Would You Stick With The Defensive Midfielder Way Of Play Next Season?

Seems to be a reason Lucas is slated regularly, which is due to him not being a DM.

Would you buy a decent DM in the summer, or would you abandon it for a more pass and move attacking approach?

Thoughts peeps?

Does DM system work for you - do you appreciate it? or do you think it makes the way we play boring?

I have no problem with that system providing we have the right personnel. It's a common misconception that such a system is too defensive when in fact, having a good holding midfielder means the rest of the team can afford to play more offensively.
I love the idea of having a teeam full of attack-minded players but you would have to have the very best players available to pull that off. 

I think Lucas would be complimented well with a good sound defensive midfielder who is very good at breaking down the oppositions attacks.

Whether it be in a 4-3-3 or 3-5-2, I reckon a sound defensive midfielder would be a good signing.

I'd like to see Lucas be given a bit more freedom maybe. This stat of his pass completion, I wouldn't mind if that stat started to fall away a little bit in exchange for him being a little riskier.

Doesn't mean we can't play attacking, attractive football. Sign a good hard-working defensive midfielder, to get the ball back to our more attacking players. Jay Spearing could do this better than Poulsen until the end of the season maybe?

we could do with a midfielder who can attack and defend,a man who can instill fear in our opponents ,a man like that would be worth 10 lucas,10 coles.

It's horses for causes, I don't see us sticking to one formation, so having one would be beneficial to the squad.

A good defensive midfielder I feel is a staple of good attacking teams. It gives your attackers more freedom to focus on the other half of the pitch. Take Barcelona, for instance. Their attack is based largely on the efficiency of their fullbacks. What gives them the license to move so far forward? The fact that their defensive midfielder essentially becomes a 3rd centerback.

I think a true DM and a Left Back would solve a litany of problems next season.

we could do with a midfielder who can attack and defend,a man who can instill fear in our opponents ,a man like that would be worth 10 lucas,10 coles.

10 lucas? 10 coles? we need a hero.. a superhero, infact don't we already have one?


Not too sure about him as a DM though. Sorry for the sarcasm mate.

But seriously who would be the best defensive midfielder to sign?

How has Lass Diarra been playing over in Madrid?

10 lucas? 10 coles? we need a hero.. a superhero, infact don't we already have one?


Not too sure about him as a DM though. Sorry for the sarcasm mate.

superman looks like kuyt a little bit.

Of course would every successful team employs one, we haven't had a proper one and why we have been so sh*te away from home this year

We badly need a midfielder who can stick some crunching tackles, dominate the centre of the park and pass the ball after winning it. That's not going to be cheap. Then we can move away from 5 at the back. We also need a less injury prone version of Dagger. When he is out we miss a defender that can play of defense. It's these constraints that have dictated our formation selection. That's without mentioning the left side issues

Not a proper defensive mid. Just one who plays deeper and still steps in to midfield and is part of our attack as well.

Sort of the role Lucas played against Chelsea. It worked wonders for the whole team having someone who was there to shut the opponent but still pick a moment to burst forward and not just sit back and wait for the opponent to get the ball back before he is needed again.

we could do with a midfielder who can attack and defend,a man who can instill fear in our opponents ,a man like that would be worth 10 lucas,10 coles.

Thats would cost 100 million pounds my friend.

Next season i would like the team to play more as a unit. That is to defend and attack together like clockwork. And i wouldn't mind Mexes as a free transfer.

Our midfielder has clearly not worked away from hoe this season so something has to give. To often our midfield has been dominated by so called weaker teams midfield

If we go buy one yeah no problem. If we dont buy one then drop the idea and play 2 central lads who can play ball and put a shift in

Lucas is not a defensive midfielder though he is trying. Him aside what other options are there (please dont say donkey boy Poulsen) Spearing? Ask Stevie to do it? CAnt see him not wanting to play further on.

Buy or dont set up that system for me so

In the system like the 4-3-3 one, which I would like Liverpool to use next season as it really is the way forward. A 2 man centre midfield really relies on both midfielders being comfortable attacking and defending. Both must have plenty of energy, drive and passion and have a very good understand with each other and have brilliant positioning. This system only works against teams playing with 4 in midfield as it obvious in football that 3 CM's will piss all over 2. They will simply pass them out of it. I don't think Stevie or Raul have the required attributes to succeed in this system, in their positioning and tackling.

As for Liverpool, I would try employ a defensive midfielder in a 3 man midfield system. But not someone who can just break up the play with great tackling and covering a la Masch or Sissoko, but someone who can tackle, cover but also actually pass the ball forward to our more creative players. Even if it only 5-10 yards away, it is still forward thinking, creative. Someone who does this brilliantly is Busquets, in my eyes he is a better version of Lucas. No offence to Lucas or anythin, not putting him down or calling him sh*t but he just is a better version of him.

One thing that having a 3 man midfield can offer is the speed at how the play can be switched from side to side. If you think about it, our right back has the ball and cant pass directly pass to the right wing area. He has a choice, lump it forward in hope, or pass it inside to this holding midfielder. This holding midfielder can quickly distribute the ball to the left hand side of the pitch, due to 2 advantages. 1, because the ball was on the right hand side of the pitch just a few seconds ago, the marking will be loose on both the left back but also the left wing area. 2 as he is the holding player in a 3 man midfield,the other 2 midfielders will be marked, thus giving him more space and time to pass the ball. This quickness in switching play really does help unlock defenses due to the scrambling of defenders to cover ground. 

 I would say the problems are when we play the top 4/5 teams, we must compete very hard or dominate the mid-field to have a chance of beating them, I think the Chelsea game was a good example due to there bad tactics and KK clever tactics we were able to control most of the mid-field play and won the game
 Now when we play lesser teams you do not have to worry about the oppositions players as much and we should and be more attack minded, let them worry about us.
 We need defensive tactics at time but we have mid-field player can play attacking football when need be. I am sure KK will make LFC a much more forward thinking team next year

I remember when we had Mash and Alonso as our two deepest central midfielders and thinking we had the 2 important things, Tackling ability to be able to win the ball and technical ability to out pass our opponents. With Lucas being our only deep laying midfielder we have neither, he is an okay tackler and he's an okay passer but nothing that'll set the world alight. I think we should try to get 2 centre mid's and copy the Alonso Mash partner ship, we could easily get M'villa to do the Mash role but I don't think we could get anyone in to do the Alonso role, closest player to Alonso ATM is Sahin and we couldn't bring him here. I think it would be best to get a player who can do both but mainly used for his technical ability. Meireles is the most technical midfielder we have, I don't think Gerrard as that technical, I see him as a more engine, goalscorer midfielder.

I would love us to try to get 2 midfielders who are very good technically and also who can get there foot stuck in when the going gets tough (sadly Meireles has not done that so far), I would try getting Benega and Martinez, both technically top class and can get stuck in when need be. You can sell Poulson, Spearing, Cole and possible keep Lucas because he works 110% every game and is attitude is second to none and would probably play better knowing he's not under as much pressure.

If we had 2 players like them 2 I think we would then be able to able get our pass and move game going and would be able to get the ball to the front men more often. What is happening at the moment is when the defender receives the ball and passes it to the deep midfielder (Lucas for example), opposing players just presses everyone in front of the ball and it forces us to hoof it up field or back to the defender or forces a player to come deep to receive the ball (Gerrard numerous times against West ham for example)

Against West ham Meireles had very little defense duties that game and Gerrard just was to lazy to get back or whatever, give him the benefit of the doubt because he was coming back from injury but I've seen it from him all season. Remember Parker's goal, Lucas was on his own against a couple players and they did a one-two to get past him and Parker did that fantastic flick. If we had 2 midfielders who just sat from a deeper position we probably would have not conceded because they wouldn't of been allowed to do that one-two.

Anyway I think we should play 3 in the middle but with 2 starting from deep positions and the other 1 given full license to attack. If Meireles can start putting his foot in I can see him as a deeper midfielder, like he's played for Portugal, I don't think its his best position but I don't think it benefits the team to have 2 attacking midfielders who just attack wondrously and doesn't help defensively. If we did that I think we would starting leaking more goals.

Well i remember when we had Case and Souness and there wasn,t many a better tackler than him ,and we battered teams all round the park, had enough of this defensive midfielder bollox , that just negates the team and takes a player out if that is solely his job , surely to fck we can get a player who can pass the ball and put in his fair shift in tackles around the park.

As the great man once said make your players work and your workers play . Then we will have a team.

If we bought a defensive midfielder, then I dont think Lucas would be a starter.

Do we really need one? I think Lucas can do a job behind 2 other midfielders.

We need a centre back, left back and two wingers.

Can he because he hasn't done it very well in 90 % of our away games, were our midfield has been outbattled easily by the opposition midfield. Clear as day we need a defensive midfielder

I think we should stick with a defensive mid, although get somebody in, in the summer. We need options and depth in our squad and this is a way of doing that