The Midfield

[Monty]

Westwood is better than Huddlestone. He's underrated and was probably our best player the other day (not that that's saying much, but he didn't fuck up while those around him were).

[Toronto Villa]

Huddlestone has a terrific shot on him. Aside from that I'm struggling to find ways to justify us buying him. He'd hardly pulled up any trees in his time at Hull. Yes, he's bigger than our midfielders and considerably slower.

[Clampy]

I'd take Diame from Hull for a reasonable price.

I quite like Diame but he's a little bit injury prone.

I'm not a big fan of Huddlestone. He's never really impressed me whenever i've seen him.

[martin o`who??]

You mean we had one???........

[Goldie.7]

Huddlestone.... please make it go away. We already have too many non or low season scoring midfielders.

Saying that though Hull did score more and concede less goals than us and went down, kind of f'd up.

[tomd2103]

Westwood is better than Huddlestone. He's underrated and was probably our best player the other day (not that that's saying much, but he didn't fuck up while those around him were).

Westwood's lack of mobility and physicality gets badly exposed against the top teams. 

[spfoundation19]

The midfield needs a leader. I think Sherwood placed too much pressure on their young shoulders and the lack of experience from the team really showed. They weren't able to play with freedom in a relaxed manner. It will be interesting to see what Sherwood does in the transfer market.

[rob_bridge]

Westwood is better than Huddlestone. He's underrated and was probably our best player the other day (not that that's saying much, but he didn't fuck up while those around him were).

Westwood's lack of mobility and physicality gets badly exposed against the top teams.

Don't rate Westwood as anything other than a squad player. Think he has not improved in 3 years at this level and he wasn't that good to start with.

[Keeno]

Ok, taking your parameters of give-or-take £20m of Benteke$$ being spent on the midfield, I think I would focus on maybe a few million of it being spent on keeping Cleverley, offering him some nice package to pick us, as the transfer is free. I think although our defence sometimes looks suspect, often it is due to the pressure being put on it by losing the midfield battle, which is why I agree the majority of the fee should be spent on the middle.

Then instead of buying a few players for the remaining £17m or so, I would blow it all on ONE player. Rather than a few decent players coming in to the midfield, it needs a large injection of quality and drive to bring the best out of Delph/Sanchez/Grealish etc (all of whom I think still have a part to play). We already possess 'ok' Premier League quality in there, but we need one aspect that would take it to the next level.

Now who that X-factor player might be is open to debate. I think we might be ok in the no. 10 role, depending on how he treats Gil after pre-season - we already know Grealish will offer something there. Which then (if we are operating a three man MF which I think we should be) leaves either the 'no. 6', box to box role, or a more defensive, ball-playing midfielder. I'd maybe look at raiding a top 6 six team for a player who is more on the fringes or disenchanted.. Maybe if Liverpool do come in for Benteke trying to get Emre Can in a swap deal? Bringing a player like Cabaye back for £15m from PSG (where he's played very little this season, and they might be looking to balance the FFP books ahead of a big Di Maria bid)? Thats the kind of player I think we need to drop in to the midfield, and I believe it will get the best out of the rest of the team. We've got to go big on a player for once, someone to help form the spine of the team. A Can/Delph/Sanchez midfield three? No doubt a top 10 midfield.

[PaulWinch again]

Westwood, Sanchez, Delph, Grealish, Sinclair and hopefully Cleverley all have something to offer.

[dcdavecollett]

I'd rather see Gardner given a chance than spend money on Huddlestone.

[SoccerHQ]

I would have started Sanchez and Westwood with Delph, Cleverley and Grealish in similar roles to they way Arsenal started. We carried Nzogbia badly. And to an extent Benteke.

We are, of course, talking from hindsight, but that is probably how I would have gone as well.  The home game against them earlier in the season kept playing on mind last week and how easily they pulled us apart in midfield and defence.  Adding Sanchez alongside Westwood and keeping Cleverley and Delph in quite tight, might have plugged a few of the gaps that appeared, leaving Grealish in behind Benteke.  Might not have worked of course, but they wouldn't have had so much space in midfield.       

We played that at Man. City didn't we? Pretty sure we didn't have a shot up there until it went 2 nil and we made some attacking subs. Think it's a case of dammed if you do and don't for Sherwood on that one.

In hindsight Gabby should've started as at least then we could've just lumped it long and he'd have I'm sure caused panic in the Arsenal defence and created a bit more space for Jack and Benteke to work with.

The problem is he should've pulled his finger out v Burnley and his other sub appearences to make himself a certain starter for the final. He didn't so I didn't have an issue with N'zogbia starting.

[tomd2103]

I would have started Sanchez and Westwood with Delph, Cleverley and Grealish in similar roles to they way Arsenal started. We carried Nzogbia badly. And to an extent Benteke.

We are, of course, talking from hindsight, but that is probably how I would have gone as well.  The home game against them earlier in the season kept playing on mind last week and how easily they pulled us apart in midfield and defence.  Adding Sanchez alongside Westwood and keeping Cleverley and Delph in quite tight, might have plugged a few of the gaps that appeared, leaving Grealish in behind Benteke.  Might not have worked of course, but they wouldn't have had so much space in midfield.       

We played that at Man. City didn't we? Pretty sure we didn't have a shot up there until it went 2 nil and we made some attacking subs. Think it's a case of dammed if you do and don't for Sherwood on that one.

In hindsight Gabby should've started as at least then we could've just lumped it long and he'd have I'm sure caused panic in the Arsenal defence and created a bit more space for Jack and Benteke to work with.

The problem is he should've pulled his finger out v Burnley and his other sub appearences to make himself a certain starter for the final. He didn't so I didn't have an issue with N'zogbia starting.

The fact we gifted Manchester City two goals hardly helped!  As I said, that particular horse has bolted now, so no particular need to discuss it further, but we do need to find a way of playing that makes us tougher to beat when we play the likes of Arsenal.  An aggregate score of 12-0 over three game is awful.

[ozzjim]

We need to find a way of playing against sides who are confident on the ball and have good movement. I think pressing their deep lying play makers higher up the pitch would be one way. I said 15 minutes in on Saturday that for all the use he was with the ball, NZogbia should have just gone and man marked Corzola for 20 minutes, because it would have stemmed the flow of balls being pinged from him to their flanks that stretched us ragged.