We have to play Bruno there because no(!!!) other player we have, has any mentionworthy ability when it comes to passing. Our buildup is broken because of this. The CMs of this era combine that with dribbling ability. Those are the main points we have to look at - as long as those aren't checked, there is no point in looking deeper into a player. When those are checked, I agree, the player has to be contributing against the ball. But I think, the order is very important here.
You can repeat that as often as you want, the thing with the specialists doesn't still doesn't become correct. The only specialist roles are the wingbacks and Amorim at Sporting made use of several different profiles there. All the other players aren't specialists - I have no clue what you are talking about. You think, Gyokeres in the form of this season wouldn't work at Chelsea? Or Bayern? You think strong ball playing CBs wouldn't work at Liverpool or City? That whole angle is complete BS and the fact that big investments are needed is a given completely irrelevant of the manager. We'll lose a couple of players for sure this summer. Those will have to be replaced, best case upgraded on. NO MATTER WHO THE MANAGER IS.
Like Amorim then?
You can bring up his name as often as you want, he isn't a surething either. And he will be at least as shocked and borderline unable to make do with the fitness levels and the technical levels of some players we have.
Managers can easily be flexible when they have a squad consisting of capable players that all understand their roles and system. Obviously if that is the case, then it is easy to tinker here and there, use a more defensive option here to take care of a dangerous player for example or start somebody higher up the pitch to push the opposition back. All the managers you mentioned are system coaches. They all require very good fitness levels, very good technical levels. One of the biggest issues in this debate is, that fans have shrugged off stuff for years - Rashford can be worldclass, Bruno is the bestest and worldclassest chance creator, Martinez is the best ball playing CB in the world, McTominay can do a job and is goal threat, Eriksen still offers something, Maguire is more than useful when used the right way, Shaw is worldclass, lets hope he gets fit. No wonder that we now have issues accepting that so many of those players have downsides to their games which makes it borderline impossible to find a working system. We have wingers who want to get on the end of things and score, but they don't contribute in defensive and they are shit at dribbling so the team has to carry them. We have a striker that looked decent when he was fed with crosses and balls into box - but who will feed him? We talked about the wingers, what about Fullbacks? Ah damn, world-class-when-fit Shaw and could-play-in-any-team Dalot cant cross to save their lifes. So maybe no balls to the striker then. Just buy Osimhen because he creates his chances on his own. And thats just one area of the team, the same set of mismatches is to be found in defense and especially in midfield.
But hey, just bring in fecking Xavi, he will find a solution to all of that.
Mate, he isn't the one producing the bad results, it is the team. As said in other thread, I'd see your point if we lose all those games because of style and formation stuff but we concede stupid goals or setpieces, we get outworked and outsmarted. Yet here we are and you are knocking at the door of the guy who is in here since 12 weeks as if he is the one responsible for all this shit.
Managers have been backed with money in the last years. Thats not the issue - Amorim or whoever the manager is needs to be backed in terms of infrastructure that is able to provide lists of potential targets.
