Sitting midfielder

[Hibby Bairn]

Centre defence is terrible at the moment but need confidence and protection to develop together.

Playing both Towell and Stevenson as defensive, deep midfielders is nonsense. Too far away from forwards and no central support to wide men (1-2's, switching play, retaining possession etc) and as a result the forward players get isolated with little option for passes and we inevitably lose the ball.

Stevenson has done really well the past month and puts in a great shift, wants the ball at his feet and looks to play in others. But he is too deep and defensive. He can play in others if given the chance further up the field and can retain possession. He will make himself available for a pass.

Get him further up the part and stick Murray in as a defensive sitting midfielder in front of the centre backs. Tell Stevenson to work across the pitch but 20 yards further forward. Link with wingers and forwards and retain the ball. Go back if needed and recycle the ball. Tell Murray just to break up play and defend and then feed the ball to others (preferably full backs or wingers).

Keep it simple man. It is a simple game.

[Mikey_1875]

I think we need osbourne back pronto into that midfield which will help the problem in the short term until we sign a creative midfielder or 2, we weren't great before but since he was injured our midfield have been even worse than poor!

[PeterboroHibee]

If only it was that easy...

We have a real problem in midfield. A big part of it is fitness, where after about 45 minutes they look knackered and cant compete, but none of them are good enough, or complete enough players, to sit in a midfield two. They are average going forward, with noone really showing the ability to pick out the killer pass to put our forward in, and it is painfully obvious how little help they give a struggling defence; they are slow to get back, let runners go, bottle tackles etc (2 games in a row a player has been able to pick up the ball from deep and run, unchallenged, all the way to our box).

The answer definitely isnt Murray and Stevenson, and I dont think it lies in our current squad. Whether we can get someone in in January remains to be seen, but we desperately need someone who can dominate the midfield. Osbourne is a good player but he seems to prefer going forward with the ball, we need someone more disciplined to play alongside him.

[Andy74]

If only it was that easy...

We have a real problem in midfield. A big part of it is fitness, where after about 45 minutes they look knackered and cant compete, but none of them are good enough, or complete enough players, to sit in a midfield two. They are average going forward, with noone really showing the ability to pick out the killer pass to put our forward in, and it is painfully obvious how little help they give a struggling defence; they are slow to get back, let runners go, bottle tackles etc (2 games in a row a player has been able to pick up the ball from deep and run, unchallenged, all the way to our box).

The answer definitely isnt Murray and Stevenson, and I dont think it lies in our current squad. Whether we can get someone in in January remains to be seen, but we desperately need someone who can dominate the midfield. Osbourne is a good player but he seems to prefer going forward with the ball, we need someone more disciplined to play alongside him.

In theory Palsson and Osbourne should be an excellent, phyiscal and dominant couple of players in the centre. If only we could find where we put the Palsson that arrived as we seem to have had an imposter ever since.

[Sergeant Hibs]

Ozzy and Lewie can both play the sitting midfielders FFS role