Fabinho did it at Liverpool for a few years, Rodri is doing it at City.
Rodri's "partner" in midfield has been De Bruyne for the past couple of seasons. He's just as attacking as a Mount and probably more than Mainoo. Gundogan has been the more advanced number 8 there, he has played off the striker the same way Bruno has.
The issue is we don't have Rodri who can deal with it. We still don't have Rodri in Ugarte but atleast Ugarte has the legs to get back and try and plug spaces.
For the next 3 seasons I'd rather have Rodri than Ugarte, but I'd also want Mainoo over KDB and Bruno over Gundogan. We can't judge a thing until we play a couple of games atleast of the Ugarte, Mainoo and Fernandes trio.
Ten Hag will need it to work and for us to look more solid defensively over 90 minutes. From what I've seen this season it's quite similar to last year in the sense that we're usually quite tight with the Plan A for 60 mins, but Plan A isn't attacking enough, or we're not clinical enough to score the goal we need, and when we switch to Plan B, it turns the game into a shootout, and we don't always win the shootout. We're more likely to score but also concede.
Ten Hag has not found a Plan A system and lineup, that works for him from minute 1 to 90 in matches.
If the starting 11 defence and midfield, is now here, and Hojlund is now fit with Garnacho, Amad and Rashford available, then it's now or never for Ten Hag.
INEOS are well within their right to pull the plug on Ten Hag if in the next 5 games it's not clear that he's figured out a plan A that works with the new starting 11. No manager can demand a world class starting 11, and top class bench before they show they have a working plan. It's over to Ten Hag now, and I hope he succeeds in proving that he had the plan all along but needed the 11 pieces of the puzzle to prove it.