Central Midfield and Team for Saturday

I've just mentioned this topic on the LET site, but I'd like to know what posters on here think too.
Our newly-confirmed, first-team squad midfielders are the following:
Lowe (Defensive)
Feeney (Wide)
Byrne (Up-and-Down or Central Attacking/Creative )
Marshall (Wide)
O'Sullivan (Central Attacking/Creative)
Akpan (Defensive)
Guthrie (Up-and-Down/Defensive)
Lenihan (Defensive)
Tomlinson (Central Attacking/Creative)
Mahoney (Wide)
Evans (Up-and-Down/Defensive)
Bennett (Wide)
Conway (Wide)

I have listed their primary roles, although some of them are reasonably versatile.
Owen Coyle has a reputation as being attack-minded, so I am interested to see the four he picks from this group (if we assume he is going to play two up front).
We seem quite strong in the "holding" and wide positions, but we are pretty threadbare in the central attacking/creative role.
I can't see much evidence that O'Sullivan or Tomlinson are close to a first-team place, so is the David Dunn/Tugay task going to be left solely to Byrne?
On paper, it looks better to me to go for 4-5-1, although I've never been keen on that formation. Can we afford to go for an attack-minded plan against Norwich, anyway?
I might be tempted to play safe and field this team"
Steele
Lowe Duffy Ward Hendrie
Marshall Lenihan Byrne Evans Conway
Graham.

This would involve Byrne playing as the central link between Graham and the midfield.
What do you think?

You must know my view already Aucks, as I've banged on about it now for what seems like forever.
Given our 'talent' in midfield, for me its a no choice really, its a 4-5-1 and hope for best. Whilst exasperating the watching support.
I am informed that OC only knows how to play offensively, so can we get anything from this opening encounter using this BFS tactic ?
The Tugay type players don't come along all that often, nor at bargain prices, so in our current (getting on for 3/4 yrs now!) state I am not holding my breath.
The reality for me is only a drop into the next tier down would allow us to blood most of our young talent and see what they're made of, whilst at the same time 'shop windowing' them, for rewarding better / higher opportunities elsewhere for their careers.

Then again, never say never ;D

I can see Coyle going 4-5-1
Gk Steele
Rb Lowe(Henley for me)
Cb Duffy
Cb ward
Lb Henley
Rm Marshall
Cm lenihan
Cm Byrne
Lm Conway
Am Bennett
Fw Graham
I would be fairly pleased with that team
Will it be enough to get a result against Norwich?i very much doubt it

I see that Evans will not be fit, which makes the midfield decisions even harder.

Our midfield centrally for the first time in a while is ok it's the wings that worry me
an abundance of right sided players and just Conway on the left
We will get found out soon if we start getting injuries in key areas
starting the season with 2 strikers in the squad and 2 relatively unproven left backs is just asking for trouble.

Can't agree about the central area, Robin. Most successful teams are built around a play-maker. IF Byrne turns out to be a miracle signing in that respect, fine, but I suspect we're going to have to rely on sheer numbers or put the emphasis on a packed midfield, with supply to the striker(s) coming from out wide.
The problem is, play-makers take a long while to develop, and trying to pick one up who is on the decline rarely works, as Danny Murphy demonstrated.
Unfortunately, it looks as if O'Sullivan is going to be judged as not quite good enough, so Tomlinson's development becomes something very important to keep an eye on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AucklandRover

Can't agree about the central area, Robin. Most successful teams are built around a play-maker. IF Byrne turns out to be a miracle signing in that respect, fine, but I suspect we're going to have to rely on sheer numbers or put the emphasis on a packed midfield, with supply to the striker(s) coming from out wide.
The problem is, play-makers take a long while to develop, and trying to pick one up who is on the decline rarely works, as Danny Murphy demonstrated.
Unfortunately, it looks as if O'Sullivan is going to be judged as not quite good enough, so Tomlinson's development becomes something very important to keep an eye on.

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Same for me Aucks, I see (and have for some while now) our midfield that operates akin to a diode (for those elder pre chip folk ;D). Where in one direction there is 'passage through', but in other direction its blocked off!
The only time anything offensively ventures through is when Marshall is 'on song' and advances from mid.
This is though on a solo venture with a strike himself. I cannot honestly recall for what seems years now where pass and move interplay has occurred within our midfield offensive play (Dunny being the last probably).
Even a fairly 'static' midfield general is banished to the archives now.

Just to illustrate (for those who missed it) taken from LT comments;

Sorry guys just noted, meant this for other thread ie Venkys 'hands on approach'.

Hi Reg,
For those who missed it, here it is again. You are quite correct about the lack of contact between Cheston and Pune, which as we all know is a huge farce and two fingers two him and the supporters from them!

FW: Blackburn Rovers shareholders’ meeting – 0.1% of shareholders attend; 99.9% don’t.
Minority shareholders of Blackburn Rovers – which includes the Rovers Trust – attended a meeting with the club’s directors this week for a 90 minute Q&A with the board and manager.

Around 40 minority shareholders, there are 340 or so in total, attended the meeting at Ewood Park at the invitation of the club’s directors.

There was no-one from the Rao family, which owns 99.9% of shares, present and so it was mainly Lancashire-based Rovers fans who have retained their small holdings in the club.

It was the direction of the Venky’s ownership going forward that was the theme of the night; it would have made for a much more meaningful evening if any of the owners or their representatives had attended, because, sadly, the Rao family’s intentions are something neither non executive director Robert Coar, who chaired the meeting, secretary Ian Silvester or director Mike Cheston could shed much light on.

New manager Owen Coyle took questions from the floor for 30 minutes or so ranging from his satisfaction with the current squad to his reluctance to seeing Grant Hanley leave.

This last point drew questions about whether the Hanley transfer fee would be given to Coyle to reinvest in new players, but no assurances from the executive board were given that any funds would be made available to the manager.

Mike Cheston did volunteer his personal target for the coming season, which is to finish higher than last season’s 15th and somewhere around the play-offs.

There was some discussion about whether the Rao family would be willing to sell the club, but the directors admitted they could provide no insight into the future intentions of the club’s owners.

Points were made by several shareholders about the downward spiral the club has been in for five years and what the owners will do about it.

Rovers Trust chairman Wayne Wild put across the Trust’s belief to the directors that the owners must engage positively with the fans for any meaningful progress to be made to halt free-falling attendances and bring back disaffected supporters.

In May, an exclusive Rovers Trust survey revealed 40% of season ticket holders said they were not intending to renew for 2016-17. So far, according to Cheston, the club has sold 7,500 season tickets – a 25% decrease on total sales last year (which included half season tickets).

Wild reiterated the point that the need to be Financial Fair Play (FFP) compliant and falling income streams at the club meant urgent positive action from the owners, who can’t invest in the team even if they wanted to, was ever more critical to the future of Blackburn Rovers.

Mike Cheston said he would continue to try to get the owners, through their latest intermediary, Suhail Pasha, to understand the need for them to engage with supporters.

But, as Wild pointed out, this has been a running failure by the club since Venky’s took over and there is no evidence the owners have learnt anything from five years of catastrophic and wrong decision-making.

Rovers Trust, the official Blackburn Rovers supporters group, remains committed to work with the owners and the management team at Ewood Park to help bring back better days for Blackburn Rovers from a commercial and fan perspective.

However, the only way this will happen is if the Venky’s begin honest and meaningful dialogue with the supporters to bring about a real change in the way the club is owned and run.

Rovers Trust would like to thank, once again, loyal supporter Stephen Halstead who donated part of his family’s shareholding in Blackburn Rovers to the Trust to enable it to attend these meetings and question the running of the club in an official capacity.

This explains our underlying problem
the lack of communication and care from the top filters downstream
if venkys had listened to the footballing people in the first place we wouldn't be where we are now
that's history however things have only marginally improved in the respect their decisions seem alot less reckless but communication has disappeared completely
only a statement of they are going nowhere
this club will be a festering mess until they either leave or communicate regularly with the manager and supporters
silence isn't always golden.