Originally Posted by
Insidious
Two things.
One is to bring him on (rather than start him) in games that might be congested. Full disclosure, I did want Núñez to start today over Gakpo so I can hardly harp on about that.
Another we could try is using him on the left or right and mix the front three up a bit.
Diaz and Salah are marvellous footballers, but both like to cut inside and that does create certain issues as it allows an opposition back four to keep the gaps tighter. Núñez has the pace to burn past someone and hug the chalk, which can create a gap for a full-back or one of the 8s, whilst also freeing up another player to be the central focal point. If he isn't scoring, why not utilise his pace?
This is such a good call.
In Diaz' case I kept getting annoyed by how much he kept trying to cut inside because after thefirst few times he did it, it became eminently predictable and the defender was always beating him to the spot because they knew that's what he was going to do.
At least in Mo's case, he has slightly better ball control such that even if they close his path to the inside he can still hold the ball for the overlap runner for him to pass to or to try and turn for a shot.
But the spacing issues caused by the wingers constantly trying to cut inside were problematic throughout the game.
Tsimikas isn't as good with the overlap run as Robbo is - partly because his cross inside and final ball are crap most of the time, and on the other side, Trent is just as likely to be making a run through the middle as Mo is cutting to the inside which leaves no one on the outside to be available for an outlet pass to cross into the box.
Szobo tried to do it a couple of times, but we all saw what his touch was like today, so that was a non-starter.
I think on that wing it works better with Elliot (playing off of Mo) than with Szobo because Elliot seems to know what to do (whether to cut inside or stretch the defense by going wide), and his touch is miles better than Szobo (at the moment).
But either way, it doesn't help when they get a cross in and Darwin's first instinct - even when there's a shot on - is to try an pass it onto someone else to take the shot.
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to be fair I don't think anyone is sharpening blades, but it is understandable to gnash teeth when you come up against a very beatable side and have a limp performance in front of a surprisingly quiet Monster (numerically, for us) of a crowd when you had the chance to go top of the League and 6 clear of Man City - massive chance missed today. 
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