Our midfielders

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Having read through some of the 'McTominay and Fred, do we need both?' thread, it got me thinking, we haven't really got a complete midfielder.

I do think players are pigeon-holed a lot more nowadays, and are asked to play specific roles, whereas ten years or so, you had true box to box midfielders that had a bit of everything, i.e. Gerrard, Scholes, Keane, Schweinsteiger, Vieira, etc.

The midfielders we currently have excel in some areas but are poor/average at others.

I've come up with, what I feel, are important attributes for a centre midfielder. There's obviously more but I feel these are amongst the most important. Feel free to add more if you want.

Using the attributes below, fill in where you feel our midfielders are at. The ratings are below:

Poor
Average
Good
Excellent


Fred:

Passing -
Dribbling -
Strength -
Leadership -
Defensive Duties -
Shooting -

Matic:

Passing -
Dribbling -
Strength -
Leadership -
Defensive Duties -
Shooting -

McTominay:

Passing -
Dribbling -
Strength -
Leadership -
Defensive Duties -
Shooting -

Pogba

Passing -
Dribbling -
Strength -
Leadership -
Defensive Duties -
Shooting -

 

[cyril C]

Thanks to Makelele, there is more depth to a MF role, such as reading of a game - which lead to control, rhythm, interception , may be a few more, instead of simply running like a dog and trying to break someone's leg.

There should be distinction between long passing (Pogba, Pirlo) and short passing (Bruno)
On strength, there should be physical strength, aerial duel, yardage per game

 

[TwoSheds]

The funny thing is Matic would rank as at least good in almost all of those categories and yet he's not that good because he's just too ponderous and slows the game down too much.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Thanks to Makelele, there is more depth to a MF role, such as reading of a game - which lead to control, rhythm, interception , may be a few more, instead of simply running like a dog and trying to break someone's leg.

There should be distinction between long passing (Pogba, Pirlo) and short passing (Bruno)
On strength, there should be physical strength, aerial duel, yardage per game

You're right but my hope was for the people responding (which I can see has gone well ) would average that out and give them a score based on that. Otherwise, let's be honest, we'd be looking at a very long list.

For example, the reason I wouldn't give Pogba excellent in passing is because his short-range passing can be inconsistent.

 

[MU655]

I think positioning/hiding-from-the-ball ability would be a necessary one as it is a massive weakness/strength (respectively) of McTominay.