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What to do with our midfield? Saturday, 11 September 2010 17:56 Written by Muff

The midfield for me is a major concern.

I know it's only four games into the SPL season, but I'm not liking what I see. There is a sever lack of urgency, creativity, organisation, pace, width and balance. It's what we have been seeing for far too long now. I'm sick of seeing this midfield struggling against the likes of St. Johnstone, Hamilton, Kilmarnock... out-played, out-passed, out-classed, out-fought far too often. Far too big a gap in the middle of the park, and not enough support to our front men. We don't have a player who can go looking for the ball, calm it down, move it around, dictate and control the play - a Barry Ferguson type player. 

Maurice Edu cannot play in a 4-4-2. He is not good enough to play alongside either Steven Davis or Lee McCulloch. I don't see him as a defensive, attacking or box-to-box midfielder, and I don't know what he brings to the team. To me, he is a waste of a jersey. His positional sense is terrible, his distribution is poor, he doesn't win tackles, break up play, he doesn't have the drive to burst forward. He gives the ball away far too often and put's his team mates under too much pressure. In a 4-4-2, we have to play with Davis and McCulloch in the middle, with Weiss on the right and someone on the left.

I wanted to see Davis in the middle, but it's simply not working, and it's down to the personnel and Davis himself. No matter how good he is playing, Davis is a player who always drifts in and out of games. On the right it didn't matter as much. In the engine room, it maters a lot, especially away from home. I think it's time to move Davis back onto the right but that means playing Weiss or Naismith on the left, and Edu alongside McCulloch, unless you change the shape of the team, which I can't see happening. Kyle Lafferty shouldn't be anywhere near the starting 11 and the same can be said for James Beattie.

For me, it all comes down to the summer signings. Not just this year, but in previous ones. We needed a left sided midfielder/winger and we failed to get one in. Losing Kevin Thomson and not replacing him is another bad move. You can mention the younger lads, but are they going to get the chance, are they a better option than Edu - I very much doubt it. I'm not writing James Beattie off, I just didn't agree with the signing, and until he proves me wrong, I will continue to stick by that. I don't know how long it's going to take him to get fit and in shape? Walter Smith and Ally McCoist mentioned width and Lafferty uptop - so they must have changed their minds very quickly.

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