The Casemiro/Mount/Bruno midfield

Bruno is such a turnover machine that I think he makes playing in a midfield with a DM and another more attacking midfielder impossible at a high and sustainable level
 
It may seem crazy but we should try Antony on the left of a midfield 3, we have seen plenty of wingers transition into midfielders like giggs, Anderson even, di maria when he was at madrid, Bernardo silva

his attributes seem well suited to the role, he actually quite press resistant, low centre of gravity, you can't knock his work rate and willingness to track back to not leave our midfield exposed like mount and bruno do, he has a nasty side to him which could do with at the moment in the midfield and he's a ball carrier, further more he really can't be worse than mctominay in our midfield
 
Back to Eriksen/Case pair and let Mount compete for the roles he actually plays across the front 3. Sensible if a bit boring.
 
Play 442 diamond or 352 system. It makes sense as your wide players aren't really elite; I see Rashford more as a forward

Onana
Dalot Varane Martinez Reguellion
Amrabaat
Mctominay Bruno
Mount
Houljund Rashford

Or

Onana
Wan-Bissaka Maguire Martinez
Dalot Amrabaat Mctominay Regullion
Bruno
Houlijund Rashford

You have to rotate Casemiro more, he's unable to play regularly at his age in that position.

I feel these systems would play to the players strengths more. The style of play would depend on your opponents
 
MO_Football92 said:
Play 442 diamond or 352 system. It makes sense as your wide players aren't really elite; I see Rashford more as a forward

Onana
Dalot Varane Martinez Reguellion
Amrabaat
Mctominay Bruno
Mount
Houljund Rashford

Or

Onana
Wan-Bissaka Maguire Martinez
Dalot Amrabaat Mctominay Regullion
Bruno
Houlijund Rashford

You have to rotate Casemiro more, he's unable to play regularly at his age in that position.

I feel these systems would play to the players strengths more. The style of play would depend on your opponents
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Scott McTominay shouldn't be starting in any formation predicting the best eleven. He's a useful player to have on the bench at best.
 
Redstain said:
(20/08/23)

This has been what's undone the season undoubtedly and the level of reverb in how bad it has been is nothing short of catastrophic.

Hindsight is the benefactor now compared to foresight in August and the decision to adhere to this structure for the team has singlehandedly thrown away the season. Usually when you measure failure at management there's usually a plethora of factors that are strong contributions which aren't always in the managers control, but this season Eth has proverbially tied his shoelaces to opposing foot and proceeded to walk forward.
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Yup. Our midfield has become incredibly porous. It's insane when you think back to the first 3 months of the calendar year, it looked like we'd turned a corner and were finally fully functional again. Those were a fun few months.
 
MegadrivePerson said:
Scott McTominay shouldn't be starting in any formation predicting the best eleven. He's a useful player to have on the bench at best.
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Yh, I would rotate him and Casemiro; Amrabaat being the mainstay.

You don't really have anyone else that provides the physical balance in midfield. Perhaps that kid Mainoo?
 
Hammondo said:
Matic was super important to that midfield though, wish we had him younger.
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All three of them were vital. Or at least players of their style. Anytime we tried to play any two of them without the third it simply ended up being unbalanced and inconsistent. But the three of them together? If I remember correctly we actually drew and lost the first two matches with that combination, but then went on to have 17 wins and 1 draw in the next 18 matches that they ever played together. No other midfield combination we've ever put out has been remotely close to that.

For some reason we never tried to build another midfield along those lines after Herrera left. Well I guess technically you could say Fred could have played the Herrera role as they were quite similar types of players, but I think the fact that all three of Matic, Fred and Pogba all tended to prefer to play on the left meant that it always struggled in the early days and I don't think it got much chances after that. Later on Matic and Fred seemed to learn how to play together, but by then Matic had declined and Bruno had taken over at the top of that combo (which is a different balance again).
 
Rockets Redglare said:
Have you watched Amrabat? He’s shit.
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From memory Amrabat didn't have a preseason, then has come into a terribly balanced midfield in a team that is playing terribly and has huge injury issues (after playing his first few games out of position at leftback). He certainly hasn't been good, but he's probably been our best midfielder in most of his games (bar Eriksen when he's come off the bench), so if he's been shit I'd hate to know what our other midfielders have been.
 
MadDogg said:
From memory Amrabat didn't have a preseason, then has come into a terribly balanced midfield in a team that is playing terribly and has huge injury issues (after playing his first few games out of position at leftback). He certainly hasn't been good, but he's probably been our best midfielder in most of his games (bar Eriksen when he's come off the bench), so if he's been shit I'd hate to know what our other midfielders have been.
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He's woefully slow with many seeing him as unsuited to premier league, and apparently this is pretty well known and why no other top teams were interested and our scouts also passed over him. Another ex Ajax player, the only ones that ETH will sign
 
Gordon Godot said:
He's woefully slow with many seeing him as unsuited to premier league, and apparently this is pretty well known and why no other top teams were interested and our scouts also passed over him. Another ex Ajax player, the only ones that ETH will sign
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Liverpool were strongly linked, as were another PL club (can't remember which one off the top of my head). He also never played for Ajax, although the sentiment is right as he did play under ETH at Utrecht.

I'm not saying I think he will be a success, but he also hasn't been anywhere near as bad as some are making out. Ultimately it's just too early to make a call on him, and I think there's a decent chance he'll go on to be a good squad player for us.
 
Gordon Godot said:
He's woefully slow with many seeing him as unsuited to premier league, and apparently this is pretty well known and why no other top teams were interested and our scouts also passed over him. Another ex Ajax player, the only ones that ETH will sign
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Amrabat is ex-Utrecht and ex-Feyenoord. He never played for Ajax.
 
Licha-Vidic said:
We have changed managers/defenders/GK/Strikers etc but some Bruno and Rashford have been main stay in this team and miraculously our play remains the same.

We need to move away from Bruno and Rashford, not because they're bad players but because we need to evolve into a modern team. But urgently Bruno needs to be moved on.
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Great post about the elephant in the room.

Unfortunately Casemiro isn’t getting younger or better neither.

Regarding building a future team it’s essential that we reinforce our midfield with two players: a Rice- and Bellingham type of player - who we can benefit from in 5-10y.

I think McT and Mount are the least of our problem. They can in my view be part of our future midfield. Both have potential to develop, have many years left and demonstrate professionalism (good character and role-model for younger players). McT maybe not becomes more than a squad player, but we need that to.
 
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