The Midfield Trio

[Ambitious]

1 hour ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

All opinion but too me he's the worst

Knight hasn’t been great since going back to CM. He was running around in circles tonight before going off injured too. 

All three have a lot more to give. 

[Rammy03]

2 hours ago, europia said:

 Knight Bird Sibley   - from the current squad. Although perhaps we could do with a John Eustice type player in this division. 

We could do with Bielik back in January

[Dcfcsr92]

15 hours ago, Gerry Daly said:

Bird is our best midfield player. 

Not in everybodys opinions id definitely say knight is our best midfielder and i think smith will come in once fully fit and think he will be up there and when bielik comes back i think we will see more out of Hourihane i feel bird has great potential but is still to light weight and has still alot to learn 

[Ghost of Clough]

20 minutes ago, Dcfcsr92 said:

Not in everybodys opinions id definitely say knight is our best midfielder and i think smith will come in once fully fit and think he will be up there and when bielik comes back i think we will see more out of Hourihane i feel bird has great potential but is still to light weight and has still alot to learn 

Bird is the one midfielder Warne won't drop.

[Crewton]

35 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Bird is the one midfielder Warne won't drop.

Nor should he IMO, if we want to retain any creativity in the team. Even if Smith/Bielek is preferred at DM, I'd want to see Bird playing further forward in the midfield unit. Knight and Sibley can be busy and drive at the opposition, but Max is the one for the clever pass.

[Dcfcsr92]

19 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Bird is the one midfielder Warne won't drop.

Why? Nobodys undroppable he makes mistakes, very week and shys out of challenges 

[Ghost of Clough]

2 hours ago, Dcfcsr92 said:

Why? Nobodys undroppable he makes mistakes, very week and shys out of challenges 

Yet he is our greatest defensive contributor in midfield. Doesn't say a lot about the others if that's your view on Bird.

[Gerry Daly]

3 hours ago, Dcfcsr92 said:

Why? Nobodys undroppable he makes mistakes, very week and shys out of challenges 

So go back to the second goal that Collins scored at Cambridge and see Bird's contribution to it, not just the ball at the end which Knight could never play in a million years but winning the ball initially as well. In fact watch the highlights of the whole game and see how many times Bird wins the ball 

[May Contain Nuts]

A review of the stats shows that the player positioned as the deepest lying of our midfielders has made the highest number of defensive contributions, the player who's been played in a more attacking role has the highest number of attacking contributions and the player who's been used as a box to box midfielder has contributed a little bit of everything?

I, for one, am totally shocked by this revelation!

I like Bird and think his defensive qualities are underrated, but even so, he's not a defensive powerhouse no matter how many stats are throw at it to suggest otherwise. He has his moments / games where he does a very good job protecting the defence, but he can go from dominant in some games to totally invisible in others at the flip of a switch.  He's no George Thorne!

Such inconsistency is to be expected from a young player, of course.

Warne isn't asking him to play like that anyway so it's a bit of a moot point.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Kokosnuss

[Gerry Daly]

I agree he isn't a defensive powerhouse he is a creative midfielder who has the discipline to play the number 6 position so he has more often than not been played there. Would you trust Knight, Sibley(particularly him) or Hourihane to play in that position? 

[May Contain Nuts]

14 minutes ago, Gerry Daly said:

I agree he isn't a defensive powerhouse he is a creative midfielder who has the discipline to play the number 6 position so he has more often than not been played there. Would you trust Knight, Sibley(particularly him) or Hourihane to play in that position? 

No, but I don't trust Bird not to get overrun and outfought by more physical teams (in some games) either.

Comparing him to other players in our team, given different roles, only tells you so much. A comparison against others in the league played in his position would be more useful, but again limited to what the stats say rather than having full knowledge on what those players are being asked to do for their teams, or any wider contextual factors.

As per the edit - inconsistency is to be expected, Warne isn't particularly asking him to play defensively anyway, he won't be dropped for an 'enforcer' because that role doesn't exist in our setup.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Kokosnuss

[Gerry Daly]

Agreed. But I think we will be getting Bielik back in January then we will have a real CDM powerhouse

[angieram]

48 minutes ago, Gerry Daly said:

Agreed. But I think we will be getting Bielik back in January then we will have a real CDM powerhouse

In which case, we can play Bird further forward and watch him go! 

He's being compared to our other midfielders because that's what we've got at our disposal at the moment. Bird isn't being helped by our lack of defensive-minded wingbacks, either. There's very little cover for that slow back three other than him, really. He's being asked to do an awful lot in our current setup and is so far rising to the challenge. 

And he is still our most effective player. Anyone who thinks he isn't should watch how he transformed our play against Man City the other night. We were awful until he came on. 

[Dcfcsr92]

On 20/10/2022 at 09:19, Ghost of Clough said:

Yet he is our greatest defensive contributor in midfield. Doesn't say a lot about the others if that's your view on Bird.

Yet if you achually watch him off of ball it by passes him many of times and costs us alot! Instead of looking at stats watch the game hes s*** we will never improve with him in our team your looking at simple stats how many lose headers, places he could intercepted the ball theres alot more to getting a ball and passing it 10 yards! How many times he passes the ball to our players but put them under trouble which makes players make mistakes its a joke 

[Dcfcsr92]

On 20/10/2022 at 10:20, Gerry Daly said:

So go back to the second goal that Collins scored at Cambridge and see Bird's contribution to it, not just the ball at the end which Knight could never play in a million years but winning the ball initially as well. In fact watch the highlights of the whole game and see how many times Bird wins the ball 

? 1 pass what about the  silly foul against accrington stanley and not intercepting the ball for the 2nd peno if he just slides to get the ball. The 2nd peno against port vale he shys ojt of the tickle which comes to a peno again! Its ok looking at stats but his pass completion ratio is good but how many times does it put our other players in trouble! Its stupid look outside stats and what he achually does! 1 thing a game isn't good enough 

[Heisenberg]

 

[duncanjwitham]

There’s literally no point discussing the midfield 3. If you were to sit down and design a system to deliberately make them look as bad as possible, it would probably be this system. The centre halves smash the ball forwards, we lose it, and then they break on us, leaving the midfield outnumbered and out of position. Hopefully we win it it back, smash it forwards again, rinse and repeat. The midfield get no real balls into feet, no passing options on the off chance they actually get to control the ball, and their only job is to run around like madmen cleaning up after the forwards lose the ball.