The Return: Should Portugal Try To Regain It's Midfield Dominance?

I know it's been quite awhile since I've written & the truth is I'm just not accustomed to blogging yet. Most of my writing about football has been done at community football forums; although, I should note that has been less frequent throughout the past several months due to other commitments. However, hopefully I start getting the hang of blogging here, so let's move on to a topic of my interest and I'm sure to be of interest for some of you as well.

Obviously, the Portuguese National team has had a rocky start to Euro 2012 qualification with a few early setbacks and the Queiroz Incident/Controversy putting qualification a bit farther out of reach. Throughout Queiroz's tenure, he was criticized over his tactics & much of the same will occur with newly appointed Paulo Bento. Trust me, Bento already has critics chatting away. So my question here, is how about we (yes, I'm Portuguese) try to revert back to the system where we established a level of dominance in central midfield?

This thought popped into my head actually as I was replying to a post regarding the recent selections for our upcoming qualifiers. In the segment, I replied..

" IMHO, Meireles should be one of the integral players in establishing a 3-man midfield similar to the one we had during Euro 2004 & 2006 WC.

-----------ST----------
-----------AM----------
LW------------------RW
-------CM--------------
-----------DM----------
LWB----------------RWB
--------CB----CB--------
-----------GK-----------

Unfortunately, problem areas arise in regards to the AM position, where in the recent past we had dominant attacking midfielders in Rui Costa & Deco. The only players I can think that can possibly fit into that role would be Danny or Ruben Micael. Carlos Martins and Moutinho seem to have fit into the CM role lately at their clubs with Moutinho physically showing he is not capable of sustaining that role against stronger opposition; I recall the Germans injuring him during our Euro 2008 QF clash. Perhaps there are other players who should be considered?

I'm also a bit concerned at DM; people were rather harsh on the likes of Costinha and Petit when they occupied the starting role and only now have we noticed the lack of that dominant figure. Pedro Mendes is old and was never our solution; Miguel Veloso seems to be floating around the CM and LB roles of late. Should we integrate Pepe back into DM or perhaps Tiago who I recall seeing action at the position when he was at Benfica? Can Machado play that role; I'm not too familiar with him.

At LWB & RWB, Coentrao and Bosingwa (when fully-fit); those are no-brainers with Nani and Ronaldo exchanging on the wings; we could have one of the most terrorizing flank attacks in football with the speed & talent present on both flanks. Our central pairing should compensate well especially if we consider having that pairing be Pepe-Carvalho who I expect to be quite comfortable & adjusted to one another given that they are both first choice CBs for Real Madrid.

My largest worry is of course that midfield. If we could just stabilize that central midfield like we did in the past, we could finally tap the potential attacking power on our flanks. "


So now that we're on this subject, what are your thoughts? Normally I'd dwell deeper into this, but this time I find myself more interested in what others have to say. You don't necessarily have to comment specifically on what I wrote, you could also share what you think should be done tactically with the team.