Thursday 30 June 2011

Liverpool - Too Many Midfielders?

With the return of central midfielder Alberto Aquilani from Serie A outfit, Juventus, it occurred to me that maybe the Merseyside club may have too many players competing for the 2 or 3 central midfield spots. Think about it... Gerrard, Meireles, Lucas, Henderson, Spearing, Poulsen, Cole and now Aquilani all vying for the same spots, all of them Premier League standard, there could be a bit of a selection problem for gaffer Kenny Dalglish. How he intends to keep all these players happy when they all believe they should be starting will be interesting to see come next season.

It is also dependant on what formation the manager decides to play, if it's 4-4-2 then only 2 central spots will be available. 4-5-1 means that 3 would be available but I think Luis Suarez would then be competing for one of those spots. With 2 quality strikers in Caroll and the Uruguayan I feel that Dalglish will probably opt for 4-4-2 but obviously that means that a lot of the central midfielders will unhappy at being left on the bench.

But I have the soloution!


A rarely used formation, the 3-6-1 is one I feel would truly benefit Liverpool as it employs the use of 4 central midfielders and I can guarantee that the increased amount of midfielders truly does take 'You'll never walk alone...' to a whole new level. It may get a little crowded in the middle of the park but I think it would be the easiest way of keeping the vast number of midfielders that the club possess happy. Who knows? 3-6-1 could become the formation of the future, you saw it here first.

Only a slightly less optimistic note I still rate Meireles as a better player than Henderson and would have him and Gerrard as my first choice central midfielders. However, Gerrard isn't getting any younger and I believe that the new signing Henderson will be the replacement for him in future seasons. But surely before the season starts, Dalglish must offload one or two of these centre mids? God knows what will happen should that move for Charlie Adam go through.

Matt Cooper

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