Originally Posted by
Steveo
This is the point I have tried to make.
The suggestion that the secret is to utilise the same group of players ( not possible in real world much ) and exclusively in the same setup would make us way too rigid - simple to fathom and ultimately we would get found out...
Perhaps to a degree this is what had happened at the start of 2020 - BUT to counter the argument for such an overly simplistic approach I reiterate how important is it for the opposite - how crucial it is that we become able to adapt the game to deal with the low block. ESPECIALLY as champions...
Without the dynamic width provided by Trent and Robbo - witnessed whenever one or both have an off game and compounded more recently due to Virgil’s injury - we are exposed through a lack of creativity in the middle!
So we can’t simply “use the same players that” blah blah blah because we have to get Thiago into that area now or we play sideways OR Hendo gets tasked with lumping in hopeful balls often conceding possession and stretching already very stretched limbs.
The trick is to evolve and develop our game, which we bought players to try and do and haven't been able to start on yet this season
There is a lot more in the set up with our best players that we can do with our full backs and forwards and the movement and interaction between them
We find it harder to break down ptb teams when we are rigid, when we were doing it brilliantly last season was when we had the 3 interchanging positions in midfield, it asks different questions of teams, it makes it hard for teams to set up to play off certain players
Take these examples of positions our midfielders would be at different points of the game
Henderson
Thiago__________Wijnaldum
Here we all know Henderson's adapted his game and learned to play the switches to a high level of quality and attempted balls over the top, so we have the more direct distribution in the centre, at RCM advanced we have Thiago, who can play switchs and angled balls over the defence and in a position in which we sometimes include Shaq looking to play through balls and Thiago is equally as capable of those types of ball and we have the Gini link up with Robbo and Mane and being able to get in the No10 position from which he delivers so much for Holland
Gini
Hendo______Thiago
Here was have Hendo on the right, brilliant at high pressing from that position and knowing when to press and when to wait and won the ball back there to set up crucial winning goals last season a few times. We also have Hendo's right to left switch, crosses and bursts down the line to cross from near the byline. On the left we have the distribution and passing of Thiago, capable of creating from all sorts of positions, whether he pops up left or right he has the angles to thread players through, including the full backs we need to do more with. We have Gini's physicality and presence and ability to drive the ball forward
I'll stop there, there are so many permatations of what is possible with the fluid midfield 3, the trick is to develop within the set up that we have been so brilliant in, do more with the full backs and forwards interacting and have those numerous variations and skill sets to do something different than the player in the same position on the team sheet to always have numerous different ways of breaking teams down and varying our play and how we try to do it
That's the trick, that's the way forward, not change personnel and stay rigid or a new rigid system, it's the rigidity and lack of fluidity of movement and different players with different skill sets popping up in different areas to do something different from what the opposition have been expecting that makes us struggle.
As i've said many time, I don't believe in one way of playing, I don't believe in anyway of playing in which it is too rigid with players stuck in fixed positions constantly trying the same things and no fluidity of movement so another player will pop up in the same position and do something different that will bring a breakthrough
"If Everton were playing at the bottom of my garden, i'd close the curtains”
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