The creative CM we need is Miralem Pjanic

[Hazardous Oscar 8]

He is just 23 years old...integral part of the current Roma side.

Discuss please.

[haranr 485]

Fantastic free kick abilities. I think we need a more physical player though.

[Rapkun 668]

Sounds more realistic than Gundogan. I haven't seen much of him at Roma but he looked fantastic back in Lyon.

[Jype 6,398]

Isn't he more of an attacking midfielder than a CM though?

[kellzfresh 7,229]

He seems too light weighted if he's going to play beside ramires but he's better than what we've got so....

[Gilvorak 3,734]

He plays in a THREE MAN midfield as the most attacking of the three. Disagree.

[Leif 6,006]

Similarly to how Oscar is deployed far forward yet constantly runs back to defend, Pjanic is currently deployed more deep but he constantly roams forward (which he can do with a free mind knowing both De Rossi and Strootman* are covering him.) Here though he'd be partnered with Ramires who loves to get forward too, so we'd end up having the same issues we currently have with the Ramires-Lampard partnership.

Maybe the answer is not having a 'creative CM' at all. Perhaps we just need runners covering the back 4. They'd have to compliment eachother of course, one being more attack-minded with the other more of a holding player. The holding player should be a good passer, but deploying a player in such a crucial position just because they can pass the ball to even a world-class standard is naive.

Ramires and Pogba, for example, would give us an energetic duo in midfield that'll never stop working for the team. Toure-Fernandinho would be given a run for their money too, that's for sure.

I'd personally leave the bulk of creative responsibility to Oscar/Mata/Hazard etc. That's what they were bought for after all.

*Strootman would be really perfect for the type of football I'm thinking of. Like Javi Martinez, but more mobile.

[didierforever 7,349]

dont we have oscar already for that role plus kdb too?

what we need is a DM. a proper DM.

[Jase 43,479]

Wrong place. Moving the thread...

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Similarly to how Oscar is deployed far forward yet constantly runs back to defend, Pjanic is currently deployed more deep but he constantly roams forward (which he can do with a free mind knowing both De Rossi and Strootman* are covering him.) Here though he'd be partnered with Ramires who loves to get forward too, so we'd end up having the same issues we currently have with the Ramires-Lampard partnership.

Maybe the answer is not having a 'creative CM' at all. Perhaps we just need runners covering the back 4. They'd have to compliment eachother of course, one being more attack-minded with the other more of a holding player. The holding player should be a good passer, but deploying a player in such a crucial position just because they can pass the ball to even a world-class standard is naive.

Ramires and Pogba, for example, would give us an energetic duo in midfield that'll never stop working for the team. Toure-Fernandinho would be given a run for their money too, that's for sure.

I'd personally leave the bulk of creative responsibility to Oscar/Mata/Hazard etc. That's what they were bought for after all.

*Strootman would be really perfect for the type of football I'm thinking of. Like Javi Martinez, but more mobile.

The issue about a CM being 'creative' in the pivot is not about creating the goals, its about picking out smart, quick passes to the dangerous positions, where the AM's will create the goals. Its very important, a lot of times - almost in every game in the last few years - you can see that we're too slow to give those passes from midfield, and our build up is predictable and not very clever.

There is another thing, playing with a pivot that runs by someone like Gundogan or Schweinsteiger, against a midfield of two CM's that non of them is a world class DLP (Ramires-Pogba for example) will always win in possession and in giving the most dangerous passes, and therefore- most of the times that will make them the best team on the pitch. There is no way you can control a game with that kind of midfield against Gundogan or Schweinsteiger or Barca or Alonso.

So i think we need to go for Gundogan himself first, if not him, just not native DM's like Strootman. Pogba is possible, i dont say it would be bad, but we can find better fit i think.

[communicate 2,703]

Similarly to how Oscar is deployed far forward yet constantly runs back to defend, Pjanic is currently deployed more deep but he constantly roams forward (which he can do with a free mind knowing both De Rossi and Strootman* are covering him.) Here though he'd be partnered with Ramires who loves to get forward too, so we'd end up having the same issues we currently have with the Ramires-Lampard partnership.

Maybe the answer is not having a 'creative CM' at all. Perhaps we just need runners covering the back 4. They'd have to compliment eachother of course, one being more attack-minded with the other more of a holding player. The holding player should be a good passer, but deploying a player in such a crucial position just because they can pass the ball to even a world-class standard is naive.

Ramires and Pogba, for example, would give us an energetic duo in midfield that'll never stop working for the team. Toure-Fernandinho would be given a run for their money too, that's for sure.

I'd personally leave the bulk of creative responsibility to Oscar/Mata/Hazard etc. That's what they were bought for after all.

*Strootman would be really perfect for the type of football I'm thinking of. Like Javi Martinez, but more mobile.

Lapard and Ramires partnership is fine and their problems is not because both of them want to get forward in fact Ramires is playing as our holder and he has performed extremely well. What we lack is a tempo setter/dpl or whatever you want to call it. A guy that can slow down the tempo or speed it up when needed.

[Jase 43,479]

Leif has sort of mention of this in his post above and Pjanic won't really work in the pivot. If you're gonna play him in a 4-2-3-1, then play as a CAM where his abilities and creativity with the ball can be maximised to its full potential. Otherwise, he can play in the midfield but in a 4-3-3 as one of the three CMs. That way he can bomb forward and cause damage to the opposition without having to worry too much about leaving his team behind exposed while of course, still doing his fair share of defensive work and this is somewhat similar to how Lampard was previously used in a 4-3-3.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

The answer to our double pivot, should we play with Rambo is either Vidal/Pogba/Witsel type of player. They are strong, can control midfield, very good passers and cover big area.