I'd go with Hayden Hackney and Elliot Anderson, with the aim for them to completely replace Bruno next season
What midfielder is suited to partner Bruno in the double pivot?
- Thread starter jamesjimmybyrondean
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True, ETH's team needed a couple of top CMs and a striker to replace the one we wasted tons of money on. The rebuild from the framework that Ruud was using would have been cheaper and quicker to accomplish.
Which would make the decision not to nudge him out the door as soon as firm interest was established totally amateurish.
Its good
It's not just the midfield duo but we also need agressive and athletic CBs to cover the space for our midfielders in Amorim's system
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I know Anderson had a fantastic season at Forest, but he hardly stood out at Newcastle. Baring in mind they signed him for 35m less than a year ago, they would now ask for a ridiculously inflated fee after the season he's had.
We could have gone next season with Cunha/Amad/Bruno/Zirkzee in no-10's position so I would have prioritised No-9,GK and 2 CM's.
But we are investing on Mbeumo means we might have a plan to get lot of players in this year including a CM, so lets see how this summer pans out.
I like Bruno a lot but still I feel we should have cashed it on him and invested that on other CM's to bring in more balance to the team.
But we are investing on Mbeumo means we might have a plan to get lot of players in this year including a CM, so lets see how this summer pans out.
I like Bruno a lot but still I feel we should have cashed it on him and invested that on other CM's to bring in more balance to the team.
Does that mean you do not rate Mainoo as a CM or want to give him a chance to develop into a top CM?
With respects to Bruno... there was no offer on the table for us to cash in on him, it would only be there if he accepted the offer.
How many CM's are available with Brunos passing range ?
This. 2 CMs, a GK and another CB is what I would have spent my money on before Mbuemo and it's a given that a striker is the first priority. Bringing in Mbuemo and dragging Bruno into CM will cost Amorim his job because if that midfield fails we will struggle again and, as we have seen with other signings, they will get caught up in the vicious cycle of doom that is around the club.
After Cunha, it would have made sense to focus on the striker and the spine of the tea. We are buying dessert before dinner.
I think Cunha can play tucked in on the left side, kind of like Giggsy played for a lot his career (Amo also mentioned he can play deeper). Mbeumo can easily play as a right winger. To me it doesn't make sense to collect so many #10's - Bruno, Mainoo, Mount, Amad, Cunha, Mbeumo, Zirkzee (option) - if we are to play 3421. They would be an overkill with European football, and here we will only play one game most of the weeks next season. Bruno at CM also doesn't make any kind of sense to me as a permanent plan. He is not equipped to play the position and would be found out against any decent PL opposition. Remember we didn't win many games against non-relegation candidates last season under Amo.
Also, with Evans and Lindelof leaving. Shaw and Martinez almost defunct. We have less options to play 3 at the back.
Anyway, I may be completely wrong here, but I don't know why I can see us going 433/4231 next season.
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I love that the tactical whizzes in here think Bruno can't adapt to new positions just because we're finally getting a couple of good forwards. He's literally played DM, CM, AM, off the striker, striker, and both wings in his time for us, and had both good and bad performances in all of them. He will continue to do that next year, probably largely playing CM but let's see.
Main thing is that even if it's only for a year or two while we adapt, we have experienced players with character in the squad to guide the newbies. Casemiro and Maguire will likely be off at the end of next year, Martinez quite likely too IMO, Onana maybe even this year, so the likes of De Ligt, Cunha, Mbeumo, Ugarte etc will need to step up into leadership roles, but it's very important that we have a guy like Bruno in the squad for at least one more year while they're all adapting. And if it goes well then you'll most likely see him for another couple of years after that too before he goes somewhere for a payday.
Main thing is that even if it's only for a year or two while we adapt, we have experienced players with character in the squad to guide the newbies. Casemiro and Maguire will likely be off at the end of next year, Martinez quite likely too IMO, Onana maybe even this year, so the likes of De Ligt, Cunha, Mbeumo, Ugarte etc will need to step up into leadership roles, but it's very important that we have a guy like Bruno in the squad for at least one more year while they're all adapting. And if it goes well then you'll most likely see him for another couple of years after that too before he goes somewhere for a payday.
Progressive passing isn't our problem with Bruno in midfield. It's everything else we expect a DM to be that we're missing.
Palhinha apparently available for €35m. Not seen him for Bayern, but he was excellent for Fulham. Worth a look?
NOOOOO He is so limited and slow. Basically Casemiro without the football skills
Can't agree with this. Having Mbeumo not only upgrades on Amad, it gives us cover and also means we now have two left footed RAMs, which Amorim has stated is very important to balance of the team.
We need an ST, a CM and GK, in that order. Though I think they're all must haves.
That's nice, but we still need a CPU and probably a GPU as well.
You need two top class central midfielders. Go into the new season with this current batch and the team Will drown. Simple as that.
This for me is probably the biggest reason to keep Bruno. As impressive as the new signings appear, the last thing we want is a player like Cunha coming in and immediately being handed all the responsibilities. With Bruno, Mbeuno, Cunha and hopefully a striker with some personality, we'll have accountabilty in attack spread out amongst so many good players.
This is what Amorim meant when he said we wanted at least 2 big players.
Once we fill the aforementioned positions, we'll be running as smooth as an M4 mac.
One will do for now.
Can't see Villa selling Onana, would think there quite a few names they would shift to help PSR before him
We should look at Stiller, Wharton, Baleba and Larsson for CM
Ugarte is probably the best fit from our current midfielders but I would prefer if we could find someone like him but with better technical abilities. Baleba has been mentioned in the thread and I think he could be a good fit but he will be very expensive if Brighton even would consider selling him this summer.
The more I think about it I think Kamara from Villa, he's a pure 6, good range of passing good physically, perfect profile for Bruno to go forward.
Kamara was a free, he'd ease their PSR problems no end haha
Sorry but this is delusional. We had so many opportunities last season to play a back four this season and Amorim didn't do it. For better or worse (and I still have some faith) we're sticking with his system. The signings we're making reinforce this.
I also disagree that we can't play Bruno at CM with Cunha and Mbeumo as the 10's, but the thread is about who will partner him.
Alot of speculation maybe Kone is the answer. Let him partner Bruno for a few games in pre-season and see how he perform. He could be our 50 million midfielder waiting for an opportunity. If he doesn't well then let him rotate with Ugarte partnering Bruno.
How about Alan Varela from Porto? Defensive but also can progress the ball.
There's a name not heard for a while
Only defensive in FM
I saw a suggestion on Atlantis YouTube that Ederson could play as a central defender stepping into midfield to give us a 3, to help Bruno have freedom. I like this idea
Yoro — Ederson — Heaven
With Ugarte — Bruno ahead
Yoro — Ederson — Heaven
With Ugarte — Bruno ahead
Bruno is not a CM. Took undisciplined and gives the ball away regularly. Should play in a no 8 position with 2 proper central midfielders behind him.
Playing 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 is an intelligent way of enabling us to play all of Bruno, Cunha, Mbuemo + whoever is up front, whilst also having two players holding the fort down in midfield.
3-4-3 could work with Bruno making runs/stepping up from one of the midfield two positions, but leaves only one person in the middle to cover, unless one or more of the centre backs push up to support. I expected this to happen already, but hasn't seemed to have happened in practice.
I don't see how that makes any sense. Edersons main feature is his versatility and that he covers so many qualities to play in midfield. Such 4D-Chess move seems completely irrational to me. Why would we spend 50-60 million on a player who made his name playing a very rounded midfield role to then stick him to the CB position. And all that in the quest of getting the best out of our AM who plays at CM because our other CM options are limited in terms of passing and him not being a great fit for the AM role description due to skillset.
Another poster noted that this might be the same cycle starting as it did with Pogba. The neverending endeavour of looking how to get the best out of "the most talented player we have".
Not enough height to be a CB
Ben Jacobs strikes again.
We have to start to look at and replicate a little bit how City and Arsenal start their build up play from the keeper.
We also need to create strong three player units on all areas of the pitch so we immediately can drive the ball forward and start an attack, or keep the ball safe and start a new build up.
Ødegaard and Bernardo Silva often drops deep to help the midfield keeping possession and to create forward passing options. We don’t have that quality in our midfield, a player who’s relative press resistent, a good dribbler with acceleration and pace to move the ball forward between the lines. The closest one to Silva’s qualities is Amad.
If we in the build up let Amad move closer to the middle, next to or just in front of our center backs then Onana and defenders get more passing options in the first build up phase.
Next step is move Bruno a little bit forward to the center of the pitch, just behind L10 and R10/striker and to drop Mbeumo to the RWB position and the striker to the R10 position. Similar to what PSG did against Inter.
In the build up we don’t need three forwards on a line up front, it’s better to strengthen our midfield with one extra body to get a more comfortable passing option then kicking the ball 40-50 in the air. As soon as we have moved the ball to the oppositions side then Amad can move back to his initial position.
With this changes we have three well balanced units who can either keep possession or move the ball forward in a safe way.
Up front (in the build up) we have Cunha and Højlund/Gyökeres with Bruno right behind. On the right it’s Mbeumo, Yuro and Ugarte/Casemiro, on the left it’s either Heaven, Amad and Dorgu or Amad, Dorgu and Cunha/Bruno. It gives us three well balanced units to start an attack, one up front and one on either side.
We also need to create strong three player units on all areas of the pitch so we immediately can drive the ball forward and start an attack, or keep the ball safe and start a new build up.
Ødegaard and Bernardo Silva often drops deep to help the midfield keeping possession and to create forward passing options. We don’t have that quality in our midfield, a player who’s relative press resistent, a good dribbler with acceleration and pace to move the ball forward between the lines. The closest one to Silva’s qualities is Amad.
If we in the build up let Amad move closer to the middle, next to or just in front of our center backs then Onana and defenders get more passing options in the first build up phase.
Next step is move Bruno a little bit forward to the center of the pitch, just behind L10 and R10/striker and to drop Mbeumo to the RWB position and the striker to the R10 position. Similar to what PSG did against Inter.
In the build up we don’t need three forwards on a line up front, it’s better to strengthen our midfield with one extra body to get a more comfortable passing option then kicking the ball 40-50 in the air. As soon as we have moved the ball to the oppositions side then Amad can move back to his initial position.
With this changes we have three well balanced units who can either keep possession or move the ball forward in a safe way.
Up front (in the build up) we have Cunha and Højlund/Gyökeres with Bruno right behind. On the right it’s Mbeumo, Yuro and Ugarte/Casemiro, on the left it’s either Heaven, Amad and Dorgu or Amad, Dorgu and Cunha/Bruno. It gives us three well balanced units to start an attack, one up front and one on either side.
Bruno as CM will always be found out against any decent midfield. Not disciplined enough to play that role
Choice of CCB becomes interesting as that player can play the anchor role with other CM and Bruno can play slightly ahead. But even then Bruno has to play with a lot of discipline and dont misplace passes in our own half something his attacking instinct may not allow him to do.
Choice of CCB becomes interesting as that player can play the anchor role with other CM and Bruno can play slightly ahead. But even then Bruno has to play with a lot of discipline and dont misplace passes in our own half something his attacking instinct may not allow him to do.