The midfield

Our midfield 3 is so strong.

Connell, Thomas and Kane were brilliant last night. Then we've got Benson who started the season on fire. Wolfe is solid and Phillips sounds like a prospect.

What a set of options we have there. Just a shame we don't have a great striker to go with them!

Connell in particular looks a huge talent.

 

Wolfe looked lost when he came on last night.

 

Think we will out football a lot of teams this season but that nagging doubt for me is our inability to finish teams off and that will cost us a chance for a top six finish .

 

I wouldn’t disagree but I thought Herbie Kane was a bit too ponderous and at times very negative in his passing last night - at one point I said to my boy ‘has Kane passed a ball forwards tonight?’ - and in the next five or ten minutes every pass from him was backwards. I think we’ll look better with Benson - when he’s fit. Though getting Kane fully fit and more matches will bring him on.

 

Connell looks a terrific prospect, and Benson and Thomas look so much better since Duff's arrival.

 

Funny how we all see things differently - after 15 minutes last night I was a bit frustrated by the lack of pace in everything we did but it changed after that and I thought Kane was the one who influenced that most by playing sharp, first time forward passes. On occasion they were misplaced but I didn't mind that so much as were playing more aggressively and opened them up several times as a result of the speed of passing. I thought he had a good game. I understand him being taken off to protect him but we really didn't control the ball anywhere near as well after he'd gone (and taking Aitchison and Thomas off made it even worse). I agree there were times when Kane showed to have the ball off Collins / Andersen / Cundy / McCarthy and often went back to them and it appeared negative but I think he was following instructions to draw them on to create space in midfield.

 

**** up front though and dodgy at the back.

 

I'm probably in the minority but i don't rate wolfe' i always see him as a sending off waiting to happen..

 

Wolfe

 

There's some talent there, I agree. Other than Benson though I don't see many goals from midfield. Kane has a poor record on that front, Connell is a deep lying player and Thomas turns to jelly when he gets anywhere near the box.
Seeing as we don't have a reliable source of goals upfront that's a worry. Hopefully Phillips and Martin can have an impact on goals output.

 

I think Thomas just needs to get a couple of goals and he’ll come good.

 

Been saying that for a couple of years, it'd be nice but it's unlikely to happen. Even the 'worldie' he got against Cheltenham turned out to be a deflection!

 

Given his goalscoring ratio I think we need to give Phillips a run in the midfield. Thomas is much better than he was now we're playing at this level but his goal output isn't enough especially at a time when the forwards aren't delivering.

 

Can Phillips play upfront? Don’t know much about him but his stats are good (20 in 90 odd games on loan in L1).

 

I thought he was primarily a midfielder who chips in a fair few goals. I like the look of most of our midfielders but we need to accommodate one or two who can score seven or eight a season.

 

two poor teams..

 

Done very little since that goal. It's a shame we couldn't get him off the books to Bristol Rovers.

 

I don't agree. Thomas has good pace and dribbling skills and drives the team forward. He's the only player we have who regularly takes men on. I had given up in him before the start of this season, but I have changed my mind. Sheffield Wednesday found him very hard to handle.

 

Agree' if he can improve his decision making to improve the final ball he'll be very dangerous..

 

Thought Wolfe would show what he’s about and expected good things however I don’t seer what he offers