If he was not born in Middlesbrough you would not even be talking about him.
Spectacularly average player.
Every player we have in our squad who could potentially play at CB is better than him. To my count that would make him 7th choice.
Don't know why Boro fans keep talking about him
It's probably intentionally that way for tactical reasons, so if there is a turnover then we don't have all defenders out of position.He did something yesterday I constantly hope our centre backs would do. When he had the ball at the back and everyone was marked he brought the ball out of defence himself and forced players to come to him releasing others for the pass. A few times he simply carried it further and further forward creating opportunities in our half. Really good to watch and a key way to break down the tight marking we constantly face in the Championship. Sadly our centre back only do the side to side or long hoof. It’s almost like our Centre Backs will be fined for carrying a ball over the half way line
It's probably intentionally that way for tactical reasons, so if there is a turnover then we don't have all defenders out of position.
We've got 2 DMs to do that job, the centre backs need to find them or the wide players, and keep moving the ball until the opposition has a gap.
A passed ball goes quicker than a carried ball.
I'm not sure that's true. VDB was a vital part of the first part of this good run we've been on. Without him, I think we'd have conceded against QPR and Birmingham and potentially only got one point from those games. I'm convinced we'd have still kept clean sheets against Sheff Wed and Swansea with him in the team.But VDB has been part of a terrible defence for us all season and we rate him... our defence has massively improved with him injured, but I think that is coincidence rather than cause...
That's the sort of thing a professional coach/scout needs to pick apart - some players have great individual skill/ability but struggle to improve a team.
NoooooooooOn the subject of former defenders, we will get Ben Gibson back in the summer when his contract expires, it's written in the stars .
It’s more complicated than that, we want CDMs to get between the line of the attacking players and midfielders. A Cb coming out with the ball can drive beyond the strikers and draw the opposing midfielders making it easier for our midfielder to find spaceWe've got 2 DMs to do that job, the centre backs need to find them or the wide players
There are central midfielder cm and lm and rm. A CDM sits in front of the back 4 and doesn’t progress too far forward. The D is what differentiates from a regular CM not the CCDM? Is there a position called LDM or RDM? If so can I have a few examples of players who played there?
DM then?There are central midfielder cm and lm and rm. A CDM sits in front of the back 4 and doesn’t progress too far forward. The D is what differentiates from a regular CM not the C
I’m guessing your point is “stop over analysing and over complicating, footballs easy”?
It took you 18 days to come up with that “come back”DM then?