Midfield Powerhouse

[danperkins]

I said last week on st I think we're crying out for a midfield powerhouse that can dominate the middle of the park and have done for some time. It's a concern how soft we are in the centre. I'm not jumping on the Diame bandwagon (because I wanted him signed when we had the chance in the summer) but against West ham you could see how his physical presence were giving our lads all kinds of problems. We couldn't handle him. For £3.5m (release clause) it's a no brainer because we'd struggle to buy someone of similar quality at the same price.

Last summer I said Allen wouldn't be enough and that we'd be weak (with the exception of Lucas) in the physical aspect of the game and now it's become more apparent. Lucas can only do so much. Yet again another team today found it easy to walk through our midfield.

spot on.

Diame would be a good coup for us, Wanyama even better although may be treble the price and better teams looking for him so think we'd be **** out of luck with that one.

[DannyMan2006]

Allen has just become a dad and isn't coping with work/life balance IMO.

[The Birdman]

Hardly anyone on here was desperate to sign Diame at the end of last season when he was available on a free.
Get off the bandwagon.

There is nothing wrong with Joe Allen that a weeks holiday wouldn't fix.

[Captain Stu]

Allen has just become a dad and isn't coping with work/life balance IMO.

Spot on.

People don't half go over the top.

Hardly anyone on here was desperate to sign Diame at the end of last season when he was available on a free.
Get off the bandwagon.

There is nothing wrong with Joe Allen that a weeks holiday wouldn't fix.

Yup, so many people turned their noses up because he only played for Wigan - fact is that he can do a decent job for us in the same way that he did for Wigan and is doing for West Ham.

Biggest issue with him is his known heart problems but, if correctly managed, there's no reason why it can't be treated like a player who has a dodgy knee or suspect hamstrings.

[Neil Young]

Allen has just become a dad and isn't coping with work/life balance IMO.

I didn't know that. Makes sense.

[el matador]

Hardly anyone on here was desperate to sign Diame at the end of last season when he was available on a free.
Get off the bandwagon.

There is nothing wrong with Joe Allen that a weeks holiday wouldn't fix.

i think you could give allen a year off and he still couldnt deal with diame.

he's still a fantastic player just not physically imposing like diame is.

[peekay]

I am not sure if we really need a midfield enforcer over a goalscorer or is it the current tactics which makes the need for a midfield enforcer even greater. On day one, West Brom has showed the PL how to play us and we really have not addressed this. Steve Clarke knew about Brendan's weakness and brilliantly exposed us.

Sit back and watch us knock the ball around. Once we loose possession attack through the channels with runners who have decent pace and speed and have a big physical striker occupy our defenders. We have no clue on how to handle this. We have made Shane Long, Carlton Cole, and Benteke look lke Didier Drogba. We have made Diaby, Diame look like Viera-Gerrard hybrids. If we continue with the same tactics we will make reasonably average to good strikers and midfielders appear like superstars when we play them.

Wanyama, Diame etc will help in reducing the stem of flow but wont stop the bleeding. We need Momo Sissoko pumpled up on speed and steroids to plug the gaps in our midfield. Brendan needs to tweak his tactics to address this issues.

[Catrin]

We've been here before. Paul Ince was brought in by Roy Evans because it was believed that we were too soft in midfield. Trouble is he had a more disruptive effect on our passing game than any opposition player. Same applies to Momo. The kind of player we need is a Mascherano, aggressive but also reads play and can pass the ball properly. They're incredibly rare so we would be better off drilling Lucas, Allen and Shelvey on the defensive aspects of the role.

[yamiedo]

Wanyama stills fits that mould. Very comfortable on the ball going forward and he is very good at reading the play.

[yamiedo]

I cant believe how this can not involve old SG. He has zero impact. This can never just be about Allen/Lucas. SG is our Key player and he isnt delivering anything remotely close to what we need to perform with this squad. If he was our Captain of the old days we would be in really good shape right now. Instead he is a passenger...We are screwed until someone puts him next to Carragher.

True this but we all know he is better playing further forward so maybe its down to his position?

[Redspin]

I said last week on st I think we're crying out for a midfield powerhouse that can dominate the middle of the park and have done for some time. It's a concern how soft we are in the centre. I'm not jumping on the Diame bandwagon (because I wanted him signed when we had the chance in the summer) but against West ham you could see how his physical presence were giving our lads all kinds of problems. We couldn't handle him. For £3.5m (release clause) it's a no brainer because we'd struggle to buy someone of similar quality at the same price.

Last summer I said Allen wouldn't be enough and that we'd be weak (with the exception of Lucas) in the physical aspect of the game and now it's become more apparent. Lucas can only do so much. Yet again another team today found it easy to walk through our midfield.

Bit of an exaggeration about Diame. While he was on the field West Ham actually created very little. Reina was pretty much a spectator.

In fairness he played very well against Chelsea, but was much less effective against Liverpool. To say we couldn't handle him massively overstates his influence on our game

[yamiedo]

Bit of an exaggeration about Diame. While he was on the field West Ham actually created very little. Reina was pretty much a spectator.

In fairness he played very well against Chelsea, but was much less effective against Liverpool. To say we couldn't handle him massively overstates his influence on our game

When West Ham had to take him off is the point we started to dominate the game.

[Redspin]

When West Ham had to take him off is the point we started to dominate the game.

Or, to put it another way, when we had to take Jose Enrique off was the point at which we stopped dominating the game. Up until then it looked like we'd win comfortably and Diame had had no discernable influence on the game.

[baitman]

big shame we were not onto waynama before he went to celtic. the same is true about many decent 'unknowns' that have popped up at several clubs, michu, etc. diame was available on a free, iirc.

if we wanted to try and buy these players we would be getting well spanked for not being more aware and observant .
lets hope the new scouts are earning their keep...

[Vermilion]

big shame we were not onto waynama before he went to celtic. the same is true about many decent 'unknowns' that have popped up at several clubs, michu, etc. diame was available on a free, iirc.

if we wanted to try and buy these players we would be getting well spanked for not being more aware and observant .
lets hope the new scouts are earning their keep...

Sounds like a thread title.