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School of Science: Right Midfield

In this article I will look into the right midfield position and whom in our current squad is able to play in the position. I will also compare that to the passed season or two under Moyes and his struggle to find a man for the role.

Mike Ehrmann

This season

It would appear that as yet, Martinez doesn't have a certain right midfielder after trialing numerous different players in the pre-season games. Having played Pienaar there against Austria Vienna, Mirallas there for 45 minutes against Accrington and Gueye the other half, Naismith playing there against Juventus/Real Madrid and Deulofeu playing right midfield against Valencia, Not to mention a couple of trials at the 5-3-2 meaning Stones and Coleman playing as wing back down the right. There has been no real indications as to who he will player there, he appears to be keeping his cards close to his chest. This will be something we see more of as my Wigan athletic friends have since said, he doesn't let people on to much, not even the fans. For me I think the obvious choice is Mirallas but if we think outside the box, Deulofeu played a good first half there against Valencia and was dragged off to soon in my opinion. He looked clever, strong and quick, he seemed to have a lack of patience however something im sure Martinez will work on.

Last season (or two)

Moyes always struggled to find a right midfielder. Last season we started with Seamus Coleman playing there. To be fair to Coleman he looked class at times, but he isn't bred to play anywhere else but right back. Moyes tried Osman there but his lack of pace stopped him from beating defenders and going back Bilyaletdinov was thrown into the mix but his lack of skill, strength and pace also hindered him. Now however it seems Robbie has a choice of 5! In Mirallas, Deulofeu, Coleman, Barkley and Naismith, he also has that option of playing his right back as a wing back.

My choice

The obvious pick would be Mirallas and I'm not going to look to further, he has had half a season there and looked far from out of place, he will be more switched on this year and physically stronger so he can push passed that final defender. However, since we have 5 options and it would be boring of me not to look into it, I think Deulofeu looked brilliant there for the first half against Valencia and the team did seem to lack that injection when he went off. If Deulofeu was to play right mid we could look at pushing Mirallas into a central attacking position whereby he is just infront of the midfield but behind the strikers. The best thing about all this is we have a good right side all the way down to our 3rd choice in that position.

We can now have confidence to spread the ball to both sides of the pitch without worrying, we can have a different line of attack other than playing through Baines and Pienaar and the long ball occasionally. We can have the balanced midfield we have been crying out for for years. It looks good when we don't have injuries!

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