The Midfield Conundrum

[eggy81]

Which Brighton lad are we rumoured to be interested in

[miller0863]

Moises Caicedo

[justme]

we'd have to pay them to take Ox off us to begin with.. before the we get down to dealing with the transfer at hand.
Oxlade offered so much and delivered hardly anything. Obviously not his fault with the knee injuries.
But the constant niggles..just annoying for a player who should have over come them by now. again its not his fault his body is not up to t . but its mighty frustrating

I always had hope he'd be good enough to play centrally and attacking in a 3. But never worked out that way. If you look at Elliot's position. hes more of inside attacker . But that leaves you short in the centre.. Im really for a strong 4/3/3

I know the false 9 has worked for us at times. But in games where teams sit. makes it very difficult to get near the oppositions box centrally.
I like the idea of a main striker in Nunez.. just need to get the right 3 behind him 2 strong midfielders and a midfielder that can run forward and take a shot and also sit in when required.

[miller0863]

It’s time to do what it takes or slide back into obscurity and watch the $millions disappear from their investment

[justme]

and to me Diaz is more of a striker than inside forward. he reminds me very much of Werner is the sense he runs from the left and then over does when he gets near the box. Hes good player. but i have my doubts he'll get enough from wide..
hes ok the counter but he will always have to deal with 2 players blocking him when teams sit back..

But Nunez is the main forward i get that..maybe we could shift formation sometimes and 3/5/2. (sorry over thinking things)
Just trying to solve some issues.. Klopp is a great manager.. but all managers have to deal with the opposition obviously..
And teams will find ways to stop us.

[Nineteenx]

I'd be absolutely ecstatic with a powerful midfielder in the mould of Gini but with the ability to play top class left to right switches for Trent and Mo and balls over the top for any of the forwards, who can play the LCM controller role so Diaz can be afforded more support and closer support from Robbo or Tsimikas as Mane used to enjoy when we were at our very best

With our players and their skill sets all 3 midfielders having excellent ability at switches would be absolutely huge for us

[Insidious]

I see, never heard of them..thanks

I'd add Bennacer as well.

So any of Szoboszlai, Laimer, Neves, Barella, Bennacer. Neves bottom of that personal list due to his lack of pace.

Laimer is in the last year of his deal and available for £25m or so, Bennacer I think is stalling on a contract extension and probably could be attained for £45m or so - just as examples.

Will hold my hands up and say I haven't bothered to check where we are in terms of Homegrown v non-Homegrown lads etc in terms of squad composition as it's hypothetical and I don't expect we'll conduct any business this window.

Won't be surprised at all if Bennacer eventually joins Man City. His touch is exquisite and Pep loves that.

[Nineteenx]

Time for Jurgen and most here to accept that we need dynamic powerful midfielders who are excellent in pressing and counter pressing and in their reading of the game to support our full back, forwards and defence playing at their highest levels with their expertise and physical attributes in these things, finding ones with better passing ability with the ability to play top quality switches and attempted balls over the top as a minimum requirement of thei passing ability would be great

Given how far our pressing and counter pressing has dropped off a cliff, and Jurgen, most here and FSG accepting it needs to be urgently addressed, we could do no worse than Wards getting on a plane to Leipzig to bring Laimer back with him to re-energise that element of our game, he's not too shabby with the ball either

If you look back at other threads, I said I would be very happy with Laimer as our midfield summer signing a long way back and for the reasons stated

[Kev0909]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1562114256082030595

Look at wij and fab in that midfield

I do think Wij Fab and hendo best midfield we've had under Klopp

they all worked together and clicked, it's a mess now.

[Nineteenx]

THIS is what we need, expert positioning, expert passing, box to box engine, athleticism, reading of the game, everything we need that Flabbby lacks, taxi for Fabinho please

"Welcome to the real world"



We've done it Trinity, we've found him"

In the meantime, Fab has completely and utterly lost all confidence having been brutally exposed playing in a 3 with Elliott to his right, I might not rate Fab, but he does have some merits, far greater merits as a midfielder and to play in our midfield than Elliott, although it is clear neither are midfielders

Nothing has changed with Fab, he isn't good enough, but with top midfielders either side of him, Hendo and Gini, then Thiago and Gini when Hendo was out in 20-21 then Hendo and Thiago he can do a job and a just about good enough job against most opposition, we need better, much better as Enzo is, especially at the sharp end of the Champions League as the poor positioning of both Thiago and Fab is what allowed Modric and Real to create the opportunity to score their winner in last seasons final, so moving forward we need far better

Not many games left now before Ward should be delivering Enzo and another on January 1st, only 5 league games left before we should have Enzo in our ranks if Ward is actually capable of doing his job, him being available for the fifth one away v Brentford but unlikely to start in my opinion, although maybe straight in going by Fab's horror show in that fixture last season

In the meantime, although he always has an error in him and isn't the best in the press and counter press, Fab's still a better option than Elliott all day long and the trio of Trent, Hendo and Mo on our right in our 433 was the fulcrum of almost everything we did well last term, even with Fab