The Central Midfield Debate

I'm paranoid about injuries (after last season I think that's a fair fear) so having this kind of depth doesn't bother me at all.

The way I see it Gerrard and Lucas are the only sure bets in the midfield. Adam, Hendo, Meireles, and Aquilani will fight for the other spot in a 4-3-3 and in a 4-4-2 it's pretty much the same. The fourth midfield spot will go to whichever winger we bring in (Downing, Mata, N'Zogbia, Lennon)

I prefer to see complete central midfielders who can and do do it all. So if we're going with two out and out central midfielders, Stevie and Spearing for me.

If we go, as I think we will, with 3 central midfielders behind a front three of Kuyt, Suarez and Carroll then I'd throw Lucas in there as well.

Shelvey will be loaned out, Poulsen hopefully sold, Meireles more than likely sold, Aquilani and Henderson warming the bench until they manage to convince Kenny to start them.

Agree with all of that.

And the amazing thing is that vast majority of them were already with us when Roy took over and our squad seemed thread bare.

Agree with all of that.





So. Its agreed then.

 My guess is that we will sign Downing or someone similar, simply because we don't have any left sided options. If we do, he will play left side (as Kenny seems quite into the idea that having bought a player who plays left midfield it's worth trying him out at left midfield, a bit old school but there you go).

 Much depends then upon whether or not we go with an out and out defensive midfielder. If we do then it's between Lucas, Spearing and Poulsen. Poulsen is long past his best and Spearing isn't quite there yet, so Lucas will get the nod. I personally wouldn't go with this option for a couple of reasons. Firstly, for me he isn't a good enough defensive midfielder to make the sacrifice of all attacking threat from this spot woirth it. We don't exactly look watertight when he plays, opposing central midfielders don't exactly get snuffed out when he plays, and we rarely dominate teams physically when he plays. Secondly, I think with our attacking options we would be better suited to "going for it" more than we do.

 If we do ditch the DM role, then Lucas is thrown into the melting pot to compete with Aquilani, Mereiles (if he's still here), Henderson, Cole and Adam (if we sign him). I'm assuming/stating an obvious fact that Gerrard will play when fit, so that means it's a bit of a connundrum.

 I don't quite go along with the problem being a "mouthwatering" one, simply because until Henderson develops I don't think we are exactly overloaded with quality, but my guess is that our midfield will either look like this:


                              Downing      Lucas        Gerrard         Kuyt   


 or this if we ditch the DM:


                               Downing     Gerrard      Mereiles         Henderson.



 The reality is though, that Gerrard apart there is little to choose between most of the others. For none of them (even including Cole and Poulsen IMHO) is getting into the team a completely lost cause, so it'sall to play for come the new season.     

Play a 3-4-3 next season....

                                  Reina

          Agger                 Carra       Skrtel

                                   Lucas

               Johnson                       Gerrard

                              Aquilani/Meireles (whoever stays)

 Kuyt                              Carroll                 Suarez


Subs: Doni, Henderson, Spearing, Cole, Pacheco, Kyrgiakos, Kelly

A difficult but welcome problem IMO, for to long now we have struggled to field a ideal midfield that more or less would pick itself every week, not so long ago we had Alonso and Mascherano lining up with Ste G, with either Lucas or even Garcia if you go back to '05', Masch and Lucas providing the defensive responsibilities, and Xabi, Ste, and Garcia combining the attacking/passing/creativity, in effect we had a solid back 4/5 with a positive attacking midfield and a powerful front line, IMO we have not had the consistency especially from  midfield since Xabi and Masch were in the side, ie;(how many times did Gerrard drag us from the sh*t when those two went) because no one else was up to it, in other words Alonso and Masch have never been re-placed. 

There have been many different combinations with differing players for the last 2/3 seasons and none have come close as to the Xabi/Masch days, More often than not Rafa's midfield picked itself, Kenny hasn't got that luxury as yet, but he will and the signings he has/will bring in will solve this, as to who will be KK's first chioce midfield is anyone's guess, it will be down to who the oppo is on the day,how each player feels, fitness/condition etc, one thing for certain is Gerrard will be a shoe-in starter, as he was under Rafa, where Rafa had at times a more moderate approach,Kenny's will  be more attack minded and this is where Aquillani will be favoured for instance rather than maybe Meireles or Spearing, Henderson i feel will be used on the right and team up with GJ,and if Adam comes in he will be used predominately as a left-sided mid-fielder.

Things will be different this season thats for sure,if the likes of Downing comes in that will open even further options including dragging the oppo wide and spreading the play, to often last season we were to narrow, we have to feed Carroll with quality service and to maximise our chances of scoring, i'm not going to pick a midfield just yet,i'm waiting to see who else the King brings in this window.

   IKWT   YNWA

Three man midfield with the following options...



                          Lucas/Spearing
Henderson/Gerrard                      Aquilani/Meireles



Shelvey out on loan.
Poulson out to grass.


That's what we call fantastic options and strength in midfield.

^^ I like that, 3 across the middle. Gerrard and Lucas plus one.

I'm not really into seeing Henderson as a RM.

But what would make most uncomfortable is seeing Suarez on the left. Too bad we have no proper LW so that we could use Suarez on the right and Kuyt/Carroll as a 9. Anyway I'm specultaing, maybe we'll get N'zogbia

Charlie Adam on the verge of completing his move to Anfield this evening.

That certainly takes us to 9 central midfielders. Someone is definitely off, I can't see our bench consisting mainly of Meireles, Aquilani, & Henderson!

My money's on Meireles.

Gerrard
Aquilani
Adam
Meireles
Shelvey
Henderson
Poulsen
Spearing
Lucas

I would say Shelvey on loan, Poulsen sold, that would leave us with 7 central midfielders, if we play 433 then having that many makes more sense, also if Henderson is used at RM we will have 6 CMs. Looks like Raul may leave too.

Spearing did well last year filling in for Stevie. But something's telling me he'll be loaned out along with Shelvey. Obviously we know Poulsen probably isn't in Kenny's initial plans.

Gerrard is our most versatile. He can play anywhere. So I wouldn't count on him to come straight in to CM spot, probably go in behind Carrol or Suarez (or both).

Possibly Lucas will hold his position at CM? So to choose from we've got; Henderson, Meireles, Aquilani & now Adam.

Hmm...

I think if Spearo goes out on loan again Court that'll be the last we'll see of him in a red shirt. My guess is we'll keep him as cover for Lucas.

Considering Adam's joined I'm starting to believe Meireles might well be on his way out. I expect Shelvey to go out on loan somewhere, and Poulsen isn't coming near the first team.

So that leaves us with (if Meireles does leave):

Gerrard
Aquilani
Adam
Henderson
Lucas
Spearing

I don't expect Henderson to start centrally, at first at least. It does seem like we'll be playing a formation that utilises three central midfielders.

No one should be complaining about our improving squad depth though. So what if we have lots of CM's, more class competition means better performances for the starters.

I'm hoping Meireles stays with us and we can line up with a starting three of Lucas - Gerrard - Meireles. Spearo backing up Lucas, Adam backing up Gerrard and Aquilani competing with Meireles.

It's going to be very interesting to see how we line up for the most part next season.

Surely one of Meireles or Aquilani will not be at the club.

I believe Steven Gerrard will definitely be on the pitch as long as he is fit and raring to go. Let's not forget that no matter how good the rest of the midfielders are (I'm not saying they are better than Stevie) , Stevie is our captain and our talisman. I can't even remember how many times he has turned a game around for Liverpool with an unbelievable long range shot. Not for naught is he called the "Powerhouse" and "Captain Fantastic".

That said, Lucas was our player of the year last season, so I think he too would be on the pitch.

But with such a host of talent at his disposal, it is difficult to say what our King would do. Kenny is a superb manager, the best Liverpool could have so I am confident that whatever he decides to do would be best for our beloved club.

What about this:

LW Suarez Henderson

Lucas Gerrard

it's a nice problem to have. personally i think we should play two holding midfielders like we had with mascha (as the destroyer) and henderson (as the distributor). then have stevie g as attacker.  could have

                                           reina
kelly               carra/skrtl                      agger                johnson

                     henderson                   lucas

                                          stevie

             suarez                                             adam

                                       big geordie
                     

Here's an interesting one, if we say Poulsen goes to Bolivia or somewhere far away, and Shelvey gets loaned out. Say Lucas and Spearing are injured whats your starting midfield line up between Gerrard Henderson Adam Meireles and Aquilani.

^^ Gerrard & Aquilani or Meireles. I think they offer the most both defensively and on the ball in open play.

So is Clarke going to utilise the Chelsea Diamond? Obviously we have huge strenght in depth now. Can see us shifting formations a lot. Much like we did last year. Reckon Stevie will be looked after by taking some load off

it's a nice problem to have. personally I think we should play two holding midfielders like we had with mascha (as the destroyer) and henderson (as the distributor). then have stevie g as attacker.  could have

                                           reina
kelly               carra/skrtl                      agger                johnson

                     henderson                   lucas

                                          stevie

             suarez                                             adam

                                       big geordie
                     

Leave kuyt and meireles out in place of hendo and adam?? Aqua on the bench hendo starting?? No chance for me ive still got maxi/meireles on the left from what we've got so far..

really dont get hendersons place in the team above all else, i know what adam gives but if we get a left winger especially ive got hendo last in the pecking order

it's a nice problem to have. personally I think we should play two holding midfielders like we had with mascha (as the destroyer) and henderson (as the distributor). then have stevie g as attacker.  could have

                                           reina
kelly               carra/skrtl                      agger                johnson

                     henderson                   lucas

                                          stevie

             suarez                                             adam

                                       big geordie
                     

i cant see adam playing there, if anything where henderson is.. then downing (presuming that will be done ) where adam is

Thats 9 then.

Gerrard, Lucas, Henderson, Meireles, Spearing, Aquilani, Shelvey, Poulsen.
8 Central Midfielders within our first team 25 man squad. With Charlie Adam being lined up to be brought to Anfield. That would take us to 9.
Who will be our starters? Bench warmers? Be cast in to a different position? Or sold before the transfer window shuts?

Discuss.

Or is it called "Options" ?

Don't see why people are discussing formations when it's quite obvious that we don't even play a set formation.

The CMs who would start, sure, I can understand that. But formations? Baffling...