Quote:
Originally Posted by jem
the spotlight on eth and the midfield has always been bright. there is both the balance of the team and the balance of the squad to consider... and he's got both wrong.
with the mount purchase, it was always a question of priorities. obvs, we have bruno playing every game, although that's not wise. we had cass (player of the season, but old), mainoo (raw), mctog (hiding, other than in the oppo box), eriksen (dead).... none of whom is really a dm, but dm was the need. to play mount, he would have had to play instead of rashford, antony, nacho, amad, etc. we had a surfeit of players who could be described as attacking midfielders, playing in the 3 in a 4-2-3-1. whether or not that is a good formation. I prefer 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2. (no need to mention 10h really wants to play 4-1-2-3.)
as far as his tactics are concerned, playing a weak dm and expecting the fullbacks to supplement central midfield is nonsense. not just with the players we have, but more generally. when we lose possession (frequently), the fullbacks are always out of position. our only viable lb is always injured and, whilst dalot has been ok, wan b is not a player to use this way. maybe amass will be.
if he is all about the high press, what the £#%&! is he doing picking rashford game after game?
we can all have opinions on whether the players are actually good enough individually (if think amrabat is shit, you are an idiot), but the more important issue has been whether any of them is durable. of our first choice back four, varane, martinez and shaw absolutely cannot be relied on to play regularly. knowing that we had signed jfe as cover was a big red flag (hi, quiggler)... and he's not durable either. letting reguilon go was stupid. malacia is clearly nowhere near fitness (not to mention he will only ever be a success in dwarf football).
then you've got cass and eriksen in midfield.
cf, we've got martial (lol) and rasmus (not fit, but needs must).
under the circumstances, we can't be wasting money on mount. he's the one type of player of which we do have quite a few. if he were world class, you can't pass that up. but he's not. and he's turned out not to be durable either, ffs.
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I’m not agreeing with signing him, just pointing out maybe the mindset of going after him.
RE :Amrabat . I know it’s a hill you’re going to have to die on but he isn’t that good. There’s a reason why Fiorentina are willing to loan him out close to deadline day AND nobody else is in for him on a permanent.
I wish he was as good as made out to be , but on the few times he has played he has shown he can’t keep up with the game. He hasn’t had a great run of games il give you that but maybe he’s just poor in training too. I highly doubt we have a top quality midfielder and an injury crisis and ETH is going “ you know what , il play The Scottish Player ahead of you”
I don’t agree with starting rashford game after the game either, but managers are a weird breed, they are stubborn, maybe he wants to try to play him into form. Again I’m not advocating for rashford to start , I much prefer him right now to not play, but if you can’t see ETH tries to play a high press then I don’t know for you.
Theres a reason why we have a big gap in CM and get countered, front 4/5 players press, center mid is expose once press is beaten and lack of pace on our CBs mean they have to play a deeper line.