With Sane practically gone and Sterling being our only “speed” outlet it has always bugged that we keep trying to force Mahrez and Bernardo on the right wing to keep the same formation. They have done fine there but Mahrez was great at Leicester in RW mainly on counter attacking set ups and when Leicester had possession he went central. Bernardo has been good on RW but I think his engine is so much more useful centrally to stop teams from running through us.
To me it makes sense if Pep sets up the team in a 3-5-2 and I’ll lay out my arguments as to why:
1) Our players inherent traits are better suited to this and can help cover up some of their weaknesses
Sterling: sometimes when forced out wide is not fully in the game, always looks so dangerous and about to score when he roams centrally, solution is to play him as a striker with a partner
Fullbacks: Cancelo, Mendy and Angelino are Attacking fullbacks but in our system they have tot stay back and defend or go inverted while occasionally overlapping, it makes sense to me to just use wingbacks and let them provide our width that our wingers would have
Mahrez, Bernardo: Can play as either a false 9 striker or attacking midfield, which imo they would both play better in
Stones: Typically a back 3 protects CBs more on counters so they don’t have to be so rash in decision making, we do use a back 3 sometimes in possession but it should be more of default imo
Jesus: Would see more game time rotating between 2 strikers rather than one
2) Doesn’t change fundamental strategies Pep does with the team, ie press in a 442 is easy with the formation, as is pinning a team back with a 325 set up BUT in pressing I’d prefer Sterling press with the other striker than David Silva who is much slower
3) Does require us to buy another CB (we need to anyways) as a starter or backup player
Formation:
———————————Sterling——————Aguero—————————
Mendy———-Bernardo————————Kevin———————-Cancelo
——————————————-—-Rodri
———————New CB———-Laporte—————Stones
Striker subs: Jesus, Mahrez, Bernardo
Attacking midfield subs: Foden, Mahrez, Gundogan
Wingback subs: Angelino, Walker
Defensive mid sub: Zinchenko, Gundogan
Centre back sub: Walker (only with Stones), Rodri (only centrally), Garcia, Bellis
I have kind kind of looked more to the future so David, Dinho and Otamendi are not in, and I was considering changing aguero for a future striker (maybe Haaland) but it’s arbitrary.
Turned quite long, pick it apart, might be a terrible idea, but kept thinking if we could optimize player positions better.
To me it makes sense if Pep sets up the team in a 3-5-2 and I’ll lay out my arguments as to why:
1) Our players inherent traits are better suited to this and can help cover up some of their weaknesses
Sterling: sometimes when forced out wide is not fully in the game, always looks so dangerous and about to score when he roams centrally, solution is to play him as a striker with a partner
Fullbacks: Cancelo, Mendy and Angelino are Attacking fullbacks but in our system they have tot stay back and defend or go inverted while occasionally overlapping, it makes sense to me to just use wingbacks and let them provide our width that our wingers would have
Mahrez, Bernardo: Can play as either a false 9 striker or attacking midfield, which imo they would both play better in
Stones: Typically a back 3 protects CBs more on counters so they don’t have to be so rash in decision making, we do use a back 3 sometimes in possession but it should be more of default imo
Jesus: Would see more game time rotating between 2 strikers rather than one
2) Doesn’t change fundamental strategies Pep does with the team, ie press in a 442 is easy with the formation, as is pinning a team back with a 325 set up BUT in pressing I’d prefer Sterling press with the other striker than David Silva who is much slower
3) Does require us to buy another CB (we need to anyways) as a starter or backup player
Formation:
———————————Sterling——————Aguero—————————
Mendy———-Bernardo————————Kevin———————-Cancelo
——————————————-—-Rodri
———————New CB———-Laporte—————Stones
Striker subs: Jesus, Mahrez, Bernardo
Attacking midfield subs: Foden, Mahrez, Gundogan
Wingback subs: Angelino, Walker
Defensive mid sub: Zinchenko, Gundogan
Centre back sub: Walker (only with Stones), Rodri (only centrally), Garcia, Bellis
I have kind kind of looked more to the future so David, Dinho and Otamendi are not in, and I was considering changing aguero for a future striker (maybe Haaland) but it’s arbitrary.
Turned quite long, pick it apart, might be a terrible idea, but kept thinking if we could optimize player positions better.