Andersons Dietician
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For me it is (as it always seems to be with our team), where do his best qualities lie? We always seem to be struggling to make an XI gel.
With this change, we’d be going from a system, as @Ali Dia has correctly pointed out repeatedly that doesn’t fit Pogba as the best role for him in the 4231 would be the 10 - to one which, to me, makes Bruno the odd one out. He obviously deserves a crack at stamping his role in the 3, but the switch immediately swings the suitability from Bruno to Pogba, in terms of who is in their optimised formation.
What are your views on this @Ali Dia ? I agreed with tour position before that ‘Sancho gives us what Pogba offers on the left and Bruno is the 10 so he doesn’t fit’, and would like to know your take should we switch to a midfield 3.
Another issue not discussed is the centre forward role for me. Moving to a traditional midfield 3 should in theory help us control a football match better, but it also creates a greater need for a striker who can out up 20+ goals, especially if Bruno’s attentions are to be focused elsewhere further back. We’d need Cavani, at 34/35 or Martial to really deliver numbers, especially as Rashford, our main goal threat from wide, will be out.
I think Bruno will improve massively playing further back as an 8 in the midfield 3. He’ll just have to adjust back to how he used to be at Sporting. My only worry is that his Ball retention isn’t that good and he hasn’t really shown here at United any sort of ability to establish control or a rhythm but having seen him previously at Sporting he i believe is fully capable of adapting but it will put a lot of onus on both Bruno and Pogba to improve as footballers and their tactical awareness and positioning. But if it doesn’t work and there is a player that makes us better and Bruno no longer has a spot in the team then that’s just football.
I Personally don’t think bruno playing as a 10 is what is best for the team and to me caused quite a few issues last season in our ability to actually control games.
As for goal tallies, City played without a recognised 9 last season. I don’t think we need that one scorer to be successful although it would be nice but between Martial, Rashford, Cavani, Sancho, Greenwood, Bruno, Pogba there should be more than enough goals there in my opinion.
Should make for an interesting season to see what Ole does tactically to try and make it work. Have my own ideas and I’m sure many others do so will see what happens. I also wouldn’t be surprised that if Martial comes in to some sort of form if he’ll be deployed as a false 9 with Sancho, Rashford BrunoPogba given permission to get beyond him. Again something we have kind of done over previous seasons.