Well a player like Garnacho, for example, who had started the season putting up the best numbers of our forward players has immediately been hung out to dry because now apparently he needs to be Zidane and not the direct winger he’s always been. Our captain has no proper role in this team either. Our breakout star from last season is drowning in this midfield set up as he needs to play in a midfield 3, not 2. Dalot, probably our best and most consistent performer last season has been hung out to dry too.
Then even if you are fed up with our existing players, even the new ones are struggling. Mazraoui, a right back, and at a push - a left back his whole career has come in, been an absolute revelation and then now suddenly, he can’t fit into the team anymore either because of some weirdo set-up we became so hell bent on overnight. Leny Yoro, one of the best young centre halves in the world would have thought he was coming here to play in a partnership, with a right back outside of him, but now finds himself playing a hybrid centre half/right back role and again - hung out to dry as a result.
Our players certainly need to have a look at themselves, but many of them have not really been given a chance by how we are trying to go about things. Replacing all of them with the requisite quality will be a huge task, and some of them will need to go due to not being good enough, but a number need to go because all of a sudden, they ‘don’t fit’ anymore.
We have become a team that plays 5 defenders now and I seem to be the only person who has a problem with that. Others are still burying their heads stating that formations don’t matter - but the fact is, if you play Dalot, De Ligt, Maguire, Martinez and Mazraoui in the same lineup, what you have is 5 defenders, whether or not you try and tell Dalot to push forward a bit. He’s been a defender for years. As has Mazraoui.