I think part of the problem with our midfield is that we play a deep defence and push our wingers and fullbacks really wide so there's just far too much space between players in central midfield and anyone else. We either need to play a higher defensive line and/or get our wide players to drift infield a bit more. In the first game this season against Sydney we played a much higher line and we were able to control the midfield a lot more. We whinge about the hoofball and our mids not being good enough to string passes together but part of the problem is that there' s no options for them so they have to hoof it long or risk being caught in possession in isolation. And this also affects our defence too because once we lose possession the opposition teams, who mostly play a much more compact shape, can just rip us apart through the middle. Compounding our issues are the fact that we don't have a targetman to either get on the end of our crosses or chase down long balls. Between them Brown and Greenacre actually performed both these roles - Brown getting onto crosses and Greeny chasing longballs. However I don't think we should try and find guys to play those roles so we can still play the same style, I think we should change up our we actually go about playing.
For all the talk of a change of style this basic deep and wide shape is pretty much unchanged this season, and that's the major issue we face tactically. I would like to see us play a higher defensive line with our attacking wide players coming infield a lot more. Assuming everyone was fit and based on this season's form something like this:
Moss
Bertos Boxall Durante Hogg
Muscat Sanchez
Brockie Ifill Boyd
Huysegems
Hogg ahead of Lochhead because more pace is needed to play an offside trap. Boxall instead of Siggy because Siggy's been wayward all season and Boxall also looks more comfortable on the ball. Sanchez pulled deeper to distribute and link defence and attack. Ifill playing centrally so he can be more involved. Brockie pulled back and play as a winger/wide AM because he scores crazy goals regardless of where he is but goes missing to much up front. Stein as a central striker because he seems like he could do the role of holding the ball up and picking out teammates with passes adequately if there were teammates around him to pass too, unlike there has been most games this season. Boyd and Brockie wouldn't be hugging the sidelines the whole time but would be coming in to support Ifill and Stein. If Muscat and Sanchez hold their positions any width we need can coming from Hogg and Leo overlapping. If we play a high defensive line the fullbacks won't have as much ground to cover to get back to their defensive positions if we get caught in possession.
I don't think our squad actually need much improvement to compete with the best teams in the league, we just need to change how we are setup to utilise the sort of players we do have to their maximum potential.
Edit: just realised after saying I don't think we miss Brown I kinda said the opposite in this post. Oh well, I think what I meant is that we miss Brown only if we want to keep playing the same style of football we have for the last few years, and I don't think we want to keep playing that style