Please come back and get us ticking (and organised) in the middle of the park again. SOON!

For a rare treat, I’ll leave it at that!

UTC

I agree we need him in midfield. Brownhill isn’t up to it in a 4 man midfield for me.

Yep, Brownhill would take a rest for me, too.

Not the answer, can't be any worse though. At least we might look somewhat organised with a captain figure in there.

Prefer it when Brownhill plays, but Cork+Brownhill may be the best combo. Westwood and Cork are just far too limited. You really need players who can either compliment one another or two workhorses at CM in a 442. With the midfielders we have we need 3 in the middle to be competitive.

We need 3 new central midfielders, the current three are not up to standards required in the pl. All this clamouring for wide players was nonsense, we need a new midfield, which in my opinion is the most important part of any team.

Brownhill is the only one with real energy, his distribution has let him down so far this season unfortunately. His fault for Townsend's goal because he fluffed an incredibly simple 10 yard pass on the half way line. It's clearly an area we have issues in (as is up front). We have to hope that by some miracle we stay up and the Board can continue with their good work in the next few windows

Brownhill has got a good engine on him but his use of the ball is shocking. Not sure Cork is the answer but I'd prefer him along with Westwood.

Cork has got to start for us simple as that

No way.Josh played well it was Ash Westwood who stood out as a poor performer at Goodison
Jack looked miles off the pace and his dithering on the ball has cost us in past games .Hes been good but now past his sell by date.
We needed a combative cm and a recall of Phillips is needed to refeshen up midfield or push Erik up to add steel to the midfield

Woodleyclaret wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:00 am

No way.Josh played well it was Ash Westwood who stood out as a poor performer at Goodison
Jack looked miles off the pace and his dithering on the ball has cost us in past games .Hes been good but now past his sell by date.
We needed a combative cm and a recall of Phillips is needed to refeshen up midfield or push Erik up to add steel to the midfield

Agree. Although it was a poor pass by brownhill for the 2nd Everton goal, if you look back it was Westwood who just stood still and allowed the Everton midfield to bypass him. Poor performance.

Brownhill works hard to win the ball back, but too often just gifts it back to the opposition. He’s often on his heels as well, so has to work harder to get to where he needs to be. In my view, he’s just short of being a premier league player. I’d prefer Cork to be partnering Westwood, but agree that central midfield is probably the area of most concern.

dandeclaret wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:37 am

Brownhill works hard to win the ball back, but too often just gifts it back to the opposition. He’s often on his heels as well, so has to work harder to get to where he needs to be. In my view, he’s just short of being a premier league player. I’d prefer Cork to be partnering Westwood, but agree that central midfield is probably the area of most concern.

Trouble is January is quite a way off so how do we plug the gap until then?

dandeclaret wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:37 am

Brownhill works hard to win the ball back, but too often just gifts it back to the opposition. He’s often on his heels as well, so has to work harder to get to where he needs to be. In my view, he’s just short of being a premier league player. I’d prefer Cork to be partnering Westwood, but agree that central midfield is probably the area of most concern.

And has been for a number of seasons. Every time we face a side with a pacy midfielder they just run straight through us, be it Westwood, Cork, Brownhill in there. Southampton, Newcastle, Leeds and West Ham all showed how to beat us, Brighton and Everton have done the same this season. A huge concern for me is that we fail to take advantage in games where we are on top. As was the case last night, the opposition are not afraid to change shape or personnel to affect the game. We sit with the same formation and players for 75 minutes when it clearly needs a shake up and the answer inevitably, is a like for like swap, same formation that has been imploded, just with players who were not considered good enough to start.

Our home form has been disastrous since the turn of the year and we are now incapable of holding onto a lead, having been in front 3 times and harvested a single point from those 3 games. Worrying times for me as the failure to strengthen a midfield that consists of workhorses for the past couple of seasons comes home to roost.

And people on here pre season when the name Andros Townsend was mentioned said we should be looking at better players.....

I’d like to see Cork back in and given a run. Then we either play Vydra up top as he gives the midfield an extra passing option or to strengthen the middle up further (think back to the success we had with Hendrick in front) we start McNeil behind Wood. This then gives the midfield more support and avoids being overrun. Plus it gets our best player more involved. Cornet then comes in on the left.

The last time I saw Cork play was in the cup at Newcastle, he was slow and ponderous on the ball, continually lost possession
Now looking towards Cork to come back into midfield and sort our problems, shows exactly why we needed new midfielder during the summer.

No longer good enough in my view sadly.

We need 5 in midfield

Cork has looked leggy after about an hour in nearly all his recent matches and at that point should have been subbed probably for Brownhill but Dyche always seem content to watch him struggle for to long, I`m not suggesting knee jerk subs but Dyche seems to have the ability to watch crap football for longer than I can before he makes a change, no point in having a squad if you`re going to keep picking the same ole same ole !

We simply need to play all three in midfield, giving Brownhill the freedom to intercept, press and force players into a mistake. Cornet and McNeil wide with more freedom to press forward. Perm any two of the CM and play just 2 CM's and any opposition in the PL will just go through us in the second half when we are tiring .Happened three times this season out of four, and during the last 6-8 games last season. Plus as we showed last night Wood/Barnes is not working. We can change to 442 later in the game with 3 subs to choose from

Should replace Brownhill in a 2 man central midfield as it just isn’t working as it is. Brownhill will no doubt start on
Saturday.

deck chairs on the titanic.

Papabendi wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 14, 2021 11:02 am

deck chairs on the titanic.

Spot on.

Brownhill will be great in a 3, but isn’t good enough with the ball to play in a 2. He couldn’t make another challenge yesterday after his yellow, which was very costly, Cork should have been introduced for either him or Barnes for me to counter act their change or freshen up the middle of the park.

Realistically, are any midfielders good enough to play in a 2 anymore. Every team in the league plays with 3 in there so we could have any 2 we like but they’ll nearly always struggle. Our midfield only ever look like they dominate a game when we play the most powderpuff of midfields (aka Bournemouth type teams). Two in there simply does not give you the options to get the ball forward without going long. We haven’t had the players for it since defour left, but dyche clearly likes to play that shape. Now, McNeil seems an obvious fit in there behind the forward. This would give brownhill the freedom to do what he does best and win the ball back screening the back 4. Brownhill has thrived in some games during his time in the prem - so much so that bigger sides have shown interest and he has topped league charts on interceptions. In a three he could really thrive.

To be honest, we could play just Wood up top on his own, Barnes did nothing last night.
Play Cork, Westwood, and Brownhill together with Dwight and JBG/Cornet as proper attacking wingers.

Something has to change we used to be the kings of defending a lead. Dropped 8 points from winning positions in just 3 games.

When you see the sum of our three CM's then see that Jack Wilshere is still without a club, it makes you wonder if a six month contract is out of the question. Surely not more injury prone than Defour and a much better person than Drinkwater.

An absolutely exceptional performance in the middle of midfield from Jack Cork tonight. Did the simple things perfectly time and time and time again. Josh Brownhill also terrific. Jack Cork still remains our best midfielder at the club and we are a far better side with him in the team. Yes I’m bumping the thread and yes I will keep banging that drum. UTC

jdrobbo wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:27 pm

An absolutely exceptional performance in the middle of midfield from Jack Cork tonight. Did the simple things perfectly time and time and time again. Josh Brownhill also terrific. Jack Cork still remains our best midfielder at the club and we are a far better side with him in the team. Yes I’m bumping the thread and yes I will keep banging that drum. UTC

It's all about partnerships and Westwood gets too far forward for me to partner Brownhill.
Cork and Stephens much better suited playing with Brownhill.

The rest has done him the world of good. Two excellent performances.

Cork has to stay in for the next game. It would be extremely harsh to bring Westwood in.

Getting back to the Cork of old just when we needed him.
Don't know what 's happened but if Cork and Brownhill could play like this for a full season we would not be in need of midfield reinforcement at all.

Murger wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:37 pm

Cork has to stay in for the next game. It would be extremely harsh to bring Westwood in.

Couldn’t agree more!

We have always played better with a fit Cork in the team. So underrated.

Absolutely!!!

Cannot be dropped. Although given we have Leicester coming up, I would think about using Westy from the bench to keep him fresh.

Cork is a very underrated player as is Westwood. Brownhill has come good late but at times his distribution has been an issue. Stephens looksmore of a holding player in a midfield 5 these days.

The only issue is the age of Westwood and Cork.

It was clear from the last few games that it has become easier for a midfielder right now,when the whole team have raised their game

Jack Cork…

Keeps us in possession
Recycles the football
Gives an easy pass
Doesn’t often give the ball away
Gets us higher up the pitch
Brings our wingers into play
Affords our full backs time to get up the pitch
Shows for the ball from our centre halves

Is our best central midfielder by a distance

Makes us a better side without any question!

jdrobbo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:46 pm

Jack Cork…

Keeps us in possession
Recycles the football
Gives an easy pass
Doesn’t often give the ball away
Gets us higher up the pitch
Brings our wingers into play
Affords our full backs time to get up the pitch
Shows for the ball from our centre halves

Is our best central midfielder by a distance

Makes us a better side without any question!

Head and shoulder above the rest of our midfield.

On a different plant to Westwood, but he gets to come straight back in, ridiculous.

jdrobbo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:46 pm

Jack Cork…

Keeps us in possession
Recycles the football
Gives an easy pass
Doesn’t often give the ball away
Gets us higher up the pitch
Brings our wingers into play
Affords our full backs time to get up the pitch
Shows for the ball from our centre halves

Is our best central midfielder by a distance

Makes us a better side without any question!

Appreciate everything you’re saying, but I think it’s more an indication of how poor our centre midfield is if Cork is indeed still our best player in that position. He’s thrown in some shocking performances this season, too.

Cork, Westwood and Stephens probably all need replacing next season, regardless of what division we find ourselves in.

Cork should have played tonight. We missed him.

In hindsight wrong selections tonight in dropping Cork and Jay Rod for Westwood and Cornet although understandable why. Also missed Pieters at left back.

Steve-Harpers-perm wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 10:37 pm

In hindsight wrong selections tonight in dropping Cork and Jay Rod for Westwood and Cornet although understandable why. Also missed Pieters at left back.

Very much agree

jdrobbo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:46 pm

Jack Cork…

Keeps us in possession
Recycles the football
Gives an easy pass
Doesn’t often give the ball away
Gets us higher up the pitch
Brings our wingers into play
Affords our full backs time to get up the pitch
Shows for the ball from our centre halves

Is our best central midfielder by a distance

Makes us a better side without any question!

All of that, was crying out for him tonight.
An ability to simply pass the ball to a team mate is a start, part of the reason we made Leicester look so good

The midfield was atrocious tonight.

We missed Jack and Jay badly tonight. No idea why they were dropped. Have done so well in the last few weeks, bonkers to drop them two and unsettle the side.
Cornet is not a striker and I really don’t get this fascination Dyche has with playing him upfront. We need Jack back and Jay up with Wout again on Saturday. Get that winning team back together. Them changes really disjointed us tonight

He’s had a poor season, I think, but when he’s on form, he’s by far our best midfielder. He was just beginning to hit his stride and we were getting to see what a good player he can be again. His performances were absolutely integral to our uptick in form. It was a shocking decision to drop him.

I also think he’s a perfect partner for Brownhill as he allows him to be creative and pull the strings a bit more. He has to be more of the workhorse alongside Westwood and it doesn’t suit his game as much.

I was disappointed that Corky wasn't selected last night. When on form as he was against Spurs, JC's still our best midfield player and adds energy to the team.