I don't think they are our most effective central midfield pairing I basically think they are most effective doing the same thing which is playing in front of the back four, neither of them are getting in the box enough. If you look at our incredible run last season the bulk of it coincided with Boland being injured and Liddle playing with Sweeney. Sweeney has his critics on here but he has a great engine and makes some great runs. He is ideal for someone playing the holding role which both Liddle and Boland are best at.

I mean I am talking about two very good players here but we aren't getting enough attacking wise from our central midfielders at the moment, especially at home.

agreed. it's being punted over the midfield far too much, and even when Barker wins headers there aren't many options from midfield to pick up the loose balls.

Sweeney would give us another dimension but the question is does he have the all-round game to warrant a place alongside liddle or boland. If we play Liddle and Boland together then Liddle needs telling to get forward more, pass forward more and get a bit of urgency in his game. I'm sure he's capable of it.

i'm a boland fan but last night he had a bad game in my opinion half expected sweens and lidds to start.

Sweeney can produce the kind of runs into the opposition box which means his opposite number has to try and track him. This in turn would take something out of the opposition midfield's energy reserves. Last night, the opposite was happening. The only energy expended by our midfield was chasing back, and not causing them to do likewise.
Sweeney could have caused them a few problems late on as the game started to become stretched, and could have given the potential for him to run into their box - plus the lad has got an eye for goal and he'll always be a good bet to notch when the game gets like that.
I thought the onus was on Liddle to do that, but he didn't. There seems to be a confidence thing with Liddle at the moment, as he won't shoot either.Can't put my finger on it.

Have often got the impression that G Liddle gets stifled a bit by certain other players. For instance, he always used to turn up and offer to take free kicks (which he was no slouch at) but was never allowed to.

In one instance in the first half last night Liddle had a clear shot on goal from inside the D of the penalty box, instead of shooting he tried to slot an almost impossible pass into Brown

He is far accustomed to the role Boland plays but I think he's got enough ability to develop the attacking side of his game. Sweeney does a hell of a lot off the ball which people miss, Swindons captain Nicholls said last year that he was the hardest central midfielder to play against in the division.

I also think Boland and Liddle are a bit similar - I thought Sweeney should have at least been on the bench, unless he is still carrying an injury that is?

I cam't believe I nearly missed this one, last season we were playing against crap and even then sometimes Sweeney was anonymous. If Sweeney is given a chance i hope he can re discover some form because normally when he plays its like playing with 10 men. Liddle and Boland are both quality and they allow our wide players to flourish. The problem this season has been in the central defence, and some of Wilsons selections for strikers - not the central midfield.......

Liddle does need to shoot more but even with his slight dip in form he offers so much more than Sweeney.....

Wow.

I can agree with most of that.

In fact I can agree with all of it except the claim that you have played at a reasonable level...

I know they are offering little attacking threat but were scoring plenty of goals so can we really argue?

Maybe Dibble is right, they are being told to hang fire as it were. Would certainly make sense. I am struggling to work out who is the attacking midfielder out of Liddle and Boland this season so it could well be true as Liddle used to bust a gut to get forward.

A very good point, we are playing with four up top almost with Brown and Moore on the wings.

Jonny yes, we know you don't rate Sweeney you've said a 'couple' of times before

I just thought that you might of forgot......