Oh yeah, which people are these? From going back and looking at Ajax stats, I quickly realised that Ajax naturally dominated possession for a long time before ETH even arrived, under various managers. And I say naturally because they're generally much better in terms of quality compared to other teams. But I also looked at stats from their famous UCL campaign and realised that they had less possession when they were winning the games against bigger teams. Then I see how we completely surrender possession against teams like Brighton, who also have a new manager and less talented group of players.
With regards to inter, going back to my original point, if we had their 11 that started yesterday then everybody would be writing a list of players that needed replacing urgently for our manager to succeed. Darmian started at CB, and he was a flop here years ago. They had two strikers not renowned for technical ability and one who is way past his best. Their midfield doesn't have a Casemiro or a Bruno. Arguably but even an Eriksen. So really, are Inter better equipped to succeed than us? I think that no matter what you say, you'll not convince me that our best 11 isn't better than that of Inter or Brighton. Or that we couldn't perform better than we do.
You have the same access as me, I'm not doing the leg work for you.
Funnily enough, Tifo just 7 hours posted a video that covers tactical differences between ETH and Ole and the stats. Explaining the possession football.
We don't sit back and hoof a long ball to the wide players. We play in possession - playing out from the back, and around a press, rather than over it.
We have Rashford and Anthony to find out wide once the ball gets to Bruno to find, as opposed to James and Rashford.
Just because the 'final' ball goes out wide, doesn't mean it's counter attacking football. We aren't relying on soaking up pressure and attacking in transition, we are trying to play around the pressure, keeping possession and getting the ball to a playmaker.
Don't compare us to Ajax. We aren't replicating Ajax 1:1. That's a mistake I made early in the season, trying to compare them. ETH even said in an interview that we don't have the players to play Ajaxball, saying something along the lines of a manager isn't god and cannot create miracles.
Agreed about the players, I wish there was a poll that could see why though. I wonder how many look at the age and worry that we end up needing to replace a nearly-whole team in 1 season or so.
Darmian is an interesting point, but have managers been given a run long enough to say "hmm, weren't great last season, you might do well in another position". Only Shaw I've seen be tested in another role and done well. We have players that I think are capable of being utilised elsewhere in order to do a job and help the team.
Personally, I think having a good core of experienced players is important - maybe down the spine - a GK, 1 CB, 1 CM and a Striker all should be experienced enough to teach and help the younglings around them.
