Attacking midfielders?

[Fezza]

As a club (with the exception of Gylfi) when was the last time that we had an attacking central midfield who fitted into our "system".

It seems to me that all of our best players over the last decade have been wingers (Little, Salako, Convey, Kebe, McAnuff).

Is the Guthrie, Matějovský, Howard type player one that we need or can adapt our system to? (from memory there were even issues with fitting Gylfi in at a time when he was clearly vastly better than anyone else in the League)

[Big Foot]

Andy Hughes flourished playing just behind Nicky Forster

[JamieY26]

Caskey? Was normally out top scorer or at least up there

[Fezza]

Caskey? Was normally out top scorer or at least up there

35 goals in 201 appearances! None of which were in the last decade!

[Fezza]

Andy Hughes flourished playing just behind Nicky Forster

He was hardly a flair / creative midfield player and unlike all of those mentioned above (for all his faults) he could tackle!

[AthleticoSpizz]

Sidwell used mix it upfield and take a chance on goal....even Harps (when you pointed him in the right direction) scored a few

[Fezza]

Sidwell used mix it upfield and take a chance on goal....even Harps (when you pointed him in the right direction) scored a few

True, though they were "traditional" midfielders - able to get forward but also defend.

I guess the point I was trying to make is that we, as a team, seem unable to carry the Taarabt / Hazard type player in the middle of the park, despite continually trying to buy them!

[AthleticoSpizz]

problem (as your thread alludes to) is/has been, that we are trying to buy what we have already owned............ yet let go

[SCIAG]

As a club (with the exception of Gylfi) when was the last time that we had an attacking central midfield who fitted into our "system".

It seems to me that all of our best players over the last decade have been wingers (Little, Salako, Convey, Kebe, McAnuff).

Is the Guthrie, Matějovský, Howard type player one that we need or can adapt our system to? (from memory there were even issues with fitting Gylfi in at a time when he was clearly vastly better than anyone else in the League)

Rodgers didn't want to play Gylfi centrally, and then when he did he played Howard and Matejovsky behind him. I think the problems were more that Rodgers didn't have a clue tactically and was just going with whatever stuck.

To be honest we've only really had Matejovsky and Gylfi for this role, Howard was primarily a central midfielder (albeit a better passer than Sidwell, Karacan etc. and not as mobile) and Guthrie is a defensive midfielder, a poor man's Pirlo or Alonso.

To be honest, I don't see how the lack of an attacking midfielder under Pards or Coppell (except for brief uses of Hughes and Matejovsky) would indicate that we couldn't adapt to one now. If we signed a player of sufficient quality who played there, then I'm sure we'd use him.

[Ian Royal]

Caskey? Was normally out top scorer or at least up there

35 goals in 201 appearances! None of which were in the last decade!

And was just a normal midfielder who could take a free kick and penalty.

[Scarface]

very few, if any sides in the prem play 4-4-2 with two traditional wingers. if you accept that at the moment our squad and our general play is best suited to this formation, then we simply won't play with an attacking midfielder, it would leave us too exposded. We've tried Marek, Howard and Guthrie and it doesn't work unless you change formation, or play with far more workman like players in wide areas.

it seems the trend nowadays is to play 4-2-3-1 and perhaps if we stay up we need to evolve the squad to play this way. I for one like the fact we play 4-4-2 still, so what we need to try and do is find that Sidwell type player who can fit into this formation and score goals...not easy.

What we do know is with this direct style of play, signing a creative midfielder is pointless, as he's bi-passed.

[Fezza]

very few, if any sides in the prem play 4-4-2 with two traditional wingers. if you accept that at the moment our squad and our general play is best suited to this formation, then we simply won't play with an attacking midfielder, it would leave us too exposded. We've tried Marek, Howard and Guthrie and it doesn't work unless you change formation, or play with far more workman like players in wide areas.

it seems the trend nowadays is to play 4-2-3-1 and perhaps if we stay up we need to evolve the squad to play this way. I for one like the fact we play 4-4-2 still, so what we need to try and do is find that Sidwell type player who can fit into this formation and score goals...not easy.

What we do know is with this direct style of play, signing a creative midfielder is pointless, as he's bi-passed.

I think that may be the long and short of it, it does then beg the question why didn't we buy a more workman like midfielder (Sidwell like) of a higher quality than what we currently have.

All the gossip seems to be about us buying strikers and wingers, these are not the positions we need to develop if we want to survive!

[SydenhamRoyal]

What we do know is with this direct style of play, signing a creative midfielder is pointless, as he's bi-passed.

I think this is another thread - you want to be on "the last taboo playing on the same side"

[Son of Len]

What we do know is with this direct style of play, signing a creative midfielder is pointless, as he's bi-passed.

I think this is another thread - you want to be on "the last taboo playing on the same side"

It's probably better to bypass that.

[Esteban]

Whenever anyone talks about an attacking midfielder these days, people assume they mean a central player. But that position hasn't effectively been used anywhere for some time now. If anything, we're talking about support strikers and often these players play relatively narrow, but have the ability to drift out wide when necessary. In that respect, I reckon we do have a few players who can perform that role, but we lack a 'number 10' who can chip in with a decent number of goals too.

As already mentioned though, we'd have to change our system to make it work.