balls to stay calm when pressured by opposition. Scholes is getting on and injured for long periods of time more and more.
 
We got a drubbing in there today. Neither of those players are at their best when teams press high up the pitch and with a good tempo. Spurs did their job very well.
 
MacMUFC said:
Who do we sign and who leaves?
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Nobody needs to leave (although Gibbo could do with a loan somewhere and Scholes may retire). I've watched Fiorentina a lot this season and Montolivio is better than anything we have at the club, we could get him for less than twenty million and it would make a world of difference to our attacking play.
 
Fletcher was awful.

Carrick defended astutely. There is no better defensive trio than Ferdinand, Vidic, and Carrick as the holding player.
 
Not a midfield problem, we sit too deep away from home, we can't win ball back easily when an attack breaks down so we are always starting them from deep in our own half
 
we can't start an attack because Carrick and Fletcher cannot control the ball in tight areas.

Result is - hoofball.
 
Agree with Mozza, still think its just fashion to criticise our midfield. Modric has looked class against everyone he's played for the last two years! We can't just expect to dominate every single midfield battle, especially against champions league quality sides away from home.
 
kps88 said:
Having Scholes back will be a big boost.
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Not relying on a player who is about to retire would be top of my list if I was the manager

Out classed today in the middle again
 
Mozza said:
Not a midfield problem, we sit too deep away from home, we can't win ball back easily when an attack breaks down so we are always starting them from deep in our own half
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You said this last week and you were wrong then, our defence didn't sit that deep and Carrick/Fletch saw plenty of the ball. The problem is both of them are sluggish on the ball and barely ever make an incisive pass.
 
evra said:
Nobody needs to leave (although Gibbo could do with a loan somewhere and Scholes may retire). I've watched Fiorentina a lot this season and Montolivio is better than anything we have at the club, we could get him for less than twenty million and it would make a world of difference to our attacking play.
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Interesting. I've never heard of him. The problem is, is that there arent many creative center midfielders these days in the mould of a Fletcher, Carrick etc. Our issue is clearly creativity and dynamism, but you're asking a lot to find a solid center midfielder with those attributes to play in a 2 man midfield. Fergie only plays the 4-3-3 in Europe, so the likes of Ozil (:() and his ilk are out of the equation.

Then theres the question of the money, does the player want to come here, etc. Its not easy.
 
Anderson impressed again today. Always ready to go forward and looked more likely than anyone to create something from nothing.
 
Carrick was alot better once he went into a defensive role. When he is partnered with Fletcher we need him to be creative but lately his best work seems to be going back towards his own goal, so this partnership isn't working like it used to. Much better when Anderson came on.
 
MacMUFC said:
Interesting. I've never heard of him. The problem is, is that there arent many creative center midfielders these days in the mould of a Fletcher, Carrick etc. Our issue is clearly creativity and dynamism, but you're asking a lot to find a solid center midfielder with those attributes to play in a 2 man midfield. Fergie only plays the 4-3-3 in Europe, so the likes of Ozil (:() and his ilk are out of the equation.

Then theres the question of the money, does the player want to come here, etc. Its not easy.
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I spelt his name wrong it's Montolivo:

 
Chrisjn_ said:
Anderson impressed again today. Always ready to go forward and looked more likely than anyone to create something from nothing.
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impressed? He caught the same "give the ball away" disease that the rest of the team had.
 
Mozza said:
Not a midfield problem, we sit too deep away from home, we can't win ball back easily when an attack breaks down so we are always starting them from deep in our own half
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A mixture of this, and the wingers not being effective enough to give options to the central players
 
evra said:
You said this last week and you were wrong then, our defence didn't sit that deep and Carrick/Fletch saw plenty of the ball. The problem is both of them are sluggish on the ball and barely ever make an incisive pass.
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Making a pass to open up the opposition from deep in your own half with 9 players in front of you is tough and thats our starting position too often. Its not just the midfield that find it hard but so do the forwards, the times they do recive the ball all the support in miles away, we have to score a perfect goal to score at all
 
evra said:
I spelt his name wrong it's Montolivo:

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Turned it off after 2 minutes when the fecker just kept screaming the same uninspiring sentence/pathetic excuse of a lyric over and over again. Almost put my fist through the monitor.

The guy looks (physically) like a hybrid of Zlatan and Berba in their younger years.
 
Scholes coming back will improve things. Anderson is probably in the best form out of all our midfielders. I don't really fancy a Scholes & Anderson partnership though.
 
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