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we have a midfield !

jono

By jono
in Derby County Forum

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jono

jono

Posted
Posted

Bit of a ramble this one, but thoughts anyone ?

For the first time since Bryson/Hughes/Hendrick/Thorne/Eustace we have a solid midfield group capable of creating chances and running the show

I was very worried when we lost Biff Bielik ( who coined that nick I wonder - love it  ? ) He has the skill and strength that we needed...... but Rooney came along , Bird and Knight won their spurs better and faster than I could have imagined, Holmes started to produce, Sibley is nearly ready … and now we create chances instead of hoping for quick breaks or a single moment of genius. 

Now we just need to start taking those chances. We also struggled in front of goal with Lampard if you take out the Mount and Wilson contribution. There was a point last season where we were something like 4th tightest defence but 11th when it came to goals scored. I have a theory that of Def/Mid/Attack you need 2 out of 3 looking good and you will be a challenger. 

Can we find the best defensive set up with what we have ? And can our existing strikers raise their game ? … I really want to see Marriott getting more than 10 mins as an impact sub but is he fit / robust enough ? and ….would including him more often upset the team balance we are now seeing more regularly in midfield ? 

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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

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We've been lacking a midfield for a while and you're right that gaping hole in our squad does finally seem to be closing. Our midfield options next season look to be:

Bielik, Bird, Holmes, Knight, Shinnie, Sibley, Rooney

I don't know about Huddlestone. Cocu sometimes shows a desire to play Bogle/Lowe/Malone in midfield.

Rooney is England's all-time top scorer. Bielik, Holmes and Shinnie are all recent full internationals for Poland, USA, Scotland.

I'll be really surprised if Knight doesn't have a full call-up to go with his U21 caps soon.

Sibley's played for England at U17, U18, U19 level. I'd love him to start to get more game time.

Bird has no international honours. But has really stepped up since December.

Of the youngsters you can map Bird onto Thorne, Knight onto Hendrick and Sibley onto a hybrid of Hughes and Bryson. I'll take that.

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europia

europia

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3 hours ago, jono said:

 

can our existing strikers raise their game ? … I really want to see Marriott getting more than 10 mins as an impact sub but is he fit / robust enough ? and ….would including him more often upset the team balance we are now seeing more regularly in midfield ? 

If it's not going to be Marriott, then we need a quality finisher next season. 

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Millenniumram

Millenniumram

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I was thinking similar after Fridays game - midfield has gone from our biggest weakness to arguably our biggest strength. I’d even argue that the options we have now have the potential at least to form a top two quality midfield in this division - which is the level we need to be aiming at all over the pitch in the long term of course. Obviously the introduction of Rooney (best player in the league) helps a great deal, but the youngsters coming through are showing such promise. Players like Knight and Bird are already proving themselves, and there’s more like Sibley waiting for a chance. With the development they’re showing, you’d find it hard to say that we won’t have one of the best midfields in the division if they continue their current trajectory’s, and that bodes extremely well for the club given where we were a few months ago. It’s almost a complete turnaround, incredible really given we’re missing another absolute top player in this league in Bielik. Add him to our other strong options like Huddlestone and Holmes and there’s real quality and depth within those midfield slots. We’re definitely building something strong in the middle of the park, and hopefully our midfield will soon be the envy of the division!

Its other areas of the team that we need to focus recruitment on in the summer, to try and bring the whole team up to scratch. We won’t achieve anything unless every part of the team is up to the required standard. For me, up front and in goal are the two positions that stand out as needing strengthening if we’re gonna have any hope next year.

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Jourdan

Jourdan

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It’s too soon to say. The current midfield looks good, but can they produce it over the course of a season, not just 10-12 games?

Bird is experiencing his first extended run in the side. He looks fantastic and has taken his chance and ran with it, but I don’t think we should heap too much pressure on the lad. He hasn’t been tested yet. He needs another season before we can judge his merits properly.

Holmes has shown genuine quality in short bursts. Before he got injured, he looked fantastic. I’d like to see him stay fit first of all. If he can do that and perform consistently, what a player we have on our hands.

Then there’s Rooney. He’s really impressed in recent weeks and looks to be getting up to speed. The worry for me is that we are pinning everything on a soon-to-be 35 year old. Can his body stand up to the rigours of a full Championship season? And will his declining mobility work against us?

We definitely have some good players to choose from but there are still too many questions to be answered.

So I would stop short of building them up because many of them remain unproven - Bird, Knight, Sibley - or there are question marks over their fitness or consistency - Holmes, Evans and Bielik.

Let’s see how we stack up v Leeds, WBA, Brentford among others before we get too carried away.

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Comrade 86

Comrade 86

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On 24/02/2020 at 20:18, Srg said:

Not sure I fully agree just yet. Still lacking when Holmes is out. Bit of a lack of speed and athleticism still. Maybe we would cope better as a midfield three if we had that more on the wings or up top though. 

Tough crowd, but a valid point all the same.

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RoyMac5

RoyMac5

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4 hours ago, The Orange Pimpernel said:

Continuing with the tough crowd theme I have to say I'm not too convinced that Grahame Shinnie is what we need moving forward. Sincerely hope to be proved wrong though!

I might agree. But it's difficult to know what we need moving forward, as do we really know what Cocu wants?

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