No strength or presence in the midfield

[jojomk1]

Cork and Defour are without doubt neat and tidy players but just don't have the physical stature to win tackles or heading battles
Therefore we just can't get any control within the midfield area, especially when away from home
The majority of Prem teams have at least one tall, physical guy in this key area (Palace had two or three)
No need to panic this Jan (as we look to be safe for next season) but we need to address this situation with the addition of a kind of midfield enforcer or at least go back to five across this area
Our 4-4-1-1 setup is not working and Hendrick is clearly struggling in this unfamiliar position
Look at all of the top teams as they seem to favour quick, wide men supporting a lone striker rather than a No 10

[TheFamilyCat]

I'm glad you're now out of the coma that caused you to miss the first four months of the season.

[HiroshimaClaret]

4-4-1-1 was working superbly AWAY but Brady`s injury allied to Hendrick`s loss of form and Wood`s post-NZ World Cup form/injury have derailed our superb form.

[ElectroClaret]

You've answered your own question by pointing out were safe.
And we've got to that position, to a great extent by having these two in the middle.

No doubt we'll strengthen in the summer, till then we'll be ok, however if the boss
wants to bring extra bods in this month, no doubt he'll do it.

[ablueclaret]

Certainly the more heavily laden midfield side was a great asset away from home and it is that midfield area that SD needs to tinker with now to give us a base from which attacks can be mounted.
Otherwise go back to 4-4-2 and hope to hit on the counter,

[ClaretMoffitt]

Personally I'd drop Hendrick away from home and put westwood in sitting behing SD and JC

[Bordeauxclaret]

Doing really well away from home this year. I wouldn’t be making drastic changes to the system.

Hendrick has been off the pace, I’d be looking to give him a rest but keeping the same system.

[bobinho]

Westwood has to be one of the most unluckiest players in the PL.

NEVER gives the ball away. Always available, typical Burnley attitude. Very unfortunate to not have a starting place.

[claretspice]

You say that other teams seem to favour 3 midfielders and quick players supporting the central striker from wide - a sort of 433 rather than our 4411. The first obvious point is that every single one of those teams who is a reasonable comparator is below us in the league. The second point I'd make is that rather too much is made of formations.

Its pretty obvious that when we are defending in our own half, we set up quite similarly to how we did last season. Our wide players are still, broadly speaking, required to track the opposing full backs (although Hendrick does give us a little bit more flexibility in that regard). Hendrick tends to fill in ahead of the 2 banks of four, tasked with getting on top of the opposing defensive midfielder and getting forward to help the lone striker if we clear any danger. In fairness, that's how most teams defend in that situation, especially when they get pushed back. Relatively few teams below the elite have the luxury of being able to leave a wide player up field.

But when we aren't defending in our own half, I don't think we adopt 4-4-1-1 particularly. We can look 4-2-4 at times when we are pressing high, because Hendrick and the two wide players push onto the opposing back 4. That can even sometimes begin to look 2-4-4 when the full backs push up to keep the squeeze on.

And when we get the ball and get good possession, I think it does become something more like 4-3-3, because the wide players are the ones most charged with getting into the box alongside the central striker - not Hendrick. Hendrick can often end up deeper than Cork (who is clearly encouraged to make runs forward) and Defour, who has licence when we get good spells of possession to pop up just about anywhere, including quite often on the right flank. That's really what Hendrick is giving us now that we didn't have last season - the extra man in midfield to allow our attacks to be more fluid whilst at the same time keeping that solid midfield base to ensure we don't get caught on the counter attack.

Since the Watford game in early December, with the exception of the cup tie at City last week and Huddersfield away, it seems to me that we've been less good at controlling games. We've been less able to press high up the pitch on our terms, and we've had less good possession (partly one as a consequence of the other). So we've looked a bit more 4-4-1-1 at times, because we've been in that deep, reactive mould.

Of course, if you add more pace out wide than we do currently, your ability to transform things quickly changes. Suddenly, you can break out of that 4-4-1-1 defensive shape and into a 4-3-3 attacking shape much more quickly. Suddenly both Hendrick and the lone striker have runners who want the ball played into the space ahead of the opposition, so the game becomes much less about playing backwards and sideways.

There's a danger of seeing formations as the master of everything. They aren't - players are. The difference between 4-4-1-1, 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 is usually down to control of a game and pace. And that comes down to players more than anything else.

[Woodleyclaret]

We need a new Joey Barton.A tough tackling midfielder who can pick a pass .Jon Swift at Reading is a possible.

[Rileybobs]

I disagree, Cork and Defour are both combative. Cork wins his fair share of headers and Defour makes a good number of tackles and interceptions. Also, the Palace midfielders hardly got a touch yesterday. They got the ball to their forward 4 quickly and largely bypassed the midfield.

[KefkaClaret]

Defour has the 5th most interceptions in the league.

[boatshed bill]

Tackles are virtually a thing of the past, it's all about interceptions now, which Defour does well.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Cork hasn't won more headers than any other PL midfielder.

[ablueclaret]

Our defensive qualities are always going to be shown quantitatively because we are so often defending.
What we have lost is our clinicalness, early on we were putting chances away at a very good ratio to efforts

[boatshed bill]

Our defensive qualities are always going to be shown quantitatively because we are so often defending.
What we have lost is our clinicalness, early on we were putting chances away at a very good ratio to efforts

Tricky when your most expensive striker and most expensive attacking midfielder are both out injured

[ablueclaret]

We forget how potent Vokes was at the end of last season, think he got his nose pushed out by Woods arrival