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Midfield link - who's the man we need?

veron23

veron23

Banned
Wind Up Merchant
Its safe to say (or at least imo) our biggest issue and most teams main issue is a 3rd midfielder who can link defence and attack. When I watch Spurs (and again most teams) I see either hopeful/mis placed passes or slow build up passes which allows teams defending to get back in numbers.
If I'm going by Pochettinos Southampton model it seems the only missing piece of our jigsaw in the deep lying/box to box ball player. Eriksen will be his floating number 10 (Lallana), Lamela will be his inside forward (Rodriguez), Paulinho will be his midfield runner (Davis) and Sandro will be his destroyer (Wanyama).

This leaves the midfield linkman.

If it was me I would like to see us go for Javi Martinez but if this ends up being a pipe dream then I think Schneiderlin is the missing piece.

Emre can would have been a good shout.
Gundogan is out of our league.
Claise is a gamble.

One of the Bender brothers maybe?
 
veron23 said:
Its safe to say (or at least imo) our biggest issue and most teams main issue is a 3rd midfielder who can link defence and attack. When I watch Spurs (and again most teams) I see either hopeful/mis placed passes or slow build up passes which allows teams defending to get back in numbers.
If I'm going by Pochettinos Southampton model it seems the only missing piece of our jigsaw in the deep lying/box to box ball player. Eriksen will be his floating number 10 (Lallana), Lamela will be his inside forward (Rodriguez), Paulinho will be his midfield runner (Davis) and Sandro will be his destroyer (Wanyama).

This leaves the midfield linkman.

If it was me I would like to see us go for Javi Martinez but if this ends up being a pipe dream then I think Schneiderlin is the missing piece.

Emre can would have been a good shout.
Gundogan is out of our league.
Claise is a gamble.

One of the Bender brothers maybe?
Click to expand...

Banega? Diego? One available for a knock down fee and the other on a free....
 
Schneiderlin, Banega and Claise are the three names who we've been linked with in this position who excite me.

I agree that this is a big priority (probably my #2 after a LB). Dembele's just not been the Modric replacement that we needed.
 
veron23 said:
isn't Diego more of a final 3rd player?
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I think he is at his best as the central player in the 3 of the 4-2-3-1 type formation. Is a very creative player though.

If you want a deeper alternative what about Benat from Athletico Bilbao? (although might not be cheap as they only bought him from Betis last Summer).
 
jimmyb said:
Not a midfield link man.
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Agreed, should be discussed as most likely unattainable in the winger thread instead.

And both the Bender brothers are more defensive midfielders than link men from what I've seen?

The names GB mentions has been the most talked of and all seem at least somewhat plausible. If United want to get rid of Carrick I think that would be a potentially excellent deal if we could make it happen. Continuing on the perhaps somewhat cheaper road Ki (on loan at Sunderland from Swansea) might be considered. Speaking of Swansea De Guzman looks good, but with him getting games for Holland he's not going to be cheap.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Schneiderlin, Banega and Claise are the three names who we've been linked with in this position who excite me.

I agree that this is a big priority (probably my #2 after a LB). Dembele's just not been the Modric replacement that we needed.
Click to expand...

I fear that Schneiderlin will be too expensive now both as a result of his performances last year and also the situation at Southampton in general. I fear that Claise isn't yet ready, but I would be all over us trying to buy him now and then loan him out while he matures.

What about the Chilean - Marcelo Diaz from Basel? Has the advantage that he already plays for a club team and national team who play a similar system to Pochettino's favourted one. Or do you think he is a little too defensive?
 
I'd love it if we bought Clasie.

Quality on the ball and works very hard off it.

Get him now, while he's still gettable and not stupidly expensive.
 
Personally, I feel this is a priority position because we have never been the same attacking force since Modric left us.

As for the player I would like, there is only one man for me and that's Pjanic from Roma. He would be attainable as simply, we bought there best player last summer, so anyone is gettable for us.
 
Yiddo said:
Their first group match. I assume it was him, blonde hair fella? always picked the ball up from the middle of the park.
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Blond hair fella is him yeah. My memory has him as a wide player in that match though and whoscored (http://www.whoscored.com/Players/80241/) has him playing on the left for Sociedad every game this season apart from two appearances as a striker.

I really doubt he's seen as a central/deep midfielder if we're targeting him.

Shropshire Yid said:
Personally, I feel this is a priority position because we have never been the same attacking force since Modric left us.

As for the player I would like, there is only one man for me and that's Pjanic from Roma. He would be attainable as simply, we bought there best player last summer, so anyone is gettable for us.
Click to expand...

Pjanic, if gettable, would be great I think. Last summer we had a lot of money floating around though, this summer I'm not so sure.
 
Levy has never failed to back a manager financially, he has let targets slip over £0.5m but he has always spent money! I think this summer will be no different but I think it will be key signings for the team!
 
braineclipse said:
Blond hair fella is him yeah. My memory has him as a wide player in that match though and whoscored (http://www.whoscored.com/Players/80241/) has him playing on the left for Sociedad every game this season apart from two appearances as a striker.

I really doubt he's seen as a central/deep midfielder if we're targeting him.



Pjanic, if gettable, would be great I think. Last summer we had a lot of money floating around though, this summer I'm not so sure.
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I am only going by watching him in that one game and thinking he looked good when ever he was in the middle of the park.
 
Tom Carroll

Just give the lad a season, Lallana was so so two seasons ago now he looks like a good prem player. Give Carroll the time.
 
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