Fully fit midfield

[8Leeds]

Fornah is a nailed on starter.

[Carl Sagan]

We should only need one defensive midfielder, who can be Fornah. In front of him we could play two more attacking central midfielders, who could be Sibley and Bird, or Sibley and Hourihane. Or we could play a diamond with Fornah at the bottom and Sibley at the top.

Instead of 7 defensive players and 4 attacking players, which is Warne's preferred system, either of these setups give us 5 attacking players and 6 defensive ones. We might actually look threatening from all over the pitch, instead of only trying to score from early crosses or set pieces.

[Rich3478]

Really want to see sibley play centrally and have a run there!

[England Ram]

My first game since opening day and from what I saw today you have Fornah as your holding midfielder all day long. 
 

Bird or Hourihane or both, one next to him or both playing in front of him. 

Sibley would be good at the 10 role with Fornah in the DM role. 
 

Smith was the weak link today by a country mile. Made 1/2 interceptions, which any midfielder wandering around in the 10 yard square he was, would have made.
But his decision making and ability to regularly find a positive forward pass are appalling. 

And he never moved to find space to take the pressure off. So frustrating to watch. 

[QuitYourJibbaJivin]

Fornah

Hourihane     Bird

4-3-3 has to be the way to go, Fornah is that presence In midfield we’ve missed for a while, he’s just always there. Bird is our best midfielder on the ball and as much as people love to hate Hourihane he contributes 10-15 goals and assists a season and no other midfielder in our squad is capable of getting anywhere near that.