Playing a Midfield full of CM's

[VamosFFC]

Is clearly hurting us. Our current midfield setup is basically all CM's. O'Hara, LVC, Pringle, and Cairney are all natural CM's. Yes, Pringle and Cairney can play on the wings, but it's not where they are best suited. We need true wingers working the flanks and channels to penetrate defenses if we want to be successful. We don't have Duff, Davies, and Dejagah anymore, which I feel are sorely missed. But, we do have Kacaniklic who is a true winger I would say. Also, Larnell Cole on the right is our only other option I can see. I don't know if he is quite ready to step up right now, but who else do we have? George Williams is still recovering and getting fit, and Sean Kavanagh isn't quite up to it, or is he?

What are everyone's thoughts on this?

[JDH101]

Kacaniklic is so useless its not even worth bringing his name up as part of any solution. But I agreed with your general point about the lack of pace and width. Its not like this was part of the problem last season though..

[westcliff white]

i thought Pringle played all of last season left midfield for Rotherham as he had the best crossing stats in the division. I have no clue if true just remember someone saying that when we signend him

[Fulham76]

We've potentially got a pretty decent midfield now, the problem is we don't use them! All forward balls are pumped long & high straight over their heads!

[Wimbledon_White]

Kaca flatters to deceive. Quick but lacks quality and is too weak IMO.

Cole much the same; looked okay against Crawley in pre-season but I fear that might be his level.

George Williams is worth another look.

Kavanagh is highly tipped by the club but I believe they see him our long-term LB rather than a winger. When he HAS played left mid he hasn't offered any width at all. He clearly isn't the answer for LW.

[Ordar]

All true points. Our midfield talent wise is easily the best in the division. Even the back up players, Parker, Kaca, Tunnicliffe and Hyndman would get into the majority of the first teams in this division.

I still think Cairney should be played centrally with O'Hara. LVC has offered very little in the central role pretty much since his injury. I'm really confused about Pringle. For Rotherham he was a proper winger, with us he never stays wide (a problem Kaca also has) and numerous times on Saturday Voser needed support up the line and no one was there.

[Northern Cottager]

Kaca flatters to deceive. Quick but lacks quality and is too weak IMO.

Cole much the same; looked okay against Crawley in pre-season but I fear that might be his level.

George Williams is worth another look.

Kavanagh is highly tipped by the club but I believe they see him our long-term LB rather than a winger. When he HAS played left mid he hasn't offered any width at all. He clearly isn't the answer for LW.

Kavanagh is the worst footballer I've ever seen. Reminds me of Ali Dia.

[Joseffc]

Agree Kavanagh is definitely not the answer. Other than having a decent left peg, I am yet to discover what other attributes he has to be a professional footballer.

There currently seems to be no clear philosophy or particular style of play being deployed in our tactics and I agree again that we desperately miss pace and flair on the flanks. Playing 4 central midfielders is ensuring that when the ball is actually played through the midfield our play is often very narrow and unless you are playing at a very high tempo with players who will pick holes in the opposition defence, it makes the job of creating opportunities all the more difficult. As seen in the majority of the first half it almost completely nullifies the threat of Matt Smith too, as he more often than not is having to deal with long straight passes with his back to goal, rather than crosses or diagonal passes. 

The system, or lack of one, also has a negative effect on the jobs required of our full backs. Richards seems far more confident than Voser and didn't struggle quite as much on the ball, but the lack of natural width means that the full backs are often forced to turn inside/backwards to play a pass as they do not have an 'out ball' wide/down the line. Thus slowing down our tempo and speed of attack. Then when they have given the ball they have to sit or drop deep to offer a return ball for our midfielders who are often left with few options to spread play or start an attack, therefore stifling the opportunity of the full backs to get up and down the line and find space to get crosses into the box. Defensively, we still fail to ever double up on opposition wingers too and it is far too easy for teams to isolate our full backs.

Would love to see how we would manage with 2 hard working quality out and out wingers...

[grandad]

We still have no genuine pace. All the best teams have at least one who can attack with pace either from MF or from the wings. Gayle would be one answer.

[@jolslover]

We still have no genuine pace. All the best teams have at least one who can attack with pace either from MF or from the wings. Gayle would be one answer.

Moussa Dembele offers pace and can get in behind. I think we should look at getting a winger before a striker. Someone like Will Buckley?

[VamosFFC]

We still have no genuine pace. All the best teams have at least one who can attack with pace either from MF or from the wings. Gayle would be one answer.

Moussa Dembele offers pace and can get in behind. I think we should look at getting a winger before a striker. Someone like Will Buckley?

We do lack pace for the most part in our starting lineup. Dembele does give us pace, but up front, which is needed as well. I'd like to see him start and get 60-70 minutes with Smith coming off the bench. I feel Dembele could really cause some havoc among other defenses.

And yes, an out and out winger with pace would be lovely. Maybe with Ream's signing all but confirmed, we should be looking at a pacey winger and striker. I'm saying this as I hope Burn or Hutch can slot in with Ream.

[@jolslover]

We still have no genuine pace. All the best teams have at least one who can attack with pace either from MF or from the wings. Gayle would be one answer.

Moussa Dembele offers pace and can get in behind. I think we should look at getting a winger before a striker. Someone like Will Buckley?

We do lack pace for the most part in our starting lineup. Dembele does give us pace, but up front, which is needed as well. I'd like to see him start and get 60-70 minutes with Smith coming off the bench. I feel Dembele could really cause some havoc among other defenses.

And yes, an out and out winger with pace would be lovely. Maybe with Ream's signing all but confirmed, we should be looking at a pacey winger and striker. I'm saying this as I hope Burn or Hutch can slot in with Ream.

Agree, well said

[Joseffc]

Does Symons have something against wingers? Just doesn't seem to be an option for him, although he has been limited by the squad he inherited. I just would have thought that we would have tried to bring in wide men, even if it was purely for a plan B scenario.

Could there be a possibility that if we sign Gayle we might use him on the wing rather than as an out & out striker?

[EJL]

The problem with Pringle is he tends to go missing for large spells. He's got excellent technique but clearly isn't the most explosive of players. What I've noticed is that he likes drifting in just a little bit so he's not having to challenge a fullback for pace. I reckon that Garbutt's return will help our width problem out massively, as Voser seems a bit hesitant to overlap on his weaker left foot.

[itombomb]

Does Symons have something against wingers? Just doesn't seem to be an option for him, although he has been limited by the squad he inherited. I just would have thought that we would have tried to bring in wide men, even if it was purely for a plan B scenario.

Could there be a possibility that if we sign Gayle we might use him on the wing rather than as an out & out striker?

Magath definitely cocked up the squad by getting rid of width, but Symons has had two windows and has barely looked to correct that, and his favoured formation (the 433) had no width whatsoever.

[alexbishop]

I think this league requires pace in the wide areas.

Kit's brand of football is a little slower, patient build up using players who are comfortable on the ball. Any width in Kit's teams will only come from overlapping full backs with his 'wide midfielders' cutting inside.

I would like to see at least one of our wide players being a fast winger, comfortable with both feet so he can switch flanks throughout the game.