Double Pivot

I thought it worked very well last nigh. Both Dinho and Rodri played brilliantly, shielding the back four and distributing equally as well.

I know the lack of availabie personnel forced Pep's hand to a certain extent last night, and he has used Gündoğan with Rodri in the past, but do you think he will persist with this pairing when more players are fit?

I think it has its place in Pep's plans, but only against certain opponents, and only as long as Fernandinho can maintain his levels of dynamism.
It worked a lot better than Ferdy at centre half with Gundo and Rodri in front. Perhaps Ferdy smells danger better than Rodri. They did look more solid. I also thought the centre halves (mostly) worked well in a simple right footer alongside a left footer partnership. Need to see the formation tested against a stronger side though (not that Wolves are slouches). I think the lesson might be that Ferdy can't play centre half but can still do a job in midfield.
 
It worked a lot better than Ferdy at centre half with Gundo and Rodri in front. Perhaps Ferdy smells danger better than Rodri. They did look more solid. I also thought the centre halves (mostly) worked well in a simple right footer alongside a left footer partnership. Need to see the formation tested against a stronger side though (not that Wolves are slouches). I think the lesson might be that Ferdy can't play centre half but can still do a job in midfield.
Ferdinand?
 
I prefer 433 as it allows us to press higher up the pitch, which plays more to our strengths and is far better to watch.

If last night taught us anything, it’s that we should go all out for Aouar. He’s the natural Fernandinho replacement and we look so much better with his energy in there than Gundogan’s sideways slow-fest.
 
I thought it worked very well and also allowed Fernandinho to push forward now and again like when he was in his pomp.

Gundogan is a great player but he doesn't have the legs or ball winning ability of Rodri which against a team like Wolves was vital, especially when Fern was pushing forward.

Maybe we've struck lucky here because had Gundogan been available I don't think anybody would have been surprised to see Rodri and Gundo in midfield with Fern taking Stone's place.

Also I always feel more confident when Fern takes a yellow for the team playing in midfield rather than CB.
 
It worked well in the sense we dominated and looked in control but there were negatives too, we didn’t look anywhere near as threatening and played the majority of our football further back than we usually do. if we were to persist more regularly with it and opponents react in time by man marking kdb we will struggle to create in that system. It’s also absolutely vital Fernandinho is one of the two, Rodri and Gundogan simply doesn’t work. I’m not entirely sure Pep had always planned to play that way against wolves, i think it was more a case of there was no better option given the players we had available almost forcing him into it. I wouldn’t expect Pep to use it too much this season, maybe half a dozen times or so when we are coming up against a dangerous counter attacking side but the norm will be one 6 and two 8’s
 
Gundog brilliantly guided us to the title in the 2019 run in, a real leader on the pitch

I'm not here to bash Gundogan but he most certainly did not "guide us to the title". He played very well in some games and was absolutely bullied in others, almost costing us the title.

He deserves credit but he was hardly world class and dragging us over the finish line.
 

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