Analysis from @PremLeaguePanel as early as July 2023 (!) on how opposition teams have figured out how to expose and dominate our midfield, it’s been a problem for a long time now.
Analysis from @PremLeaguePanel as early as July 2023 (!) on how opposition teams have figured out how to expose and dominate our midfield, it’s been a problem for a long time now.
PremLeaguePanel is an account that genuinely knows their stuff and when I saw this tweet a year ago, I was worried but thought maybe Tonali could ease the issues when he comes back.
But now, it’s clear that our 3 man midfield is being dominated and Howe’s midfield setup has been torn apart by nearly every manager now in the PL.
Xmithie_best_option on
We all knew about it but they bought Tonali instead then you know Eddie isn’t changing shit
xScottieHD on
It’s been crystal clear for the best part of 18 months now that we’ve been sussed out. Yet we persist.
AimeLeonDon1 on
We knew last season we’d been worked out and didn’t have a plan B. We’ve had all that time to work on plan b, c, d etc but we just look bereft of ideas. You can tell by the demeanour of some of the players it’s not good, they know it themselves and look fucking desperate to get off the pitch. Gordon’s been honking as has Isak, Bruno and Joelinton. Nothing is clicking and we haven’t got a clue.
niftykev on
Yeah, but even assuming Eddie would want to go to a pure single pivot 6…
Who is a pure 6 we can attract to the club? And who do you want to sell to be able to afford them? And is it more or less important than upgrading the right wing? Is it more or less important than securing a long term CB option? Schar, Burns, and Lascelles are all getting long in the tooth.
Honestly it’s not that we don’t have a player that is a pure 6, it’s that we don’t play a triangle midfield 3 with a single pivot. We play a flat and fluid 3, which goes up to my first sentence.
Next, who has been missing from the squad while this midfield has been looking so vulnerable from the back half of last season through this season? Botman. I think having Botman at CB helps defend those half spaces that get created the way our midfield is set up. Burns just can’t do that. I’m not sure Kelly would do it better than Burn. Schar isn’t great at it either, but the half spaces that have been exploited are usually on our left side, not the right.
edit: sorry, didn’t finish my thought. The fact Botman is still out and we’re constantly getting exposed IS on How for not adjusting things to the personnel available. We can still play 3 in the middle, just adjust how they they play without the ball. Though, counterpoint is this year, when we are in our defensive setup, it’s actually a 4-4-2. Not talking about when we turn the ball over and are in transition defense, but when the other team is building out of the back, we’re sitting in a 4-4-2 defensively. Today it was Gordon and Isak with Barnes dropping into the midfield. I don’t know if we did that a lot last year, but I am seeing more and more international teams adopt a 4-4-2 defensively, even if they set up 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 offensively.
kaotikuk on
Thats been a big problem for us, but Eddie wont change from his way. Definitely need a natural 6 for this setup but aint gonna happen.
6 Comments
Source: [https://x.com/PremLeaguePanel/status/1675933673512640513](https://x.com/PremLeaguePanel/status/1675933673512640513)
[https://x.com/PremLeaguePanel/status/1746522331810308448](https://x.com/PremLeaguePanel/status/1746522331810308448)
PremLeaguePanel is an account that genuinely knows their stuff and when I saw this tweet a year ago, I was worried but thought maybe Tonali could ease the issues when he comes back.
But now, it’s clear that our 3 man midfield is being dominated and Howe’s midfield setup has been torn apart by nearly every manager now in the PL.
We all knew about it but they bought Tonali instead then you know Eddie isn’t changing shit
It’s been crystal clear for the best part of 18 months now that we’ve been sussed out. Yet we persist.
We knew last season we’d been worked out and didn’t have a plan B. We’ve had all that time to work on plan b, c, d etc but we just look bereft of ideas. You can tell by the demeanour of some of the players it’s not good, they know it themselves and look fucking desperate to get off the pitch. Gordon’s been honking as has Isak, Bruno and Joelinton. Nothing is clicking and we haven’t got a clue.
Yeah, but even assuming Eddie would want to go to a pure single pivot 6…
Who is a pure 6 we can attract to the club? And who do you want to sell to be able to afford them? And is it more or less important than upgrading the right wing? Is it more or less important than securing a long term CB option? Schar, Burns, and Lascelles are all getting long in the tooth.
Honestly it’s not that we don’t have a player that is a pure 6, it’s that we don’t play a triangle midfield 3 with a single pivot. We play a flat and fluid 3, which goes up to my first sentence.
Next, who has been missing from the squad while this midfield has been looking so vulnerable from the back half of last season through this season? Botman. I think having Botman at CB helps defend those half spaces that get created the way our midfield is set up. Burns just can’t do that. I’m not sure Kelly would do it better than Burn. Schar isn’t great at it either, but the half spaces that have been exploited are usually on our left side, not the right.
edit: sorry, didn’t finish my thought. The fact Botman is still out and we’re constantly getting exposed IS on How for not adjusting things to the personnel available. We can still play 3 in the middle, just adjust how they they play without the ball. Though, counterpoint is this year, when we are in our defensive setup, it’s actually a 4-4-2. Not talking about when we turn the ball over and are in transition defense, but when the other team is building out of the back, we’re sitting in a 4-4-2 defensively. Today it was Gordon and Isak with Barnes dropping into the midfield. I don’t know if we did that a lot last year, but I am seeing more and more international teams adopt a 4-4-2 defensively, even if they set up 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 offensively.
Thats been a big problem for us, but Eddie wont change from his way. Definitely need a natural 6 for this setup but aint gonna happen.