The root of our problems is the unbalanced midfield, especially in the attacking phase but also during defensive transition.
I would consider these four values as mandatory for a functional and good midfield.
Casemiro has proved that he can be amazing, but only when he was paired with ball controlling midfielders, who could create, keep and carry the ball. Bruno has not proved anything. He has shown his best only when he was protected by Fred and Mctominay under OGS and he was in the form of his life, under counterattacking football of a low block. He cannot carry the ball, he cannot keep it and at his bad form, oh my he is such a liability. I am sorry, but the full faith in Bruno will be the end of ETH, he has read this so wrong in my opinion. He had the balls to bench/end Ronaldo, Maguire, Sancho etc. He needs to find the balls to try a functional midfield without Bruno.
On top of the above, ETH has changed our build up this year. One one hand, he has solved the problem of De Gea, since we could not handle teams who pressed us up high, but, on the other hand another problem appeared since he switched from the double pivot to a single pivot during our build up. It is obvious that our players cannot make this work, either they do not fit this system and the single pivot ends up pretty isolated, or they do not understand it at all. Andy Mitten said something similar in the Talk of the Devils podcast. It seems like they do not get what is asked. This is what we are seeing from the start of the season and why we are also bad when teams cutting us through. There a couple of minutes here and there, like the first 20 min against Brighton and Tottenham, where our pressing worked and we dominated. But when it does not work, everything looks so out of balance. I do not understand, to be honest, where Ten Hag wants to go with this, but I think he has earned the right to be given more time for a fair judgment.
For now, the only way I see it going forward is with Amrabat/Casemiro (Defend) - Mount/Mejbri (Carry/Create/Defend)- Eriksen (Control/Create) and a 3-2-5 buildup instead of 3-1-6. Unfortunately, Eriksen is so needed. We do not have his calmness and control of the ball, since again our recruiting has failed us.
Of course, more problems exist. With the injuries we are missing the build up from the defense with Varane, Shaw and Martinez and we are even worse than we should. And the forward players are so out of form. I know that again we have some one-dimensional people there like Rashford and Anthony, but that is another dicussion. The first priority for me is to fix that hole in the middle of the pitch. It was also obvious today, since in the second half with a few tweaks like Amrabat coming to the back line, Bruno near the deeplying role and Eriksen in, we were looking much more functional.
I would consider these four values as mandatory for a functional and good midfield.
- Defensive ability
- Creativity
- Ball control/Possession
- Ball carries
Casemiro has proved that he can be amazing, but only when he was paired with ball controlling midfielders, who could create, keep and carry the ball. Bruno has not proved anything. He has shown his best only when he was protected by Fred and Mctominay under OGS and he was in the form of his life, under counterattacking football of a low block. He cannot carry the ball, he cannot keep it and at his bad form, oh my he is such a liability. I am sorry, but the full faith in Bruno will be the end of ETH, he has read this so wrong in my opinion. He had the balls to bench/end Ronaldo, Maguire, Sancho etc. He needs to find the balls to try a functional midfield without Bruno.
On top of the above, ETH has changed our build up this year. One one hand, he has solved the problem of De Gea, since we could not handle teams who pressed us up high, but, on the other hand another problem appeared since he switched from the double pivot to a single pivot during our build up. It is obvious that our players cannot make this work, either they do not fit this system and the single pivot ends up pretty isolated, or they do not understand it at all. Andy Mitten said something similar in the Talk of the Devils podcast. It seems like they do not get what is asked. This is what we are seeing from the start of the season and why we are also bad when teams cutting us through. There a couple of minutes here and there, like the first 20 min against Brighton and Tottenham, where our pressing worked and we dominated. But when it does not work, everything looks so out of balance. I do not understand, to be honest, where Ten Hag wants to go with this, but I think he has earned the right to be given more time for a fair judgment.
For now, the only way I see it going forward is with Amrabat/Casemiro (Defend) - Mount/Mejbri (Carry/Create/Defend)- Eriksen (Control/Create) and a 3-2-5 buildup instead of 3-1-6. Unfortunately, Eriksen is so needed. We do not have his calmness and control of the ball, since again our recruiting has failed us.
Of course, more problems exist. With the injuries we are missing the build up from the defense with Varane, Shaw and Martinez and we are even worse than we should. And the forward players are so out of form. I know that again we have some one-dimensional people there like Rashford and Anthony, but that is another dicussion. The first priority for me is to fix that hole in the middle of the pitch. It was also obvious today, since in the second half with a few tweaks like Amrabat coming to the back line, Bruno near the deeplying role and Eriksen in, we were looking much more functional.