' Gary Medel '

Well he usually plays in a back three for Chile and the Spanish game is nothing like the premiership for pace of the game so its nothing alike really.

Other players around him weren't good enough you are right, we spent very poorly over the summer and we were left lacking all over the pitch. Medel certainly had some strengthens but his concentration a lot of the time was poor which i think goes hand in hand with the problem about his fitness was a big let down. I would think he would be more suited to the style in spain.

Well he usually plays in a back three for Chile and the Spanish game is nothing like the premiership for pace of the game so its nothing alike really.

Other players around him weren't good enough you are right, we spent very poorly over the summer and we were left lacking all over the pitch. Medel certainly had some strengthens but his concentration a lot of the time was poor which i think goes hand in hand with the problem about his fitness was a big let down. I would think he would be more suited to the style in spain.

Fair point. I honestly think we would have seen a completely different player if Medel was allowed to play to his strengths. I think everyone would agree Medel was much better during the first half of the season under Malky and that was because we were more defensive and compact, so there weren't as many gaps between our players for Medel to have to cover.

Well yeah he was bound to be better under Malky as we had 10 other outfield players defending around him but that kind of loses the point of a good defensive midfielder, a top defensive midfield player is played to allow other players to attack and him to then sweep up the bits. To be honest we could go on all day why it didnt work, wrong systems, wrong players around him, poor fitness etc etc.

Well yeah he was bound to be better under Malky as we had 10 other outfield players defending around him but that kind of loses the point of a good defensive midfielder, a top defensive midfield player is played to allow other players to attack and him to then sweep up the bits. To be honest we could go on all day why it didnt work, wrong systems, wrong players around him, poor fitness etc etc.

TBH I don't think he ever recovered from the injury he had after Christmas. He was due to be out for 6 weeks, but came back in 2 weeks as we were so awful without him. I think he was playing 75% fit (as in injured) for the last 1/3 of the season.

he's a class above the rest of our outfield players as he showed in the first half of the season. You don't become a bad player overnight unless you are playing with injury.

Well yeah he was bound to be better under Malky as we had 10 other outfield players defending around him but that kind of loses the point of a good defensive midfielder, a top defensive midfield player is played to allow other players to attack and him to then sweep up the bits. To be honest we could go on all day why it didnt work, wrong systems, wrong players around him, poor fitness etc etc.

But when we attack, that means we are in possession. The reason Medel was exposed was because some of our players wouldn't track back after attacking, leaving too many spaces in behind.