I've gone for 3 times Hendo in midfield as contrary to what most here think, it we had 3 of him, even now with age appearing to be catching him up, we'd be fairing far far better, reading of the game, positioning, pressing and counter pressing, switches, attempted balls over the top, top quality through balls at time and crossing from all 3 midfield positions, what the team was crying our for in its evolution back in 18-20
Better than Fab at No6 by a mile - By far our best option at RCM supporting and linking expertly with Trent and Mo and easily our best option for the LCM controller role Gini used to play we seemed to have abandoned to allow Robbo to play further forward again and develop the kind of link up with Diaz he and Mane used to enjoy supported and made possible by Gini
Far better passing that compliments all our other players strengths, the teams and systems strengths with switches, attempted balls over the top some quality through balls at times and crossing
The much maligned Trent stays in all day long for me, Trent, Mo and Hendo played brilliantly as a 3 on our right all last season, they shared great understanding and automation and made us better going forward and far more solid defensively through that, Elliott is nowhere near ready and his energetic enthusiasm running around a lot looking tidy enough but being a disaster in that role and as part of that 3 in his positioning, interchanging of positions and assisting Trent or covering him isn't something we can carry
I as ever remained astonished at comments during and after games, lots of praise for Elliott here while slating Hendo for one mistake, Elliott was absolutely nowhere near where he needed to be positionally to support Trent and Mo as they need to be at any stage of that game, Hendo was our best midfielder, of our limited chances and best opportunities to create them, they pretty much all cam from Hendo playing centre to left switches to release Diaz or Robbo in space, we had absolutely nothing come from any other player except the odd long diagonal from Virgil and even one from Gomez - Nothing from Milner, Nothing from Elliott and nothing from Fab when he was inexplicably brought on when we needed 2 goals
Alisson
Trent Phillips Van Dijk Robertson
Henderson Henderson Henderson
Salah Firmino Diaz
"If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”
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