Tiresias

Of all the tactics in the world i still hate the 4-2-3-1 and the double pivot most of all It's not really anything to do with what people are suggesting here, there was just period in premier league when every team had to have 2 defensive midfielders sat in front of the defence not doing a whole lot and keeping games down to low scores. I know it doesnt have to be so defensive but i hear double pivot and i want to cry

I agree completely a solid defensive mid who can keep possession is needed and joelinton is one who may have to make way to allow tonali there but i want more than 3 high quality midfielders to sort between. There is also something to be said for keeping squad dynamics when good there, Joe is clearly well loved, committed and loves the club the style of play and the manager and the rest of the squad. The maybe we should have sold him to bring in s different type isn't without merit but also feels a bit in a vacuum tactics board thinking

I'm fairness this is why false cbs and false full backs were invented to allow more midfielders to push up field in possession.

I think we may be arguing on linguistics he's in the top left are of a left sided 3 person midfield a lot on that heat map that a winger wouldn't be a huge amount but didn't really matter what you call it. I totally agree he's not a deep lying midfield you may have in the old double pivot but he can do that, but you'd be right to say he's not best in class at that but when i say he's great in midfield that's not role i think of, it's in that advanced left side winning ball high up

This is his heatmap for that season, certainly left sided but getting a lot more into the central areas. He is in that gray area between winger and midfielder but he certainly was in that lcm position a lot of the time, here is (apologies different format an way round i am just googling) Gordons last season where he hugs the line a LOT more of the time and spends a lot more of the time nearer the corner flag

He was switching with Willock, Willock would come into the middle and Joelinton pull out wide and vice versa a lot, he was in central plenty of the time I do wonder with our move to slightly more defined roles has made us a bit more predictable in attack, Willock and Joelinton's positioning must have been difficult to track, and I also hope we get that Willock back sometime

He's not been at his best but the trajectory is positive. He's a brilliant midfielder not sure how anyone who watched him boss around everyone in his way the season we got 4th and how much we missed him second half of last season can think otherwise. Issue is none of our midfielders are ball retention specialists, which is fine it's not how we play but i do wish we would have signed one to give us the option of calming down games when needed. Joelinton and all our midfielders play high risk games

Aged well lol Still villa will win this still probably

Great point, take that, much better performance.

Corner, here we go for the heart break..

Blimey great save Pope

Joelinton losing the ball again...

7 minutes...

FFS joelinton why on earth did he think he had time there

ffs

Awful news, wishing him the best going forward of course

He's arguably an upgrade on Martinelli

The overperformance of the 4th season has kinda coloured a lot since. We know what these players can do. Gordon and Isak last season show how good they are. This isn't apparent yet and our defence still seems shakey.

This, i feel like Howe's pressing style does not work if you do it 90%. Burned by the injuries last season he's tried to adapt but the team isn't technically capable of playing possession football, or at least its not drilled in enough. I guess he wants to protect from injury. I love Howe and he was badly let down in summer. I don't particularly care about finding blame for it all, could be Howe, could be Mitchel, could be Eales. But you need to move the squad around every summer. The thing is it's easier to absorb the loss of a star like Gordon, Bruno or Isak if the replacement is already in the team. I was with not selling any of them to raise funds, but a promising young replacement for any of them should have been got and then we could fund a full rebuild the next summer easier as some elements already in place. Whatever. I got absolutely lambasted for suggesting Howe could be in trouble this season. And for the record our points total is still fine. But without Staverley and feels slight dysfunction (even if grossly exaggerated by press) I imagine if we dont play any better Howe will unfairly end up taking the fall for it (will take some time, i dont think this is likely but if we're still crap by christmas...). Again, I suspect we will click a lot better and may be averted, but I am not sure we are in for much different a season than last one at this point, and we absolutely should be embarassed to see clubs like Villa overtake us if they do.

Due that result. Was hoping to be seeing an upswing in performances but if anything going the other way. Not quite clear why several of our players just dont seem on it. I was optimistic this season that despite the transfer window we would have near our best 11 our and firing, unfortunately it seems you do need to evolve your squad continuously.

If we want to challenge top four we absolutely should have at least 3 cbs who would be fine first choices. With two of the top quality you are always going to be playing a significant amount of the season with an arm tied around your back.

Danny Rose as pundit on match of the day 2 sounds so softly spoken he may be falling asleep

Spurs seem like they only want to score screamers and cant even do that. So many half chances of great goals no actual result

Classic friend of a friend stuff but I've heard nothing but positive things about Rashford in person.

The isak one was quick and out the blue because it was done quick iirc. Once plenty of agents and club officials involved at both clubs it inevitably leaks out.