This 'Ghost Midfield' of ours....

[old skool tom]

needs a complete make over if were to step up to the top table.I doubt it'll happen until next summer so hopefully we'll squeeze into top 4 this year.I can accept stevie not havin legs or fitness to drive us forward anymore but its fucking awful watching him pull out of every single 50/50 tackle,hes either thinking of England or knows one more injury will finish his career for good.The lack of pace,drive,support,power and ability to create is what we need to address in next summers window.

 

Lucas and Henderson wouldnt be bad squad players but theyll never be top drawer ......if Gerrard was 5 years younger and we still had Alonso & Masch in their prime,we'd be top and favourites without a doubt!

 

I think were only 3/4 top players from being a great side....go and tell FSG to sign them Brendon! YNWA

[TheHowieLama]

It's scary.

[Pureblood]

There are a lot of people wanting our midfield revamped, maybe this January is the time to do it?  Certainly a groundswell of opinion supporting this course of action. 

[Batigol]

needs a complete make over if were to step up to the top table.I doubt it'll happen until next summer so hopefully we'll squeeze into top 4 this year.I can accept stevie not havin legs or fitness to drive us forward anymore but its fucking awful watching him pull out of every single 50/50 tackle,hes either thinking of England or knows one more injury will finish his career for good.The lack of pace,drive,support,power and ability to create is what we need to address in next summers window.

 

Lucas and Henderson wouldnt be bad squad players but theyll never be top drawer ......if Gerrard was 5 years younger and we still had Alonso & Masch in their prime,we'd be top and favourites without a doubt!

 

I think were only 3/4 top players from being a great side....go and tell FSG to sign them Brendon! YNWA

Deja vu 

[Josef Svejk]

None of our four midfielders are good enough.

 

Gerrard was, of course. But not in his current position.

 

Although I like all three of them, Lucas, Henderson, and Allen are just bog-standard...

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

We need Per Ciljan Skjelbred...

[Fi!]

Just like Gerrard. Some days he decides to haunt the shit out of the opponent, then some days he is just non existence. 

[Guest LFD]

Even when we had Alonso and Mascherano we wouldn't control games at Arsenal, they would dominate possession.

 

I agree we need to look at centre midfield, as it can be improved and needs to be if we want to compete with the top European sides.  But Lucas, Henderson and Gerrard are fine against nearly every other side in this league, Arsenal apart.

[Rotpeter]

Even when we had Alonso and Mascherano we wouldn't control games at Arsenal, they would dominate possession.

 

I agree we need to look at centre midfield, as it can be improved and needs to be if we want to compete with the top European sides.  But Lucas, Henderson and Gerrard are fine against nearly every other side in this league, Arsenal apart.

The midfield has been crap against almost everyone. Only the SAS get out of jail card and mignolet's shot stopping are keeping us competitive.

[Pan77]

We need 2 new midfielders who consistently deliver 8 out of 10 performances. We've currently got:

 

Gerrard - ranges between 5-8 out of 10 depending where's he's played (and that's normally in the wrong position).

 

Lucas - again ranges between 6-8 out of 10.

 

Henderson - I like his attitude but he rarely puts in a performance above 7 out of 10. On the odd occasion he does.

 

On current form how many of them would get into city, arse, spurs, Chelsea? Not one of them would. You can carry one inconsistent performer but not three.

 

Those players coupled with the fact the balance isn't right anyway AND we're generally outnumbered in midfield in every game is a recipe for disaster. It doesn't matter how many time Roger's 'flips the fukn triangle' it won't work. We get away with it against average teams because we've got boss forwards. Moving forward the first place that needs sorting. I can't actually believe it wasn't in the summer. Lunacy.

[Trucker Paddy]

It shoulda been addressed in the summer,the reason it wasn't was it woulda pushed Allen further down the pecking order. It's a priority now, Gerrard just isn't doing it, Lucas the same, Henderson is the only one worth his place on form. I'm not even taking yesterday's game into consideration as arsenal could do that to many teams better than us, but Rodgers has a decision to make on Lucas and Gerrard, maybe Allen deserves another chance to show he can do more than we've seen but something needs to be done as the 5-3-2 formation can't carry Gerrard(leggy) and Lucas(slow)

 

 

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[spider-neil]

I don't think it's fair to use the Arsenal game as a barometer for our midfield. I think any midfield 3 is going to struggle against Arsenal's midfield 5. Our fullback should have been tucking in to make up the numbers but they were all over the place (and not in a good way).

 

Our midfield was made to look piss poor due to sheer weight of numbers. However, I would be dropping a centre back to drop another body into midfield as the majority of teams play with 1 striker therefore you are using 3 centre backs to mark one man which seems redundant to me.

[Gnasher]

It shoulda been addressed in the summer,the reason it wasn't was it woulda pushed Allen further down the pecking order. It's a priority now, Gerrard just isn't doing it, Lucas the same, Henderson is the only one worth his place on form. I'm not even taking yesterday's game into consideration as arsenal could do that to many teams better than us, but Rodgers has a decision to make on Lucas and Gerrard, maybe Allen deserves another chance to show he can do more than we've seen but something needs to be done as the 5-3-2 formation can't carry Gerrard(leggy) and Lucas(slow)

 

 

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Just about sums it up for me.

[xerxes]

Our league position shows that our midfield, and Rodgers,are doing something right.

 

Rome was not built in a day and it is easy to forget how much Rodgers has achieved so far. He has shipped out Carroll,and Downing, he has fashioned one of the best attacking partnerships we have had in a long time, he has replaced Reina saving money but not compromising on performance, and he has given us one of the best league starts for years.

 

You don't rebuild a team, and get maximum performance in 18 months.We haven't found the optimum midfield combination, but a defeat at Arsenal is no evidence for wholesale change.

[Gnasher]

Our league position shows that our midfield, and Rodgers,are doing something right.Rome was not built in a day and it is easy to forget how much Rodgers has achieved so far. He has shipped out Carroll,and Downing, he has fashioned one of the best attacking partnerships we have had in a long time, he has replaced Reina saving money but not compromising on performance, and he has given us one of the best league starts for years.You don't rebuild a team, and get maximum performance in 18 months.We haven't found the optimum midfield combination, but a defeat at Arsenal is no evidence for wholesale change.

If Suarez or Sturidige don't score we don't score.

[Red Hot]

If Suarez or Sturidige don't score we don't score.

That is our problem midfield does not create goals. All our great sides of the past have had goals from the whole of midfield. Terry Mac, Ray Houghton got shed loads of goals. SG in his pomp. Henderson & Lucas couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo. These are the first players to be replaced with quality. 

 

Control midfield and you win games 9 times out of ten.

[spider-neil]

That is our problem midfield does not create goals. All our great sides of the past have had goals from the whole of midfield. Terry Mac, Ray Houghton got shed loads of goals. SG in his pomp. Henderson & Lucas couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo. These are the first players to be replaced with quality. 

 

Control midfield and you win games 9 times out of ten.

 

You can't be expecting a goal return from an out and out holding midfielder. Did Alonso, Didi, Makelele score goals? If we have a front 3 of Coutinho, Sturridge and Suarez the midfield should be looking to give them a platform and security to allow them to do what they do best. If the opposition are driving a bus through the midfield then our midfield isn't doing it's job.

[Fi!]

There is really nothing much can be done now. Maybe Allen can give it a shot, but thats really it, and he is not a goal scoring midfielder also.

[Batigol]

Strange that the £7m summer signing rarely even makes the bench in this side tbh.

[DJLJ]

You can't be expecting a goal return from an out and out holding midfielder. Did Alonso, Didi, Makelele score goals? If we have a front 3 of Coutinho, Sturridge and Suarez the midfield should be looking to give them a platform and security to allow them to do what they do best. If the opposition are driving a bus through the midfield then our midfield isn't doing it's job.

Since our midfield isn’t scoring and they’re leaving enough space in there for a bus to drive through I think it is safe to say it isn’t doing a good job.

[Anubis]

It's scary.

 

Well it was the nearest match to Halloween.

[RedRazor]

i'm a bit saddened to see some of the criticism being levelled at Gerrard on here. He is one of, if not, the greatest central midfielder we have ever had. At his best he was absolutely fantastic. Sure he is losing parts of his game such as his box to box running and action man tackling because he has to manage himself. I suspect that he will call time on England after next summer and expect that he will last another season as team captain and first team regular at most. He still offers us plenty of quality in the things that he still does (although he didn't have a great game yesterday). His awareness and ability to pick a pass is still there and he has no peers in that respect at the club.

 

I think some posters on here need to show a little more respect to one of our greatest ever players.

[Fi!]

i'm a bit saddened to see some of the criticism being levelled at Gerrard on here. He is one of, if not, the greatest central midfielder we have ever had. At his best he was absolutely fantastic. Sure he is losing parts of his game such as his box to box running and action man tackling because he has to manage himself. I suspect that he will call time on England after next summer and expect that he will last another season as team captain and first team regular at most. He still offers us plenty of quality in the things that he still does (although he didn't have a great game yesterday). His awareness and ability to pick a pass is still there and he has no peers in that respect at the club.

 

I think some posters on here need to show a little more respect to one of our greatest ever players.

He is great, he is legend. But this is really not his game. I will never say he is lazy and refuse to run, but there is only so much running he can do.

I don't want to blame anyone, but BR should sub him for Allen in such high energy game.

[punkhunter]

I just wonder how much Arsenal are benefiting by actually being in the Champions League, compared to us who are limited to playing league games at the moment.

A lot is said about players being tired following champions League away games, but Arsenal seem to be benefiting by playing more competitive games. They looked a lot sharper yesterday, while we looked sluggish. You could be mistaken for thinking we were the team who is playing in 3 different competitions.

We seemed to be lacking match sharpness yesterday. We might actually be suffering by not playing enough competitive games.

[mark1975]

I don't think it's fair to use the Arsenal game as a barometer for our midfield. I think any midfield 3 is going to struggle against Arsenal's midfield 5. Our fullback should have been tucking in to make up the numbers but they were all over the place (and not in a good way).

 

Our midfield was made to look piss poor due to sheer weight of numbers. However, I would be dropping a centre back to drop another body into midfield as the majority of teams play with 1 striker therefore you are using 3 centre backs to mark one man which seems redundant to me.

 

I don't think it's knee-jerk to use it as a baromoter, they're the best in the league in midfield and we were found wanting. The problem is, we've been found wanting by Newcastle and Swansea's midfield too, so the alarm bells haven't just started. Teams waltzed through us last season, it wasn't addressed in the Summer and now we're seeing the trend continue.

 

Gerrard and Lucas in their current form aren't good enough, I don't think the latter ever was good enough, Gerrard is either playing too deep (a position he's never really excelled in, for me) or his decline is startingly rapid and getting to the stage where we can realistically question his guaranteed inclusion. It's one of the biggest decisions that Rodgers will inevitably have to make, but he'll never become a great manager unless he addresses it in some way.