21/09/2023
There are many ways to look at the season so far. Yes we have been unlucky at times and yes ref/VAR decisions have gone against us yet again. There is no doubt in my mind that we deserved to beat Fulham and four points would look a damn site better than one. This time last season we had three points after 5 games and our best run of form was just starting.
It is clear we were not ready for this season to start. With forwards we might have beaten both Fulham and Wolves. We have had Beto available only for Sheff Utd and Arsenal. McNeil is now back and after 5 games the team should be up and running. But the problem is pressure is already building and the team is playing with no cohesion or belief. This seems to be stemming from the midfield not getting a grip on things.
My opinion is Onana is the main problem in midfield.
Gueye is the ball winner and covers a lot of ground for us, Doucoure provides energy in the midfield and provides a few goals. Neither are the greatest of passers so we must have someone in there who can keep possession for us and get the team moving forward. Onana doesn’t do this for us mainly because he just can’t get into a game enough. He kind of drifts in and out and lets a game pass him by instead of stamping his influence on a game.
What’s baffling to me is we do have the player who fits the role Onana just can’t play. We have Garner who is an excellent passer, he can also tackle and has a good work ethic.
When he was played in centre midfield towards the end of last season, when Onana got injured, the midfield started to function better culminating in the excellent performance against a very good Brighton side.
So why on earth Dyche doesn’t refer back to this I do not know. The Onana Gueye midfeld has struggled whether it was in combination with Iwobi under Lampard or Doucoure under Dyche.
Make no mistake Gueye is essential to our midfield and without him we would be in a bigger mess. He plugs a lot of gaps in the middle but at the moment he is all over the place having to cover for Onana too.
To be honest I have never liked the idea of a tall centre midfield player (you can count the good ones on one finger, maybe 2!). I was brought up on the idea that a good midfielder is on the smaller side, is nippy and knits the midfield together with short passes and has an engine and remains busy throughout the game. Peter Reid and Paul Bracewell obviously spring to mind. But even a fit James McCarthy did so much more than what Onana does.
Onana is opposite to this. Tall, slow on the turn, drifting around, in and out of the game. Sure if we are on top we would see the best out of him but we are usually up against it and need to win a midfield battle and he just can’t do it.
Gueye’s best form last season was towards the end when he mainly played with Garner so I would be looking towards this combination again. And definitely not trying to fit Onana in a number 6 role which is just not going to work.
The midfield problem must be sorted quickly. We are just not looking solid in this department and a midfield of Gueye Garner and Doucoure should get the better of the lesser teams in the Premiership, at the very least.
We don’t want someone who comes up with a good pass here and there we need someone who can grab a game by the scruff of the neck and keep it going for 90 minutes and I think Garner can do this.
As I’ve said before, the Brighton 5-1 team should be our template. It worked not just in that game but in other games too.
For this reason the selling of Iwobi for £20m was bad business. We needed him at least for the time being and points are more important for the team than money. If we had to sell I would have let Onana go.
We should never have sold Iwobi or Canon, total stupidity for me, but nonetheless we still have the players to be able to stay out of trouble, but the team must be set up right.
Dyche must get this team to look more solid very quickly. The next 3 league games are huge and we need the midfield to be on the front foot and firing. Onana is not the right man for this job in my opinion. Give him a rest and he might just come back with more fight and a point to prove!
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