Originally Posted by
jackal2
If you're going to play with only two central midfielders, both need to be ball winners, as well as having very high energy levels and good mobility, because the chances are that they will be outnumbered a lot of the time. Bishop and Ravenhill in 2009/10 both had that energy and could put their foot in, albeit Bishop was the better footballer with the capability to play at higher levels.
We haven't seen enough of Crawford and Patching yet to know what they bring to the party, but last season Husin looked a bit too lightweight to survive with just one central midfield partner, and when Noble later played alongside Hewitt, Elliott was virtually on his own. In a 4-4-2 the main job of the central two is to win possession and play the simple pass to the wide players whose job it is to provide the creative spark. If Noble's intention is to play passing football, we have to get the ball off the opposition first. Yesterday we looked incapable of doing that.