Wizards Midfield Situation

Earlier today I looked at the forwards situation for the Wizards at the moment. Now I'm going to look at the midfield situation.

The Wizards have more depth at this position then they have at forward. The rumor going around is that the Wizards will be employing a 3-5-2 this year. Carlos Marinelli is the favorite to start at the central attacking midfield position. With Davy Arnaud out for the start of the 2008 season, Eloy Colombano has to be the favorite to take his place. On the left side, Michael Harrington spent much of the 2007 season there, but with him spending the later season at left defense, Sasha Victorine has to be another possibility on the left if Harrington stays on defense. In the defensive midfield position, Kerry Zavagnin will keep his spot back there, but will be joined by Kurt Morsink at that position.

The Wizards do have plenty of other players as well capable of playing midfield. Will John saw some time at attacking midfield last season. And while Jack Jewsbury spent all of last season at right back, up until that point, he had been playing in the midfield. Ryan Raybould and Lance Watson both saw action in the midfield for the Wizards last season. Aaron Hohlbein is listed as a midfielder/defender, but saw all his time last season as a central defender. That leaves Michael Kraus, Amir Lowery, and Ryan McMahen. All 3 of them didn't make the field at all last season, although Kraus made the bench 1-2 times and McMahen missed the entire season due to injury.

There were also midfield options picked up in the SuperDraft and Supplemental draft. Both first round picks, Chance Myers and Roger Espinoza can play in the midfield as well as defense. In the supplemental draft, the Wizards picked up 3 more midfielders. While Pat Healy, Vicente Arze, and Tom Gray still have to make the roster, the fill out the compliment of midfielders on the roster.

After the top 7 midfielders, there is a drop off in talent level or at least experience level for the rest of the roster. It will be interesting to see how Myers and Espinoza fit in.