Our central midfield situation

As others have said ,McCrorie at DFM , he could play centre back in an emergency but that's it , for me .

I don't think Ross will see as much game time next season if Rossiter and Jack are fit.
 
davmcc said:
I think Arfield always was predominantly a central midfielder who was pushed out to the left due to his athleticism and work rate.
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He is very versatile, can play as a ten aswell.
Good solid player, we could be doing with his workrate alongside candeias imo.
 
Recoba's Miracle said:
Left mid, not a winger as such just on the left but he can play anywhere in midfield and even behind the striker according to most of the info i have seen.

Very versatile which is good, itching to find out how Gerrard is going to setup.
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I think Arfield will play narrow in place of one of the wide men. Playing without 2 wingers will help us enormously in the middle of the park I think. Was always a luxury and led to us being outnumbered in the middle.
 
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Not too many for me. Jack and McCrorie are SPL good enough to play the holding/break up role. 2 competing for a position is good and in certain situations (close out a game) both could play. No one would sensibly rely on Rossiter given his injuries to date. Dorrans might play creative role if injury hasn't permanently knackered his legs. Ejaria is a calculated risk and not permanent. There is scope for more and better quality to have a winning squad.
 
I just have a feeling Ejaria is going to frustrate a lot of people - hope I'm wrong but just a feeling I have seen after viewing some footage of him.
 
I think SG's preferred midfield will be: Rossiter, McCrorie, Ejaria. That would be an awesome three. However, given Rossiter's frailty Jack and Arfield will be used frequently too.
 
To be honest we need a squad that can rotate formations, which hopefully we will have come the start of the season. We are also talking about players in the past tense form, whereas I firmly believe Gerrard will improve a good % of them primarily the midfielders. Expect a very fit raring to go team. I think Jack, Docherty and Rossiter specifically will be flying come pre season.
 
Dorrans for me would be cut loose. I know he’s had his injuries but he’s just not done it.
Jack impressed early on but his temperament is questionable. A loose cannon we can ill afford given the biased officiating.
Rossiter is a quality player but needs to prove his fitness this season or we need to let him go.
Docherty is young and a tremendous athlete. I see him as a Stuart McCall type player.
Ejaria and Arfield are attacking midfielders. McCrorie definitely is a defensive midfielder as opposed to a centre half.
If we can add one quality playmaker to that lot I would be really pleased.
I see us having a ball winner such as Jack or Docherty, a play maker such as Rossiter or a.n.other and an attack minded midfielder such as Arfield or Ejaria.
McCrorie would have a role dependant on what kind of formation we line up with.
 
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We at the moment lack a physical presence in the midfield and that will cause us problems unless we can find somebody this window. Ideally we should have a couple of large ohysicaphy strong players but I can't see us getting any unless we clear a few out of midfield.
 
Alex Venters said:
Two wingers is suicidal.
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It makes us too reliant on the loan striker. If he is off form then who scores the goals?

If playing a 433 it should be with attacking players who can come from wide. The only we had success with this was when picking 3 between Cannigia, Arveladze, Mols and Lovenkrands.
All could score goals and all could create.

Murphy and Candieas play too far away from the striker and we never hold the ball up properly to bring the midfield into play.
It also leads to losing possession and puts the 2 man midfield and defence under pressure, especially if John or Tav are up the park.

I hope SG totally rips up the system we have been playing and gets some of FF out of this thinking that it should just be a 433 or 4231.
People seem to forgot just how horrific our form at home was last year.
 
Alex Venters said:
Liverpool won't be happy if he's constantly benched.

We,as you say,need a much more solid midfield,that neccessitates three centrally. It also means we need better full backs than Tav and John.
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I agree with this especially the full backs. The boy from Liverpool if starting has to be good enough and be a presence in every game we cannot afford to carry loan players who do nothing.
If he starts we can’t wait for him to find form, he has to do it immediately as to be honest the rest do.
 
Walterego said:
Dorrans for me would be cut loose. I know he’s had his injuries but he’s just not done it.
Jack impressed early on but his temperament is questionable. A loose cannon we can ill afford given the biased officiating.
Rossiter is a quality player but needs to prove his fitness this season or we need to let him go.
Docherty is young and a tremendous athlete. I see him as a Stuart McCall type player.
Ejaria and Arfield are attacking midfielders. McCrorie definitely is a defensive midfielder as opposed to a centre half.
If we can add one quality playmaker to that lot I would be really pleased.
I see us having a ball winner such as Jack or Docherty, a play maker such as Rossiter or a.n.other and an attack minded midfielder such as Arfield or Ejaria.
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Jacks temprament? Wasn’t to bad till he pulled on a blue shirt!
 
Ejaria McCrorie Arfield
Jack Rossiter Docherty

Tbh I’m not really blown away with Ejaria and would’ve rathered we spent some money on the position. Jack Rossiter and Docherty are fine for back ups and all of them could slot in on a game to game basis.
 
I reckon two of the midfield three are not at the club yet. Jacks a decent player but not got the quality to take us to a title, same with Holt, Docherty, and to a lesser extent McCrorie who may well develop into a player. Rossiter will be a bonus if he can stay fit but I can't see Gerrard having him pencilled in as a given. Dorrans would probably be a starter if he can regain his fitness, with Arfield pushing for a place as well.
 
We need backup in case of injuries, These past 2 seasons we have been getting alot of them so we need good competition for places.
 
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