Our problem is the midfield (not exactly breaking news but still)

[ToonTastic]

Speaking of midfielders Faye looked awful, hopefully not a sign of things to come. He looked worse than Parker, Parker at least went round 360, Faye went 180 so he was facing his own goal then lost the ball.

[Guest teepee]

smith has been very very dissapointing.

 

i simply do not understand why a socalled attacking player almost never attacks

 

with what we have available right now we need to try:

 

milner-geremi-butt-zoggy

 

solid in the middle but with a bit of width and trickery on both sides

[Dinho lad]

smith has been very very dissapointing.

 

 

But Fergie played in him in midfield! 

 

Everyone has been fooled by it, even Allardyce.

[toptoon]

People are forgetting that we couldn't have played a much different midfield last night, because Zog had to play left back in Enriques absence. I have no doubt that things will look much brighter once we can line up like this:

 

 

Milner   Barton   Geremi   Zog

 

Agreed probably our best Midfield, i'd like to see Rozenhal tried in Butts position too though as he's decent on the floor, quickish and knows when to get forward.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Bigger problems than the midfield;

 

Formation

Actual team being picked

Ameobi

 

[dilligaf]

If/When we have Duff, Emre and Barton at our disposal and the opportunity to push N'zogbia on (which should be soon ffs) we should be in a better position to judge. We have absolutely 0 creativity in the middle at the moment, I've never been a fan of Butt, Smith has been pretty shocking, and I havent really been impressed by Geremi either this season.

[Guest BigAl2]

Like I said my thread about "NUFC missing Right Winger"...We need to replace Solano and start threatening teams on the flanks like we used to do under SBR when Robert and Solano kept bombarding the teams with inch perfect crosses and chipping in with their own share of goals...The problem is that we have been lacking genuine scoring midfielders since Robert left and moved to RB...Milner does NOT score and as many here hated Dyer, he was still more a threat and can get more goals for us than any of our midfielders...

 

I think against Derby we should have tried 3-5-2 with a team like:

 

 

Robert!! inch perfect crosses!! on occasions maybe but never consistantly.

I am hoping that Barton will be the creative spark that we need, yes you need water carriers but not a whole midfield of them.

 

Oh for a 24 year old Peter Beardsley

[Nobody]

If/When we have Duff, Emre and Barton at our disposal and the opportunity to push N'zogbia on (which should be soon ffs) we should be in a better position to judge. We have absolutely 0 creativity in the middle at the moment, I've never been a fan of Butt, Smith has been pretty shocking, and I havent really been impressed by Geremi either this season.

Geremi has obvious talents, however, he should not be played with Butt. Geremi and Emre/Barton will look so much better, IMO.

[toptoon]

Once Bartons back our best MF would be:

 

Zoggy  Barton Geremi  Milner

 

or if 433

 

      Zoggy  Geremi  Barton

 

(Emre could come into that equation too if he ever gets fit)

 

 

at the moment i agree maybe we should try:

 

Zoggy  Rozenhal  Smith/Geremi  Milner

 

or

            Zoggy  Rozenhal  Smith/Geremi

[dilligaf]

If/When we have Duff, Emre and Barton at our disposal and the opportunity to push N'zogbia on (which should be soon ffs) we should be in a better position to judge. We have absolutely 0 creativity in the middle at the moment, I've never been a fan of Butt, Smith has been pretty shocking, and I havent really been impressed by Geremi either this season.

Geremi has obvious talents, however, he should not be played with Butt. Geremi and Emre/Barton will look so much better, IMO.

Id go with that. Although Smith has been pretty shocking, Butt would be the first person id drop from the 3 as soon as someone attacking can come in. Even N'Zogbia could do a job as the most attacking of the 3. I just dont particularly think Butt offers us anything, his passing is normally dodgy, he has no pace and 90% of the time he's completely immobile. Whenever he does actually run and chase someone down he gives away a free kick because he dives in.

[Parky]

iirc Alan Smith has never played wide right in his whole career. So why now? That would be fairer to the player than just villifying him after every game.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Bigger problems than the midfield;

 

FormationActual team being picked

Ameobi

 

 

We played 442 until the 70 min last night. I thought that's what people wanted.

 

 

 

If that was a 4-4-2 then I'm an egg. 4-4-2 generally has two wingers, not a shite Alan Smith doing a poor impression of one.

[Guest shearer_206]

Put Smith up front or not at all. Everyone knows he's not great, more people know he's not as good in midfield. On the right? Oh dear.

 

Couldn't agree more with this, he has been a total waste of time in midfield all season. No pace, no creativity and he can't really tackle (4 booking already).. Yet we have a clown like Shola playing in his position.

 

I know we have injuries in the midfield, but we look woefull at the minute (in that area)!

[BONTEMPI]

TBH When I saw the teamsheet lastnight I felt like puking, as I knew we'd be toothless!

 

Milner and Zoggy are overrated, i've always thought that, and why the hell did we start with Ameobi?  I said to my old man all he'll do is give away freekicks, and what a suprise!

 

Smith is a poor mans scott parker, spends more time on the floor than he ever did!

 

For our next game, I wan't to see Emre and hopefully Barton in there! And for god sake play Enrique and Beye from the fucking start!

 

Why he could not have started with Owen and Martins from the start is beyond me, as Derby were all over the place the first 20 mins, and that pace could have punished them!

 

Roll on January, because were going to get done by the top four sides, no doubt about it!

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

 

Milner and Zoggy are overrated, i've always thought that, and why the hell did we start with Ameobi?  I said to my old man all he'll do is give away freekicks, and what a suprise!

 

 

Agreed about Milner but you can't exaclty have a got at N'zogbia when he's playing at LB.

 

Would happily see a new right winger come in during January.

[BONTEMPI]

 

Milner and Zoggy are overrated, i've always thought that, and why the hell did we start with Ameobi?  I said to my old man all he'll do is give away freekicks, and what a suprise!

 

 

Agreed about Milner but you can't exaclty have a got at N'zogbia when he's playing at LB.

 

Would happily see a new right winger come in during January.

 

Well I think it's justified to have a go at Zogggy for all the crap balls and losing the ball nearly everytime he had it! And that's against a poor Derby side!

 

New Henry my arse!

[toptoon]

 

Milner and Zoggy are overrated, i've always thought that, and why the hell did we start with Ameobi?  I said to my old man all he'll do is give away freekicks, and what a suprise!

 

 

Agreed about Milner but you can't exaclty have a got at N'zogbia when he's playing at LB.

 

Would happily see a new right winger come in during January.

 

Well I think it's justified to have a go at Zogggy for all the crap balls and losing the ball nearly everytime he had it! And that's against a poor Derby side!

 

New Henry my arse!

 

Zoggy and Milner played well enough, a few stray crosses from both but probably our two most creative players on the night. There was nothing coming from the right at all which made it way too easy for Derby because they just had to deal with the left hand side. Martins should have started on the RW at least he can beat people/cross/shoot and cause them real problems, Smith did non of these things.

[Dave]

New Henry.

[Keefaz]

New Henry.

 

Dunno. I can see a likeness...

 

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2506/henrykellycy6.jpg

[johnnypd]

iirc Alan Smith has never played wide right in his whole career. So why now? That would be fairer to the player than just villifying him after every game.

 

He did play wide right on occasions at leeds. Or wide forward.

 

completely different role tbf to smith. last night he seemed to be more right-defensive-midfield if anything. he's much better playing as a forward tho i wouldn't have him down as a first-choice as he doesn't score enough.

[Guest optimistic nit]

Put Smith up front or not at all. Everyone knows he's not great, more people know he's not as good in midfield. On the right? Oh dear.

 

Playing Smith right mf is a silly postion and god knows who dreamt that up. If it was originally to interchange with the striker, well they aren't doing that. I'd have rather him upfront with Owen tonight as they showed some nice interchanges for England for 20min or so a few weeks ago.

 

Smith has to play as a forward or breaking from CM with late runs. The wide right thing isn't working.

 

So why's Big Sam persisting with it? It's a bit like Souness playing Bellamy on the right when it was a total waste of time for everyone involved. And Bellamy did the job a hell of a lot better than Smith, tbh.

 

 

i think (hope) it is because we were unbeaten, so he didn't want to change anything. also who else can we put there? if we play zog at lb then  the only fit player who can play at lm is milner (although he was beyond awful last night). if we play milner at lm then our only fit rm is geremi, who we want in the centre. i think its more a case of having to play him there, i think sam built his squad with 433 in mind, meaning wingers wern't essential. now we've reverted to 442 were a bit stuck.

[Guest sondre]

KERLON!!! Anyone know anything about this guy? only nineteen, and looks immense on youtube! maybe the solution to our AM problem?

 

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/2820/kerlonjs3.th.jpg

[Guest BigSamsBarmyArmy]

Put Smith up front or not at all. Everyone knows he's not great, more people know he's not as good in midfield. On the right? Oh dear.

 

Playing Smith right mf is a silly postion and god knows who dreamt that up. If it was originally to interchange with the striker, well they aren't doing that. I'd have rather him upfront with Owen tonight as they showed some nice interchanges for England for 20min or so a few weeks ago.

 

Smith has to play as a forward or breaking from CM with late runs. The wide right thing isn't working.

 

That would be Fergie.