Central midfield

[Ambitious]

We are close to signing a centre midfielder, but what type that is, honestly is anyone’s guess. I’d say it’s like to be an industrious one rather than creative.

Sean Goss, Matty Longstaff, Cameron McGeehan, Sam Clucas, James McArthur, Dan Gosling and Daniel Batty amongst them out of contract. McGeehan and Longstaff are curious ones - Longstaff is a developmental option who could be a good player for us, but probably needs some coaching to get him back on track. McGeehan went to play in Belgium, already a proven player in League One. He might get a championship move, but we will see. He’s had ankle issues over the past couple of seasons which is a concern. 

[derbydaz22]

4 hours ago, The_Sheriff said:

After today i think its fair to say we need at least another cm.

I dont get the bird playing higher up thing either to be honest. If hes got to where he is now being a half decent holding midfielder why would we try change that? Its clearly not his skillset

I agree he has to play deeper instead of Smith or don’t play him he just couldn’t get on the ball yesterday and when he did he had his back to goal absolutely nuts and if Warne thinks he’s better further up the pitch then I am worried.

[On the Ram Page]

I thought everyone was clamouring for Bird to play higher up the pitch! In my view he is not a holding midfielder - his tackling isn’t strong enough, not good in the air, lacks a bit of pace.

Never saw him play but where’s Duncan Edwards when you need him.

[Carnero]

2 hours ago, Ambitious said:

We are close to signing a centre midfielder

Where's that come from?

[JJs dms]

I,m sure someone will put me right but didn't we start last season with this system and midfield three with Hourihane in the Bird role? I'm not wanting to be to over critical but there have been better players than these three that just haven't gelled as a unit

[EnigmaRam]

13 minutes ago, On the Ram Page said:

I thought everyone was clamouring for Bird to play higher up the pitch! In my view he is not a holding midfielder - his tackling isn’t strong enough, not good in the air, lacks a bit of pace.

Never saw him play but where’s Duncan Edwards when you need him.

Yeah lots of people kept saying he needs to play further forward. Now he is and they’re saying he should be played further back. 
 

Personally I don’t think we have a DM, box to box, or CAM. We Just have 3 generic midfielders that all do the same. 
 

Worrying thing Is we seem to want to play with 2 10’s, but don’t have any fit and we don’t have an athletic DM

[sage]

We need a DCM with a lot of pace. This will allow the slow CBs to drop 10 yards but not have the CM overrun when we press.

 

 

[Caerphilly Ram]

Just now, EnigmaRam said:

Yeah lots of people kept saying he needs to play further forward. Now he is and they’re saying he should be played further back. 
 

Personally I don’t think we have a DM, box to box, or CAM. We Just have 3 generic midfielders that all do the same. 
 

Worrying thing Is we seem to want to play with 2 10’s, but don’t have any fit and we don’t have an athletic DM

The athletic DM is the piece missing for me. I like Smith, think he’s a good pro from what’s seen, but as others have said there’s a lack of pace and mobility with Smith, Hourihane and Bird in there. I think signing someone to play the DM role frees both Hourihane and Bird to be a little more progressive (if they can find the bravery and execution to do so). Smith and Thompson then become depth, rotation options. 

[Sparkle]

19 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

The athletic DM is the piece missing for me. I like Smith, think he’s a good pro from what’s seen, but as others have said there’s a lack of pace and mobility with Smith, Hourihane and Bird in there. I think signing someone to play the DM role frees both Hourihane and Bird to be a little more progressive (if they can find the bravery and execution to do so). Smith and Thompson then become depth, rotation options. 

Looking at the match yesterday we frequently had one centre half playing there so two others were missing so I have to assume that they were midfield somewhere?

[Mr Tibbs]

1 hour ago, sage said:

We need a DCM with a lot of pace. This will allow the slow CBs to drop 10 yards but not have the CM overrun when we press.

I don't think it's pace, it's positioning for me. The other three just aren't very good at being in the right place at the right time. A good CDM knows when to go and when to sit, none of our CM's really have that quality. 

Thorne/Eustace/Huddlestone all did a pretty good job being that pivot and enforcer without any pace at all. 

[DiggerB]

1 hour ago, sage said:

We need a DCM with a lot of pace. This will allow the slow CBs to drop 10 yards but not have the CM overrun when we press.

 

 

Rooney?

[RoyMac5]

4 minutes ago, DiggerB said:

Rooney?

When he came in he said he preferred to play in midfield?

[Jimbo Ram]

1 hour ago, Carnero said:

Where's that come from?

You beat me to it, I thought Warney said he maybe needs another midfielder 😊

[Curtains]

Rooney should be in starting 11

 

[Loughborough Ram]

I said a month or so ago that we need a defensive midfielder to run the game, somebody to sit in and control how we play and control the ref to some extent. Some old pro who knows what the game is all about, somebody like Kevin MacDonald when he was at Wolves or Fulham.

Now, where you get him from, for free, is not something I have the answer to, but that is what we're crying out for.

[valakari]

1 hour ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

The athletic DM is the piece missing for me. I like Smith, think he’s a good pro from what’s seen, but as others have said there’s a lack of pace and mobility with Smith, Hourihane and Bird in there. I think signing someone to play the DM role frees both Hourihane and Bird to be a little more progressive (if they can find the bravery and execution to do so). Smith and Thompson then become depth, rotation options. 

Bielik!!!!

[Ambitious]

2 hours ago, Carnero said:

Where's that come from?

Warne mentioned it in his prematch interview for the Wigan game. I saved the video on my phone but file is too big to post on here. 

The exact words were: ‘I think we need to bolster the midfield and up top which looks like we’re close on doing so, erm, yeah, we are getting there’ 

[eddy779h34]

19 minutes ago, valakari said:

Bielik!!!!

Quite frankly midfield is the issue from before pre season, not upfront 

We have a diddy midfield, if Hourahaine puts that palm dowm slow the game once more I'll scream, we want someone who will shake a fist and show a bit of muscle 

Why sell Knight if none of the money was to be invested in a replacement centre mid . Warne has only just started to mention we are light in centre midfield. What has he been watching for the last year ?

So that's one game lost as we went into the game unprepared in my opinion 

Last season we made a slow start which cost us a play off place. this season looks like the same , unexcusable into your second season 

I was shot down after the Stoke game when Stoke bossed the game., but people on here were clouded by the result, never seen such a one sided 3 nil loss  

 

 

[Kernow]

I'm pessimistic that we can recruit the right type of midfielder without loans to be honest. I can't see there being any remaining freebies that would fit the criteria, and we aren't going to be able to afford to buy what we need from someone else. If we can find a young gem from a club in a higher division, then it might add a lot more balance to our midfield.

I think we're probably two central midfielders short, one attacking, one defensive. Then 1 or two strikers and a LWB. That's 5 more players, which I can't see happening.

What would be absolutely ideal for our midfield is a player like Ryan Woods, but the Brentford Ryan Woods, not Ryan Woods right now. Tenacious, mobile, quick, everything our midfield lacks right now.

[Caerphilly Ram]

5 minutes ago, eddy779h34 said:

Quite frankly midfield is the issue from before pre season, not upfront 

We have a diddy midfield, if Hourahaine puts that palm dowm slow the game once more I'll scream, we want someone who will shake a fist and show a bit of muscle 

Why sell Knight if none of the money was to be invested in a replacement centre mid . Warne has only just started to mention we are light in centre midfield. What has he been watching for the last year ?

So that's one game lost as we went into the game unprepared in my opinion 

Last season we made a slow start which cost us a play off place. this season looks like the same , unexcusable into your second season 

I was shot down after the Stoke game when Stoke bossed the game., but people on here were clouded by the result, never seen such a one sided 3 nil loss  

 

 

 

35 minutes ago, valakari said:

Bielik!!!!

We sold both Knight and Bielik to teams in the league above who bid what the ownership of Derby County felt were acceptable amounts. No amount of moaning into the abyss will change the fact that those two players have moved on with their careers and the club couldn’t have held them ransom regardless of their contracts as player power is still very much the reality in football.
What we now need is for Warne and Thomas to find suitable solutions to our midfield, either on loan or for free as per the club’s current circumstances, not sure who that could be but there will be some options out there.