Can't underestimate the value of a good midfield

VorZakone

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A strong and well-functioning center midfield is absolutely vital. It's what allowed Barca to completely dominate opponents a few years ago, it's what elevated Real Madrid to winning 3 CL's in a row. It's what kickstarted Juventus' domination in Serie A in the past years. It's what consistently brought trophies to Man Utd.

When you looked at Argentina today, what were they expecting with that midfield?
 

LilyWhiteSpur

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A strong and well-functioning center midfield is absolutely vital. It's what allowed Barca to completely dominate opponents a few years ago, it's what elevated Real Madrid to winning 3 CL's in a row. It's what kickstarted Juventus' domination in Serie A in the past years. It's what consistently brought trophies to Man Utd.

When you looked at Argentina today, what were they expecting with that midfield?
I agree midfield can be where a game is lost and won but what Argentina lacked today was team spirit, work ethic and leadership. The majority of the team were just waddling round the pitch.
 

Suedesi

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Well, the Croatian midfield has a starter from Barca and a starter (and a reserve) from Real Madrid. The midfield for Argentina has no player any of the top teams in Europe would want as reserves. It's insane.
 

Culero

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Yep. I knew they were not world beaters but Argentina got really exposed today, couldn't connect from defence to attack because the midfield is absolutely terrible in the build up hence all the long balls.
 

El-Manos

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Croatia have the best midfield. France/Spain second? We could do with a Kroos/Modric type signing, that ‘controller’ in midfield. Fred although a good player is a completely different midfielder.
 

Canagel

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Yes this is correct. The best teams left in the competition will be the teams with the best midfields. As it always is in the biggest competitions on the world stage.
 

Cloud7

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Most important area of the field IMO. Always has been.

A quality midfield can make up for deficiencies in both attack and defense.
 

Cheekiey

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Croatia have the best midfield. France/Spain second? We could do with a Kroos/Modric type signing, that ‘controller’ in midfield. Fred although a good player is a completely different midfielder.
let's give him a chance first eh
 

Zen

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This will just get countered with the similarly not great midfield Portugal have won a Euros with and currently have 6 points with. Deserved so too.

Argentina's cracks run tremendously deeper. They are essentially England except they made 3 Finals instead of quarters looking a bit turd and are now blowing up. Both countries also put way too much pressure on them - I'm not many other nations do that on their players as bad. Brazil aside..
 
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A strong and well-functioning center midfield is absolutely vital. It's what allowed Barca to completely dominate opponents a few years ago, it's what elevated Real Madrid to winning 3 CL's in a row. It's what kickstarted Juventus' domination in Serie A in the past years. It's what consistently brought trophies to Man Utd.

When you looked at Argentina today, what were they expecting with that midfield?
I agree - it's where games are won and lost.
If you can control/dominate the midfield you will most likely win the game.
 

Tomuś

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This will just get countered with the similarly not great midfield Portugal have won a Euros with and currently have 6 points with. Deserved so too.

Argentina's cracks run tremendously deeper. They are essentially England except they made 3 Finals instead of quarters looking a bit turd and are now blowing up. Both countries also put way too much pressure on them - I'm not many other nations do that on their players as bad. Brazil aside..
All countries do that but some of them simply don't bottle it.
 

bosnian_red

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Tbf there are much different ways to go about it. Fergie went a long time with much less then great midfielders. Hell he beat Arsenal putting Rafael and Park in a midfield 2. You just have to play to your strengths. Midfield helps loads just like any position, but there are teams who know they are weaker in midfield but stronger up top and find ways to be successful. Strong defences, dominant midfields, lethal attackers... can make it work with any area. A good system could get way more out of that Argentina side then we saw.
 

reddevil702

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This will just get countered with the similarly not great midfield Portugal have won a Euros with and currently have 6 points with. Deserved so too.

Argentina's cracks run tremendously deeper. They are essentially England except they made 3 Finals instead of quarters looking a bit turd and are now blowing up. Both countries also put way too much pressure on them - I'm not many other nations do that on their players as bad. Brazil aside..
There is always an exception but I think for the most part it's the most common factor among teams that have been great over a period of time.
 

M4nu4Life

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I still feel we need two more mids.

Our midfield has been holding back since Scholes left.
 

Bojan11

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Fergie would have got them to the final with those attackers.

Keep things tight and surely one of those attackers will have a moment of brilliance. Uraguay aren’t pretty to watch albeit they have better centre backs than Argentina but they are the type of style Argentina may need to result to without a midfield. And trust me none of the top teams with good midfielders will want to play Uraguay.
 

Don Alfredo

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I always though you couldn‘t be a great side without a quality midfield. This season I lost that believe, when Liverpool steamrolled everyone in the CL. I could name 100 midfielders better than the guys playing for the Scousers and they looked perfectly fine until the final. Still in the final I didn‘t think their midfield was very bad or they got outplayed. I think the defense was bad in some moments, Karius was a joke and the attack was disappointing, especially Firmino and Lallana.
 

Demyanenko_square_jaw

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Being a Russian NT supporter my patience for romanticising a good midfield(especially a nice tidy possession one) at the expense of other areas of the team is pretty limited. A lot of our '90s and '00s teams were good examples of how to win the midfield battle 90% of the time and still arse things up overall due to other flaws.

Generally i think a strong spine, versatility and balance throughout the team is a lot more important than being stacked in any one area.That's what those elite teams in the first post are primarily examples of imo, rather than standout midfields that often had to carry other parts of the team.
 

deafepl

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Yeah, not to mention that Fergie brought Carrick in 2006 enabled United to dominate the league and be a powerhouse of Europe until Barca late 2009s and made 3 UCL final in 4 years and could make 4 UCL final in a row if it wasn't for away goal.

Since United's post winning UCL team, I think Mourinho's United 2018-19 is probably stronger than Fergie's 2011-2013 in midfield but weak in attacking lines up the likes of Lukaku, Sanchez, Co, compared to RVP, Peak Rooney, Hernández, Nani, etc.

I believe we'll have most balanced midfield in a decade next season and if we sign new quality midfielders in case if Fellaini leaves so we'll have quality two midfielder likes of Herrera and a new signing on the bench.
 

Bojan11

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It’s crazy Argentina had players like Aimar, Riquelme, Ortega, Redondo and Veron. Now they have nobody.

I’m sure some Argentina fans would swap Messi for two of those above players in their prime because they do have a lot of goal scorers in their squad. They lack any creativity.

Put Redondo and Riqulme instead of Messi and it looks balanced. They have Aguero, Dybala, Higuain and even Icardi who can score goals. Just the creating chances bit is which they fail at.
 

MikeKing

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Also can't underestimate attackers, or defenders, or goalkeepers. Don't get the point of this.
Yeah, you usually need the whole team don't you? :lol: Also, it sort of tells us from the word, central midfielders. They are central to the game.
 

red4ever 79

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Midfield is the most important area of the pitch. It's where the game is controlled or lost. I imagine next season we will line up with Matic, Pogba, Fred and bring in Herrera and (another) as back ups. Looks decent on paper