Why is our midfield so poor?

[phil_t98]

sacking to many mangers and simply not brining in the next manager after manger with the same tactical ideas

 

[Gilbert..]

What a loaded question. Are we just talking centre midfield or strung across the pitch?
Not great at controlled possession. Which has bugged me for a long time. Maybe other teams do it and i dont watch them enough to realise it but i often think Everton are one of the worst sides for giving the ball away cheaply.
I could write a lot about this. But i'll just rate our current squad

Allan. Had better around him at napoli and wasnt exposed as much. Attempts to do to much which often is counter productive

Doucoure. Not a great footballer. You are not at watford until 27 if you're anything that good. But we sometimes miss him a lot when he's not playing which say a lot about Everton's lack of quality tbh. I dont mind him but there are times his lack of ability really shows.

Gomes. What needs to be said. Can be ok. Can be invisible. Can be annoying. To happy to coast along here.

Davies. Not good enough. Simple as that. No offence to him. Just not good enough.

So the centre isnt great. Two i wouldnt trust at all. Davies and gomes. The other two need support so when you start looking at the midfield as a whole. Iwobi. Forget him. He's just diabolical. Gray is a class player and i wish we had more like him. Gordon is coming out of the shadows a bit now. I dont know how good he could become. I dont think ancelotti did him any favours.
The rest. Nothing really there.
Recruitment is essential. There are some decent players around at other clubs who didnt cost the earth. But then this week we've been linked with sean longstaff so i dont see the midfield improving to any level we'd like soon.

 

[Blue Roo]

The defence needs to be sorted, no doubt about it. The defence can stop the rot.
But its the midfield that going to get this team back up the table and competing where they should be.

Bottom line - we haven't had a decent midfield since Pienaar, Cahill, Arteta. Thats a long long time now.

 

[Chegsy]

All of them are quiet similar in their traits, with doucs and Gomes both have similar pace, slower then usual pl standard, and Allan is bang avarage. None of them can dictate the play in the mf.

Good point. Wouldn’t say any have the correct attributes to play as a defensive midfielder or an attacking midfielder. Doucoure is good at getting forward but he’s not going to unlock a team with a pass. Allan likes a tackle but as has been mentioned gets dragged out of position a lot. All of them would benefit having a proper defensive midfielder behind and a proper attacking midfielder in front. Non of that makes a difference if we continue with the 2 man midfield though.

 

[yakublue]

Good point. Wouldn’t say any have the correct attributes to play as a defensive midfielder or an attacking midfielder. Doucoure is good at getting forward but he’s not going to unlock a team with a pass. Allan likes a tackle but as has been mentioned gets dragged out of position a lot. All of them would benefit having a proper defensive midfielder behind and a proper attacking midfielder in front. Non of that makes a difference if we continue with the 2 man midfield though.

Agree with all this, but Allan doesn’t really offer much if he needs a defensive midfielder behind him. Another awful signing really given his age and wages

 

[toffee-L]

It's all about the profile of the players you stock it with. Signing both Allan and Doucoure together in the same midfield was a colossal failure of planning from Marcel Brands. If he couldn't persuade Ancellotti that Allan was not necessary, he had to move on a different profile of midfielder than Dourcoure as we were crying out for for a true holding player. Signing two players who were more comfortable going box to box in the same window whilst leaving a chasm of space behind them was just a nonsense and why nobody should lose any sleep that Brands, who was clearly so incompetent, was punted.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to only play two midfielders if those players are comfortable with it. As ours clearly aren't, the manager should be playing three for now. However, the problems always go back to recruitment with us.

In a nutshell, signing the wrong players.

 

[Eggsyblueskin]

Two men aren’t a midfield they’re a last stand.

 

[GraemeS1980]

Dacoure plays decent when he is pushed forward but we have to be losing and have ten minutes to go before FSW makes the tactical change. Allan bless his polyester socks runs as fast as he can he's more Mini Metro than McLaren Mercedes, despite this lack of pace he puts a shift in. I'm glad we haven't seen Captain Tom for a while, injured or not the lad is a liability. It is quite simple the system FSW is trying to play just doesnt work with the standard of players we have. Gomes has not been the same player post injury he too lacks pace. I dont understand how fans watching the same games as the manager cant see what we see

 

[hktoffee]

Because Longstaff and El Ghazi are the saviours. Preparing for the Championship Agent R?

 

[TimHowardsBeardJuice]

• just not good enough across the board - Doucoure Allan Gomes Davies Delph Gbamin, that's pretty grim
• no true holding mid
• no true CAM - not that we play a system with a true 10 but there needs to be someone who can feed the attack and other than Gomes on a good day and sometimes Douc there really isn't
• everyone has significant flaws - Doucore looked the complete package early on but ran himself into the ground
• Rafael's tactics, not enough bodies deployed
• biggest culprit imo is that we talk about the revolving door of managers and how each has brought in players for a different style - IMO that shows most in midfield

 

[barneygumble]

Midfield isn’t poor in my opinion.

Allan, to be truly effective, needs to work in a three. Without working in a three you’re expecting him to be creative, and find key passes, either part of his game really.

Doucoure, needs a 3 to allow him to actually be the box to box midfielder we saw earlier in the season.

Gomes needs a three because he can’t tackle, or bomb forward. It’s simple, we need to play a midfield three or we get overran.

Meanwhile, we’ve got a manager who’s insistent on starting right backs in central defence, whilst we’re getting overran by Hull City.

 

[AsiaAsia82]

We were blessed with Barry, McCarthy and Barkley….

Although those 3 would still get in the team now tbh

 

[Arteta2391]

the last few decent midfielders I have seen play in an Everton jersey was Gueye, Arteta & Manuel Fernandes.

 

[Kirkles]

Cos we only have one decent centre mid

 

[Carlito]

The system asks a lot of two players that are quite limited.

I think 5-4-1 is here to stay, so we'd better get used to it.