Let's drop defensive midfield formation?

[Nascent Blues]

No he doesn't and this is one of the main problems. Why do we need De Jong playing against Bolton ffs? Other teams play certain players against specific games, why don't we? (other than the fact that we're incredibly short in the midfield department). De Jong is ultra defensive so he is more effective when we play the top sides in the premiership. Playing him when we go up against the bottom team allows them to attack more because we automatically end up playing deeper and deeper. I'd probably go with Ibrahim against Bolton, at least he didn't get a fcuking nose bleedwhen he went over the halfway line.

de jong did nothing wrong yesterday, and he does what he is supposed to do and i saw him make a ton of pases up to ade and tevez, but they lose the ball trying to take everyone bcuz once the ball goes up there no one makes runs and its all based on individual talent after that...we need to play a 4 2 3 1 with ireland behind tevez and johnson an swp on the wings..swp make runs and johnson makes runs ireland would be able to pick them out from the middle

It's not about De Jong doing anything "wrong", it's more to do with what he doesn't bring to the table. I'm not slagging the guy off, he's a seriously important player for us. However, if we play De Jong and Barry together against weaker sides we are missing a trick. If we had a creative midfielder (i'm not including Ireland due to his current form although i'd still play him in the middle and drop Barry or De Jong against the likes of Bolton) with or without a bit of pace and who could drive forward with the ball we would a completely different animal.

If we took out either De Jong or Barry and replaced them with a Lampard, Modric, Fabregas, Gerrard, Kranjar type of player we would look completely different and would cause the opposition totally different problems. And before you say we don't possess a player like that, i agree, we don't (whilst Ireland is short of form and Johnson is out because of injury). Thats why we needed midfield replacements in the January window more than a left or right back.

All i'm saying is that De Jong, likewise Barry, should play if it benefits the team. Personally, against poorer oppositon, i think playing De Jong plays into the opposition's hands.

 

[Goaters]

Watching the Spurs and Villa game yesterday both played 4-4-2 and the midfielders were a real blend of attack minded players and holding midfielders. Villa had Milner, Downing, Young and Petrov and with only really Petrov considered a defensive midfielder. Spurs had Modric, Bentley then Palacios and Huddlestone which is a great balance.

As already pointed out, it is stupid to yesterday have Barry (who plays defensive mid for England), De Jong (defensive mid for Holland) and Viera (who says he has altered his game to sit more in front of defense). No real penetration and the gaps to the attackers is startling and they are doing the job of 1 man between the 3.

I would have Johnson - Barry - Ireland - Bellamy/SWP, let Barry sit more and bring ball out to ping it to the more offensive players. Both Bellers and Johnson work hard so would track back when the opposition have the ball.

 

[KingofDraw]

Watching the Spurs and Villa game yesterday both played 4-4-2 and the midfielders were a real blend of attack minded players and holding midfielders. Villa had Milner, Downing, Young and Petrov and with only really Petrov considered a defensive midfielder. Spurs had Modric, Bentley then Palacios and Huddlestone which is a great balance.

As already pointed out, it is stupid to yesterday have Barry (who plays defensive mid for England), De Jong (defensive mid for Holland) and Viera (who says he has altered his game to sit more in front of defense). No real penetration and the gaps to the attackers is startling and they are doing the job of 1 man between the 3.

I would have Johnson - Barry - Ireland - Bellamy/SWP, let Barry sit more and bring ball out to ping it to the more offensive players. Both Bellers and Johnson work hard so would track back when the opposition have the ball.

every time we play ireland with barry in the mid of a 442 we give up 3 goals...we should just do a 4 2 3 1 with vieira and de jong in the back and ireland upfront

 

[Nascent Blues]

Watching the Spurs and Villa game yesterday both played 4-4-2 and the midfielders were a real blend of attack minded players and holding midfielders. Villa had Milner, Downing, Young and Petrov and with only really Petrov considered a defensive midfielder. Spurs had Modric, Bentley then Palacios and Huddlestone which is a great balance.

As already pointed out, it is stupid to yesterday have Barry (who plays defensive mid for England), De Jong (defensive mid for Holland) and Viera (who says he has altered his game to sit more in front of defense). No real penetration and the gaps to the attackers is startling and they are doing the job of 1 man between the 3.

I would have Johnson - Barry - Ireland - Bellamy/SWP, let Barry sit more and bring ball out to ping it to the more offensive players. Both Bellers and Johnson work hard so would track back when the opposition have the ball.[/quote]
This^^^^

Especially against teams who are struggling ie. Bolton.

 

[ballymunblue]

if we are using two defensive mids to protect the defence why are we leaking goals,
does any successful team use two defensive midfielders

 

[KingofDraw]

no one remember the first time we played bolton with ireland and barry together in the mid...3 goals and i remember cahill getting past barry and ireland to score one..another game where we dont start playing until we have too...the problem just may be our mentality, i also remember from that game ade and tevez arguing with each other, cant remember the last time i saw the 2 of them make a single pass to each other..

 

[Big G]

Could we not have a go at playing Adam Johnson as an attacking mid at the expense of either Barry or De Jong,
It seems to have worked wonders for Milner at Villa.
Give that a go then we still keep the 2 wingers aswell,
No matter which way your looking at it in this debate were all agreeing about 1 thing, There is a big hole between the back and the front,
Give the new boy a chance in there, he could create a nice little role for himself.