Central Midfield

[MrRobot]

Who do we think are our best 3 when everyone is fit?

I think Hourihane has shown today that he offers something totally different to all the other midfielders. Going forward he provides a lot of creativity and quality. His set pieces are far better than anyone else's on the team. He also showed he has a bit of bite to his game. Think he's going to be crucial to breaking teams down.

Grimes has been back to his best the last couple of months. He's leading by example and dictating play like we know he can do.

Fulton has been Mr Consistent all season. Can do both sides of the game and covers so much ground. I think most of our best performance have come when he's been in the team.

Smith has been very good at breaking up opposition play and winning back the ball. I think he's been better in possession lately but he's not as good on the ball as the other midfielders.

Dhanda is great when he's at his best but drifts in and out of games. Some games he does go missing and physically he can be found lacking. I feel there's more to come from him but he's not going to be in the starting 11.

For me, our best 3 are Hourihane, Grimes, Fulton. I don't think there are any teams for us to fear in the league so playing 3 DM's is too conservative and we need that more attacking midfielder in the 3. Considering we've lost MGW, Palmer and now Byers it's good that we've still got some depth in midfield and I think that strong competition for places will be evident in the performances.

 

[Dr. Winston]

It's harsh on Smith, but based on today Hourihane is an automatic choice.

It'll be Hourihane, Grimes and Fulton to begin with. Fulton has been excellent all season, and Grimes has reacted well to his entirely justified dropping early in the season. Cooper needs to be fair though. If performances in there drop, no matter who it is, changes need to be made.

 

[MrRobot]

It's harsh on Smith, but based on today Hourihane is an automatic choice.

It'll be Hourihane, Grimes and Fulton to begin with. Fulton has been excellent all season, and Grimes has reacted well to his entirely justified dropping early in the season. Cooper needs to be fair though. If performances in there drop, no matter who it is, changes need to be made.

Completely agree. It is harsh on him but he just doesn't quite offer as much as the other 3.

I'm sure we will see plenty of rotation in the midfield depending on performance levels and differing opponents.

 

[Itchysphincter]

Grimes, first name on the team sheet.

Connor next as we’ve obviously brought him in improve us. Dhanda interchangeable.

Any one of Fulton and Smith next. Fulton would be my choice as he is great positionally, breaks things up on the quiet and offers an attacking threat, but that said, Smith is quietly turning in to a bit of a Leon. Tough choice.

 

[monmouth]

I think he'll drop Fulton mostly from the starting line up. I'm not saying he should as I would leave out Smith, but I have a feeling he won't, not really based on anything other than both Smith and Grimes have seemed to be picked 9 times out of 10 even through a run of gash games from them.

He may just try and interchange on a game by game basis given Smith's injury record, but he really doesn't like changing his teams starting or during games. On that front, I expect Morris to mostly take the Garrick role on the bench unless Ayew is sold. Morris could be perfect against Man City though. They will push high and they hate pace as we saw with Dan James last time.

 

[old cob]

Smith would be my first choice with Hourihane. So for me it would be Smith, Hourihane and one other.

 

[Swanjaxs]

What a bloody lovely problem to have.
For a long time our midfield looked lightweight and virtually picked itself by default...

 

[Epaul]

Great innit so many choices, I'd go Hourihane, Grimes, Smith, SDhanda is a bit of a luxury, fulton has been outstanding but a great sub to bring on, hard choices but nice to have......

 

[Ringwood Jack]

Dhanda is a bit of an enigma for me.. very busy and shows himself for a pass but when in possession slows the tempo down and struggles with the longer pass and the physicality. Maybe its just me but i'm not sure he fits our system effectively although with Byers MGW and Palmer now gone Cooper feels he can find a role for him.

The midfield is badly lacking goals still but hopefully with Hourirane in the side this will improve

 

[Swanseaborn]

Dhanda is a bit of an enigma for me.. very busy and shows himself for a pass but when in possession slows the tempo down and struggles with the longer pass and the physicality. Maybe its just me but i'm not sure he fits our system effectively although with Byers MGW and Palmer now gone Cooper feels he can find a role for him.

The midfield is badly lacking goals still but hopefully with Hourirane in the side this will improve

Personally thought he stepped it up yesterday, albeit against a poor forest team. Looked busy, wasn’t shy to put a foot in and linked play nicely. Just needs a goal or assist or two to pick his confidence up

 

[Dr. Winston]

The little dinked pass through to Roberts for the goal he had disallowed is the kind of pass only Dhanda in our squad can make. Nobody else has that kind of vision. His biggest problem is he's lightweight and can be bullied out of games so can be 50/50 in terms of what kind of game he's going to have.

 

[bakajack]

The biggest problem for me is also trying to fit Morris into all of this, Ayew and Lowe are all but undroppable at the moment so if we were to use Morris surely it would be on the wing which is where he did all his best work for Seattle Sounders. Problem is that we play 5-3-2 and don't use wingers, I guess he would rotate in with Lowe and Ayew as they tire or if we switched to a 4-3-3 to chase a game.

But on topic I think that Grimes/Fulton/Hourihane are our starting three for sure. Smith feels like a mix of Fulton/Grimes for me, not as good as either as the deep lying midfielder or box to box midfielder roles but comfortable performing either. Dandha I feel would be a substitute in most games for when Hourihane tires (and he will for a month or two until he gets fully match fit) and I also believe he could learn a lot from Hourihane during his time with us.

 

[eteb]

Dhanda is a bit of an enigma for me.. very busy and shows himself for a pass but when in possession slows the tempo down and struggles with the longer pass and the physicality. Maybe its just me but i'm not sure he fits our system effectively although with Byers MGW and Palmer now gone Cooper feels he can find a role for him.

The midfield is badly lacking goals still but hopefully with Hourirane in the side this will improve

i agree and would let go for the purported 5mil. His pass to manning for the 4th was fantastic tho

 

[Fireboy]

For me its smith, fulton and hourihane, smith is the shield in front of the back three, fulton is the box to box clearer up midfielder and hourihane the key to ayew/lowe/Robert's and bidwell, although as we know grimes is one of coopers favourites and fair dos to him he has stepped up recently so I think cooper will pick him alongside fulton and smith on wednesday then bring on hourihane, hourihane will then be picked as a starter when his match fitness picks up, then cooper will have the quandary of who to pick, dhanda is obviously behind these four but isnt it good to have him on the bench, we can bring him on knowing we will still have some steel in the likes of fulton, smith and hourihane.

Isnt it great to have this problem, these players will be upping their efforts in training to prove their worth and out performance on the pitch will hopefully go up a level, then you have what cooper will do with morris, now that might be another good problem for cooper to sort out, happy days.

 

[Cooperman]

We’ve got a nice problem to deal with in terms of central midfield selection and we are fortunate for being able to rotate without significantly weakening the starting eleven. Not many Championship teams will be able to claim that.