Would absolutely love us to sign a destroyer in midfield

Diego said:
Hard in the tackle, athletic, energetic, good on the ball.

Need someone in there. Look weak as **** at the moment in midfield.

I hope the Akpom money allows us to sign a central midfielder. We need someone to come in and start too, not a back up player.
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How old is Lee Cattermole now šŸ¤£
 
I'm not sure if there are any Championship teams with that level of quality in their midfield. Perhaps players like that are spotted and hoovered up by the PL academy systems.

Rather than look for Boateng shaped unicorns, it may be more productive to look for midfielders comfortable with the ball in possession, who don't regularly give it away and cause the breaks which require a midfield general to crunch the opposition.
 
I don't think we need a destroyer it's not how we are set up. That was more suited to Karanka style tactics. Howson and Hackney are a great pairing in the Championship, as they proved last season. The issue we have is Howson is getting older and for me Barlaser isn't athletic enough to play that midfield role for a top level Championship team. It's no surprise to me that he did well for Rotherham but doesn't look anything special here. That may seem harsh to some people as he's not been here that long but I've seen nothing to suggest he can be the long term Howson replacement. A couple of nice through balls here and there but you need more than that from a central midfielder.
 
What's Dave doriva doing these days? Robbie mustoe back from USA?

Must be someone about who can tackle and play football, it's what being a cm was all about ten/twenty years ago. You did the lot.

Like said above you can be mean and play. Gattuso, Keane, viera, etc

Maybe it's been coached out of young players these days.
 
Was just reading today that Ardon Jashari has been stripped of captaincy by his team for trying to negotiate a transfer to one of their domestic rivals behind their backs. Sounds like a bit of a bullet dodged potentially.
 
Borodrew said:
What's Dave doriva doing these days? Robbie mustoe back from USA?

Must be someone about who can tackle and play football, it's what being a cm was all about ten/twenty years ago. You did the lot.

Like said above you can be mean and play. Gattuso, Keane, viera, etc

Maybe it's been coached out of young players these days.
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Just get grant out of retirement
 
Diego said:
Hard in the tackle, athletic, energetic, good on the ball.

Need someone in there. Look weak as **** at the moment in midfield.

I hope the Akpom money allows us to sign a central midfielder. We need someone to come in and start too, not a back up player.
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It would appear we're not alone.
www.theguardian.com

Chelsea and Liverpool highlight midfield need for Caicedo in chaotic clash | Jonathan Wilson

Chelsea and Liverpool are desperately lacking a holding midfielder as the pursuit of MoisƩs Caicedo highlights and this match was worryingly open
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
If teams such as Liverpool and Chelsea, with all the creative talent at their disposal, require such a player then the idea that we don't because 'it doesn't suit our style of play' is just plain wrong. As the article says you just end up way too open.
Even during our successful spell last season we kept leaking goals which means when your own goal scoring dries up you're stuffed. Boro fans seem to look on DM as a very negative role but every team needs a 'water carrier' (Ā© Eric Cantona)
 
We could certainly do with that sort of player but it's not why we lost on Saturday. The midfield did ok.

The bigger issue was the forwards getting into good positions then making bad decisions or **** finishing. Too sloppy at times too, more than once bad touches lost possession when in promising positions. We had more than enough of the play to get a result but were too ineffective in the final third.

Coventry weren't any better (that's probably what was most annoying) but they had two huge slices of luck that we didn't. For all that our front 4 struggled we still should've scored at least 2. That was the issue. A destroyer wouldn't have changed that.
 
festa5 said:
We could certainly do with that sort of player but it's not why we lost on Saturday. The midfield did ok.

The bigger issue was the forwards getting into good positions then making bad decisions or **** finishing. Too sloppy at times too, more than once bad touches lost possession when in promising positions. We had more than enough of the play to get a result but were too ineffective in the final third.

Coventry weren't any better (that's probably what was most annoying) but they had two huge slices of luck that we didn't. For all that our front 4 struggled we still should've scored at least 2. That was the issue. A destroyer wouldn't have changed that.
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I guess it's about mindset and philosophy. You're basically saying that we lost because we couldn't out-score them (which would have needed 4 goals). Personally I think we lost because we couldn't stop them scoring which comes down to the defensive organisation and abilities of the whole team.
 
To find midfielders that can do the things we need them to do whilst in possession, whilst also being effective enough out of possession, or a "destroyer" if you will, is incredibly hard to find at championship level on our budget.

Our defensive frailties stem from the whole team not pressing with the right intensity from the very top.
Something hard to do with crooks in an advanced position.
 
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