How do we solve our midfield problem?

[DWelbz19]

Mctominay had 38 passes last night, for a player who plays as a DM really those passing stats need to be higher than that against Burnley and teams of their ilk.

If this was Rodri and Fabinho would have had 50+ passes and made better decisions with those passes, its not Mctominays fault as he is all we have but the neglect of midfield areas if well publicised.

Until we remedy the midfield part of our game to dominate more and rotate the ball faster and more accurately we will see the same issues we do now.

Spot on, yeah. It’s McTominay’s biggest flaw - he doesn’t have the ability to nor the confidence to grab the ball and pass it around all game. From your two examples — Rodri averages 87 passes a game. Fabinho is on 60.

That’s the profile we’re missing in the centre of the field - someone who circulates the ball well. Isn’t particularly glamorous with long range raking passes or crazy goals from deep; just someone who can play on the ball a bit and retain possession.

 

[Back To Madeira]

I thought left back was where we have the big hole.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

In summary I think, if we want to retain Bruno and Pogba in there then the third member needs to be a world class DM
It’s pretty simple.

 

[Leftback99]

Yes but that was obvious pre season. We also have holes (or players not good enough) in basically every other position now bar maybe LW and CB.

 

[Jippy]

You need a hole between your ears to think what this forum is missing is a new thread on our midfield.

 

[Hammondo]

We do not play much from the central midfield really, we play way more from our wide players.

We have no one who can control and dictate midfield so the ball is forced into other areas as often its the only way we can go.

This has been our problem since Carrick.

 

[Desert Eagle]

By letting our best midfielder leave on a free obviously.

 

[RonaldoVII]

By letting our best midfielder leave on a free obviously.

Clear sarcasm but I think that'll help us by replacing him with someone who fits.

 

[Hammondo]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Looking at Burnley's control it really shows how poor our midfield was against them. No one stepping up.

 

[BorisManUtd]

Think summer of 2022 might be most important summer in years. If we don't strenghten properly in midfield area then we have no chance next season even for top 4. Will have to spend big, especially on a defensive midfielder.

 

[RedSky]

Signing a Midfielder would be a start.

 

[Hester_manc]

Sign Amadou Onana from Lille. He is a monster and can become one of the best in number 6 position.

 

[jesperjaap]

Its quite obviously signing players. A few leaving and none of them have been the answer, even a world record fee.

Hannibal is totally unproven and its the defensive, intelligent midfielder we lack most with biting tackles, he doesnt seem that type.

Also, we have been so poor, som epeople seem excited about Garner being the answer. Whenever I see him, he is a decent player. Good passing range, works hard, gets stuck in.....but he is just a decent player, about as excited about him comign back as when we were linek dwith the ridiculously over rated Sean Longstaff, tink they are pretty similar actually. So we ar eleft with McFred and Matic....so I think we need two and there are a plethora from free ones like Kamara to Rice or Bellingham who would cost a fortune, but two quality midfielders that fir what we need, are the biggest improvement we can make to our first eleven for me,

 

[Trex]

We need two players with Pogba leaving, a holding midfielder to shield the defence and bring balance, and an 8, one who is press resistant and a good distributor of the ball, short and long passing with good intensity out of possession.
Even the 6 has to be better at receive the ball than Mctominay for example even if he doesn't have a wide range of passing, should have good composure, can occasional find a line breaking pass and must have good positional sense.
No spending crazy money like Rice would require.

 

[VidaRed]

We have massive problems in central midfield.

Pogba has been a failure and is leaving.
McT and Fred are at best squad players and can't play together.
Bruno isn't consistent with his passing during counter attacks and can't retain possession after he receives the ball from our defense after they've stopped an attack which results in our already jaded defense to stop another counter.
Donny also looks doubtful, if ten hag wants to retain him then I can't see how we can accommodate both him and bruno.

Did i mention about a DM yet ?

 

[Lee565]

We have massive problems in central midfield.

Pogba has been a failure and is leaving.
McT and Fred are at best squad players and can't play together.
Bruno isn't consistent with his passing during counter attacks and can't retain possession after he receives the ball from our defense after they've stopped an attack which results in our already jaded defense to stop another counter.
Donny also looks doubtful, if ten hag wants to retain him then I can't see how we can accommodate both him and bruno.

Did i mention about a DM yet ?

Hopefully he puts a bit trust in our academy and few players that are out on loan, fred has potential to be a starter with the right coaching and you never know he may experiment with one or two players position like a majority of the best managers tend to do

 

[Andersons Dietician]

At the start of the season I would have said we need to find a way to have Bruno and Pogba on the pitch playing together then have the rest as squad players and maybe find some replacements. Now Pogba and Bruno would be the first out the door for me when previously it would have been McT, Matic and Fred.

Matic’s time is up and should be allowed to leave but honestly I’d only keep Fred, Donny and McT and hope for some serious investment in some young promising hungry midfielders coupled with hopefully some of our own youth, then hope some magic happens and we get a decent midfield unit.

 

[fergiewherearethou]

We have massive problems in central midfield.

Pogba has been a failure and is leaving.
McT and Fred are at best squad players and can't play together.
Bruno isn't consistent with his passing during counter attacks and can't retain possession after he receives the ball from our defense after they've stopped an attack which results in our already jaded defense to stop another counter.
Donny also looks doubtful, if ten hag wants to retain him then I can't see how we can accommodate both him and bruno.

Did i mention about a DM yet ?

Exactly, that's why I think we need 1 DM and 1 box to box midfielder and let Bruno, Fred and VDB battle for the last spot, considering ETH will play 4-3-3.

 

[Bastian]

We'll buy two starters for midfield. Bruno will get a chance to show he can play within a serious tactical setup. Yes, we've got problems all over the pitch, but our midfield is only capable of playing underdog Ole-ball.

 

[croadyman]

We'll buy two starters for midfield. Bruno will get a chance to show he can play within a serious tactical setup. Yes, we've got problems all over the pitch, but our midfield is only capable of playing underdog Ole-ball.

I don't like how quiet the links are to any holding DM's, still need one even IF we can get a tempo controller too.

 

[Mylock]

We have massive problems in central midfield.

Pogba has been a failure and is leaving.
McT and Fred are, at best, squad players and can't play together.
Bruno isn't consistent with his passing during counterattacks. He can't retain possession after receiving the ball from our defence after they've stopped an attack which results in our already jaded defence stopping another counter.
Donny also looks doubtful; if ten hag wants to retain him, then I can't see how we can accommodate both him and Bruno.

Did I mention a DM yet?

I'd agree pogba has been a failure, but he's gone.
Mct has shown that he's limited and not united standard. He hides in games and needs too many touches before passing the ball. Some fans think because he's committed and has come through the youth system that, he is not too bad; he'll never be good enough and wouldn't get into either city or the pools squad.
Fred isn't quite as bad but should only be a squad player at best, but he's a very poor passer, and it's hard to know what he does well. Fred has all the same weaknesses as mct.
Bruno is a major problem as he runs around like a headless chicken and loses the ball too much. He's not disciplined in the way he plays and has cost the team badly this season.

The way we improve our midfield is have proper structure and discipline in place. Any manager with the tactical knowledge like ETH will know that we need at least two midfielders. The perfect midfield system is Real Madrid, with a proper DM, world-class passers and players that can run with the ball. I can see 2 midfielders coming in and also see garner getting a chance as he's a intelligent footballer that may suit ETH style.

 

[VidaRed]

We will start next season with mcfred in the middle. Another season of no creativity and exposed defense to witness.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

We will start next season with mcfred in the middle. Another season of no creativity and exposed defense to witness.

I actually think this is accurate. I don't see us making many signings and think that we'll start the season with essentially the same team, with the possible exception of CB and maybe a youth injection in one of the full back roles.

 

[GazTheLegend]

We will start next season with mcfred in the middle. Another season of no creativity and exposed defense to witness.

that will be the speedrun to the next manager if we do. We're losing Matic, Pogba and Mata, there's absolutely no chance that we don't replace at least one of those players. If I was Ten Hag that would be a condition of me taking the job at all.

 

[cyril C]

I thought left back was where we have the big hole.

LB, RB, CB, CM, LW, RW, even #9. name a place that is above average.

 

[EtH]

LB, RB, CB, CM, LW, RW, even #9. name a place that is above average.

We have one wing covered with Sancho at least. The rest is as average as it gets.

 

[MadDogg]

We will start next season with mcfred in the middle. Another season of no creativity and exposed defense to witness.

There's a fair chance that one of them (probably Fred) will still be a starter, but there's no way that both of them will be our main midfield again. Not unless the new midfielder that we will surely sign struggles massively.

 

[Xaviboy]

We should be spending big on new midfield, end of. Aftercwitnessing the shit show this season especially our midfield. Teams just walk through us with ease in midfield.

I would be buying 2 CM that are starters.
2 New Midfielders, Bruno, McFred, VDB as squad option.

I would even bring in Erickson on a free. Will be good option to have when we have loads of possession in games, can pick a pass out.

 

[DJ_21]

Simple… sign a solid DM aswell as a decent box to box or advanced playmaker who can play CM.

 

[reddevilz007]

Sign Ruiz and Laimer, both have one year left on their contract
And sign Eriksen on the free

 

[lex talionis]

I'm in the "two new midfielders" camp as well. Our budget and diminished reputation will work against us, but if we could somehow land De Jong and Rice -- which I realize together would cost us around 150m in transfer fees -- I'd do it in a heartbeat. Whether we can actually pull those deals off is another matter.

But with all the hype surround him lately, I've been studying Jurrien Timber, a central defender. Sure I've watched him before but never really focused on him until recently. Timber skill set is such that it seems to me he could easily perform well as a CDM and in fact it might be a bit risky to have him play as a CB in the PL. His play on the ball, passing and carrying, is outstanding and he's of course known for his tackling. If Rice is out of our budget (and there's no reason to believe he wants to join United anyway) if we went with De Jong and Timber to serve in midfield and brought up Garner, oh my.

 

[pcaming]

Sign Ruiz and Laimer, both have one year left on their contract
And sign Eriksen on the free

People keep saying Laimer, but he just runs with the ball a bit better than the mids we have. We need midfielders that can pass well, one that is great defensively and one that is good at both offense and defence. Ruiz is a good alternative to Dejong, but after that we need a proper deep lying mid.

 

[Ekeke]

Better midfielders and/or formation change. If we cant get a midfield thats going to create periods of pressure where we have all of the ball and are attacking in waves for 10-15 minute spells of matches where it feels inevitable that we're going to score then its not good enough. All of the top teams do this.

Fred and McTominay are simply not good enough to do this. Even when Pogba is in the team we dont accomplish it much. And Bruno is a great player on form but its not his strong point either, so he needs these ball playing midfielders behind him who are going to be at the hub of these plays where we stick teams in their own box and dont let them out for periods and still find a dangerous shot at the end of it.

Unfortunately teams that realize the importance of this and already do this really well go into the summer and secure the next players for their future to continue doing this before we can even get the players who can do it now. Because we clearly dont recognize the importance of it and prioritize these players and cant convince them to come here over more successful teams who already do it.

 

[Ekeke]

People keep saying Laimer, but he just runs with the ball a bit better than the mids we have. We need midfielders that can pass well, one that is great defensively and one that is good at both offense and defence. Ruiz is a good alternative to Dejong, but after that we need a proper deep lying mid.

He is a better passer than any of our mids except Pogba (see City match this season) and he tackles and competes as well as McTom. The 1 issue is his fitness. That was also the case with Gundogan... Turns out City made the right call and we didnt.

Edit -


City assist here at 3:12 on

 

[didz]

Sign Ruiz and Laimer, both have one year left on their contract
And sign Eriksen on the free

I'd take that! Fabian/Laimer would be a nice partnership and Eriksen you could chuck on anywhere to create chances.

Doubt we'll sign 3 midfielders though, even though we probably should given we've lost 2, may lose another and needed 1 to begin with anyway.

 

[DevilRed]

With half our midfield gone, its time to rebuild finally.

We might have to pay through our arse though, as everyone will know we need a CM.

Lets hope the barca rumours are true. Maybe Ten Hag will also sign a lesser known DM for a budget price.

 

[Smithy89]

Would prefer Sangare or Bissouma over Laimer but would be happy with him. Also someone like Fabian Ruiz, Neves, Tielemens or De jong would be fantastic.

 

[Red Dreams]

Expect ten Hag not to sign a player that everyone here is raving about.
I feel he will do some Moneyball signings.

 

[SAFMUTD]

We need at least 2 new midfielders. I dont think Ten Hag has come here with the mentality of improving McTominay and Fred, he seems like an authoritarian leader I get the impression that you either perform for him or you're out. Yes he develops young players, but young players with potential I don't think he'll waste much time trying to improve 25 year old McTominay into a decent footballer.

 

[cyril C]

We have one wing covered with Sancho at least. The rest is as average as it gets.

Sancho's availability is as good as Shaw's. What cover?