We do, we played 4-1-4-1 far more than any formation last season, and did last night too. De Bruyne even said in the interview that he and Silva are a pair of free 8's, i.e. 2 playing the same position, although because they're different players the role is different.
Roberts Brahim, and the hoards of young attacking players aren't going to be an adequate replacement for Sanchez though, are they?
If you go after Sanchez it's because you think you need a genuinely world class player, a 20 goals and 30 assists in a season player, who will decide the big games, elevate the level of the first team, infect the team with his incessant desire to win every lost ball, every tackle, every game.
You don't miss out on that and say, "Eh, I guess I could give these academy players and the lad just back from Celtic that role instead"
I want kids like Brahim, like Foden to get chances and come through into the team desperately, but they aren't the solution to any problem that Sanchez was going to solve. They can come through still when there's a squad of 20, that's small enough to allow them room, but they aren't going to replace a guy who would have played 40-50 games for us.
Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Assenssio, Isco, Madrid, Kroos, Ceballos.
Robben, Ribery, Lewandowski, James, Coman, Muller, Thiago.
Neymar, Cavani, Sanchez, Draxler, Di Maria, Pastore, Verratti. - I know that's not anything close to concrete but it's possible.
Those are the best teams in the world, the team who Pep will be trying to be better than, and their midfield is better. PL clubs might not rival us, but that's not the benchmark we're trying to beat now.
Also people could easily have said our attack was the best on paper last season, but we were easily outscored. And don't forget we have to have an attack good enough to beat one of those teams on Wednesday, and Chelsea/United/Spurs/Liverpool on Saturday.
He did say that maybe Foden would stay with the squad, but I think even the most optimistic Foden fan would be thinking about regular first team training, EDS games (he's not even played EDS), 3 or 4 cup games this season including a start or 2 if the draw is good, maybe a CL game if we have a dead ringer like Celtic last season, and if he does really well, a couple of sub cameos in the league.
That would be 5-10 games and that's probably the most anyone can hope he'll get at 17. It would be the biggest step forward in youth development since the takeover.
Personally I'd be ecstatic if he played something like 2 cup games and made a league debut, that'd still be great for 17.