EPL: Mid-season First XI (Defensive Midfield)

Imarobot · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 6468 Location: Michigan

Came down to Lucas and Parker for me and I went with Lucas. Romeu deserves a shout out though. He's greatly exceeded all expectations this year and soon will be one of the best defensive mids in the world.
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amac · Joined: 11 Aug 2011 Posts: 1261

yaya for me, then song, parker, leiva right behind him
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EnglishLion20 · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 11275 Location: England

I chipped in with Parker....Quite suprised at how well hes settled in and played at Spurs this season TBH.
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kempus · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 10:19 pm Post subject:

22 people have voted on this, do we even have 22 people who post in the forum Shocked

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AlexM23 · Joined: 03 Jan 2011 Posts: 7733 Location: Australia

I went with Scott Parker here
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RavensWin520 · Joined: 11 Oct 2005 Posts: 16616

Lucas.

Romeu has no business being on the list. He hasn't improved the team's offense or defense. Any forward pass past ten yards usually goes to the wrong team and he over pursues and gets caught out of position. But since he is young and from barca announcers hype him. In reality he has made no positive impact since being inserted into the side.

He has potential but has done nothing different than mikel yet except have worse positioning.
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Imarobot · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 6468 Location: Michigan

You are just wrong. I remember you saying earlier in the year how good Mikel is. Romeu is already twice the player Mikel is.
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RavensWin520 · Joined: 11 Oct 2005 Posts: 16616

Imarobot · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 6468 Location: Michigan

I don't need to waste my time. No sane person thinks that Mikel is Chelsea quality. He has no confidence on the ball and is mediocre defender. Oh, and he never makes any attempt to move the ball forward, but hell he's great at passing backwards to the CBs. Oh but that's right, you think he's the best passer on the team.
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kempus · Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:05 pm Post subject:

Dr. Philly · Joined: 02 Nov 2009 Posts: 22803

Wish Mikel was apart of ACN, damn Nigeria for not qualifying
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Imarobot · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 6468 Location: Michigan

RavensWin520 · Joined: 11 Oct 2005 Posts: 16616

So just like I figured you can't explain why Romeu is so good or how he has impacted Chelsea for the better. But the announcers hype him up and he is from barca so he must be.

Mikel gets bashed for playing negative, which he does, when Romeu makes the same passes. He makes the short simple passes and the majority of his attacking passes are intercepted. Can't bash one guy for something when the other guy does the same thing. The difference is mikel is much better defensively. Go watch the 3-1 arsenal game from last year to see what type of impact he makes. Romeu is a bad 1 v 1 defender while also being out of position too much. I think he will be really good but he isn't a good player right now at cdm. He is very technically sound and comfortable on the ball and can make negative passes quicker than mikel. That's his strength. Not that important for a cdm. Right now Romeu is extremely overrated. I remember watching one game where I noticed him caught out of position 3 times in the first 15 minutes of the game yet the announcer was still raving about him because he is good with the ball at his feet. Wish he was raving about his defensive ability instead.

Mikel doesn't fit with avb's preferred playing style because his biggest weakness is being slow on the ball (like a lot of chelsea players) and Avb wants to go quickly from defense from d to o which has worked great.
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The Wyzzinator · Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 13570 Location: Maryland

Okay save banter for the next round of voting but first I need some opinions.

Of the 5 positions left, I'm not necessarily looking to form some amazing formation that makes sense on paper, rather just identify the top players positionally. Given that, I'm assuming I should have 2 strikers in the team, and if I include 'wingers' as attacking midfielders, we could have 3 attacking midfielders, and one deeper lying midfielder.

Even though it'd be a standard '4-4-2' and probably wouldn't make sense on paper, it would avoid snubbing someone who's more deserved due to the fact that if I go strictly with LW, RW, it will limit options significantly since a lot of players i.e Mata/Silva are hard to define.

(It also means Kempus rage if Bale doesn't make the team)

Alternate opinions welcome before I start compiling my players once I get back to my place later.
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LeeEvans · Joined: 01 Jan 2007 Posts: 15894