How Alex Iwobi solves our midfield problems
Dan Cooke doubles down on his desire to see Alex Iwobi playing in central midfield after his performance against Arsenal.
I wrote an article almost exactly two months ago about how I felt Alex Iwobi was stagnating slightly. He wasn’t influencing games from the left flank in the way we were used to and that a potential change in position might help him.
That hasn’t happened; he’s remained in his usual spot and, to be fair, his performances have probably improved slightly - still a far cry from what we saw at the start of last season though.
That was until the 64th minute against Arsenal on Saturday. Marco made two changes, as a result of which Alex ambled over from the advertising hoardings of the Riverside Stand and nestled himself just to the right of the centre circle. I turned to Pritesh, who stands next to me, and we shared a nod of approval - we’d been hoping for this all season.
Yes, for it to happen it had required 30% of our squad being injured, but Alex Iwobi was about to play as a number eight.
What I saw was his best half an hour in a Fulham shirt this calendar year. In those 30 minutes he did everything that our midfield has been severely lacking this season.
Drive
There’s been so much discussion around the midfield pairing of Sander Berge and Sasa Lukic. As double pivots go, it’s undoubtedly the lemon and herb of duos. It’s minimal flair but maximum reliability. It’s no bad thing and there’s absolutely a time and place for it.
Sometimes though, you need something spicier.
Fulham have been too safe for large parts of this season, playing with two holding midfielders who don’t have a predisposition for the unexpected. It makes us solid but also makes us easy to defend against and, at times, just a bit boring.
The biggest thing I think we’ve been missing is drive. A midfielder who picks the ball up from deeper positions and their first thought is about how can they get forward. That was Alex on Saturday. He carried the ball 265 yards across the whole game. Admittedly that doesn’t sound like an interesting statistic, until you add the context that it’s 70% further than any other Fulham player. He’s such a powerful runner with the ball and being able to have that as a way to cut through opposition midfields is a real weapon.
However, he’s not just limited to that. In that final half an hour, he ran the central area. He made more passes, had more touches, and made more tackles, than anyone else on the pitch, on either side. That’s pretty exceptional.
What I love most is where he is operating. The above photo shows all of his touches after he moved to number eight. As you can see, they effectively span both boxes, highlighting his dynamism and work rate. However, I’ve put a red circle around the ones that interest me most. Those half spaces towards and inside the final third are where we really lack threat.
We often miss out those spaces entirely, preferring to get the ball out to our wide men. With Iwobi playing centrally, he starts to attract the ball into different areas of the pitch, that just start to pose a new challenge to opposition defences. It allows us to have attacking threat both out wide and through the middle, which can only be harder to defend against.
Create space out wide
The other benefit of him playing centrally is that it creates space in the team for someone else to play on the left wing. Most people will want that to be Kevin, me included, but it could also allow Ryan Sessegnon to push further forward once Antonee Robinson returns.
There’s only so long that our record signing can sit on the bench and whil his cameo performances have been hit and miss, he’s clearly talented. Marco totally trusts Iwobi and it’s hard to picture him being dropped in order to get Kevin in the starting line-up. This move, as it did on Saturday, let’s you have both of them on the pitch.
As a result, you get a two-fold benefit. You get all of the positives that Iwobi brings to central areas but you also inject pace, chaos, and mercuriality to our left flank. Essentially, you make Fulham fun again (I’m considering getting this printed on a red baseball cap).
As I said the last time I wrote about this topic, it’s probably too cavalier for some games, Newcastle away potentially being one of them. However, if I look ahead to 1 November, at home to Wolves, it feels like the perfect solution to assert our authority, in a season where we’ve been a little bit too passive.
I’m not Iwobi’s biggest advocate. I was hesitant to move him to a central role. I was more interested in having him come off the bench. But you make some excellent points and I’m getting on board with this idea. I like wingers that are more vertical players, and Iwobi doesn’t fit that mold. But Kevin or Sess mostly do and it would be great to get them more minutes. I really liked you’re analysis and I will now be excited if we we see this happen in a game.
Great article, Dan!
First off, I will absolutely pay top dollar for a red MFFA hat! Like, seriously, Sammy or Elizabeth or whomever does the merch, make this happen!
Second, two questions on your point about his final 3rd touches. One, while it's easy to imagine and assume that this touch map looks a bit different than the average Lukic one...does it? And, two, why do you think literally all of these attacking touches were on the right half of the pitch and none on the left? Not questioning the point at all, as I rather liked seeing him play in the 8 too, just want to continue the discussion.