Monday, August 27, 2012

Central Midfield Squad Depth


The "Fat" Central Midfield


This title sum up the fans confusion of why Liverpool brought so many central midfield in the team.  Liverpool bought in Joe Allen and Nuri Sahin to join the the team that already has Steven Gerrard, Lucas Leiva, Jordan Henderson, Jonjo Shelvey, Charlie Adam, and Jay Spearing: Total of 8 player in Central Midfield Position.


For those who think that this amount of player in central midfield position is too much, Let's just first break down the Liverpool Strategy; they used mainly 4-3-3 formation which require ONLY three central midfield. popular choice to fill that position is Lucas, Sahin, and Gerrard. then you might be wonder when and where will Jordan, Jonjo, Joe, Charlie, and Jay would play? the answer is the squad rotation and squad depth. we need this amount of quality midfield to compete on the top level just like United, City, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham.

Let's count how many central midfield that this five top premier league have:

Man Utd: Anderson, Carrick, Scholes, Cleverly, Fletcher, Powell, Giggs = 7 player while they only play with 2 central midfield in 4-4-2 formation

Man City: Milner, Yaya Toure, Rodwell, Barry, De Jong, Nasri, Silva = 7 player while they usually play with 3 or 2 midfield in 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 formation (Nasri, Silva, and Toure as AMF in 4-3-3 formation)

Arsenal: Diaby, Rosicky, Ramsey, Wilshare,Ramsey, Arteta, Coquelin, Frimpong, = 8 player in Central Midfield position to play in 4-3-3 formation

Chelsea: Essien, Romeu, Lampard, Oscar, Mikel, Meireles, Marin, Ramires, Malouda = 9 player in Central Midfield position to play in 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation

Tottenham: Livermore, Parker, Bentley, Huddlestone, Jenas, VDV, Gylfii, Rose = 8 player in Central Midfield to play in 4-5-1 in which only require 3 midfield

To Sum up, All those top team has abundance of quality central midfield to compete in BPL.

For Liverpool to have 8 Central Midfield, i think it is enough to compete with the top 4 team. We don't have to worry anymore if one of our player are injured. for example Lucas who injured last season make us struggle to find the replacement that has the same quality as him.

My Analysis of Liverpool 3 Main Midfield.
the 3 midfield consist of 1 Defensive Midfield, 1 Central Midfield, and 1 Attacking Midfield.

Defensive Midfield: Lucas Leiva, Joe Allen, Steven Gerrard, and Jay Spearing

Analysis: the priority for this position is Lucas Leiva, he is the best player in this position, second is Joe Allen (in case of Lucas injured) which proved against city that he is a quality player in that position, Third in case of unavailable Lucas and Allen, Gerrard should fill in that position, he has a decent tackle and has a good vision. Lastly is Jay Spearing in which are a good player but i think is not good enough for Liverpool.

Central Midfield: Nuri Sahin, Joe Allen, Jonjo Shelvey, Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam.


Analysis: There is no need to explain that Nuri Sahin and Joe Allen will compete to grab this position, they both are the best player that Liverpool have to fulfill those responsibility in that position, their backup in that position would be Jonjo and then Jordan. and Last priority is the sloppy Charlie Adam.

Attacking Midfield: Steven Gerrard, Jonjo Shelvey, Charlie Adam.


Analysis: Only three player is capable enough for this role. No doubt about Gerrard Quality in this position. and again Adam is the last favorable player to fill this position


"Whatever it takes to make Liverpool successful again, My Live is devoted, it's all part of the dance" Brendan Rodgers


You Will Never Walk Alone
Author : Andryan Dedy

4 comments:

Rasyid Irham Yamin said...

I agree with your opinion that Liverpool currently don't need to offload any of the players you mentioned. The reason is definitely for rotation, because last season Kenny Dalglish rarely rotated the matchday squad.

But, in your example from the other teams's there are some players who are actually can be considered as Wingers, and there are players who originally play behind the striker but also can be stationed in the wide positions, meaning that they can constantly change their position. For example, Danny Rose and David Bentley of Tottenham, Marko Marin and Florent Malouda originally are Wingers. David Silva, James Milner, and Samir Nasri of Man City, Van Der Vaart of Tottenham are players who can also play from the wide postions.

Andryan said...

yup, i think Kenny consideration is that he want the squad to blend and understand each other by playing them together as often as they could. but apparently it was a mistake.

Its true that some of the examples are wide midfield player. but what i am trying to say here that even though their position is wide midfielder, they can be deployed as central midfield if it is necessary.

I reckon James Milner can be putted in central midfield
for Silva and Nasri, their position is AMF in 4-2-1-3 formation

Marko Marin and Florent Malouda are wingers but i usually reckon that sometimes they are putted in central midfield of 4-3-3 so i assume that they are capable enough to fill the central midfield position if they were asked to.
the same reason for Danny Rose and David Bentley.

Grace Evangeline said...

but the problem is, our midfield was so so player ... they were not world class player ... only gerrard we can said the world class player.

city : has lot of world class player : nasri, silva, toure, de jong ...
chelsea : Essien, Lampard, Oscar, Mikel, Meireles, Marin, Ramires,
Man Utd : carrick, scholes, giggs, and talented player like, anderson, cleverley, powell
Arsenal : Diaby, Rosicky, Ramsey, Wilshare,Ramsey, Arteta, Coquelin, santi, not a world class, but very talented

so ... what can we say now, lucas is great, but the injury makes me worried, can he play as good as last season ? allen still need to prove, henderson lack of vision last season, adam still struggling for team, shelvey also need to prove ..

so i only said, we still need midfield, to replaced some of our midfield :)

Andryan said...

Personally i didnt think that City Chelsea and Utd has that many world class player.
City only Toure Silva and Nasri that can be considered world class

Chelsea only Lampard Essien Marin, the other is still unproven

Arsenal player that are world class is only Wilshare, Arteta and Santi

Utd midfield is the worst, all of them are an average, they are lifted because they have talanted wingers

to be honest our midfield is better than Utd and Arsenal, our player that can be considered as world class is Gerrard Sahin Allen and Lucas

CMIIO