- Casemiro
- Rashford
- Varane
Is IMO the most important 3 players in our squad. We simply don't have adequate cover for them (it's very hard to have that anyway), but they are a bit unique in what they offer to us so if they're out, we really struggle.
Casemiro out, McTominay comes in... McTominay is decent enough as a squad player, but there's such a big gap there and it's always noticeable, not a doubt in my mind saying Casemiro is our most important.
Rashford then in attack, as none of our other attackers have that directness, pace and movement off the ball to be a real scoring threat. Even if Sancho and Antony and Martial find form, we'd lack what Rashford offers. Garnacho still a kid but he could help cover that. Once the others come into form I don't think it'll be so bad, but without Rashford we do struggle for creation.
Varane lastly, absolute beast of a CB, just his blend of qualities all round, his pace and being dominant in the air and being good on the ball, so hard to replace. You take him out and we slow down on the ball if it's Maguire in, we have a much slower CB in whether it's Lindelof or Maguire (especially Maguire), and aerially we drop if it's Lindelof, but of course positionally as a group we drop massively, because Varane is a leader back there. Needs to stay fit, and we really need proper cover for him.
Others like Shaw and Bruno are brilliant, but between Martinez and Malacia, we can have a very good left sided defence, and then Eriksen/Bruno/Fred can each form very good partnerships, and now Wan Bissaka has gotten his level back where we can have a solid RB either way. 3 irreplaceable guys though.