I understand the conundrum.
I think the speed and work rate increased tremendously with the team selection of the last two games. However I’m still not convinced that it’ll work against the likes of a Chelsea defence or any decent 10 men behind the ball.
Look at the aberration of the Spurs match where, in fairness, we had a different starting eleven.
But when Kev came on and was pushed up around the box things alla sudden started happening. We could have pulled a result out of that if he was on earlier.
Truth is, in my opinion, for much of last year Kev was not the problem. No disrespect to Mahrez who was great last season and is looking hungry again, but him on the right and Sterling on the left really slows down our pace. Both kept coming inside and recycling.
Predictable and with no target man it made breaking good teams down more difficult.
Early days and we’ve played two woeful teams, but look at the speed of delivery with Jesus on the right and Jack on the left.
The work rate of Bernardo and Jesus together with the movement of Torres and Gundogan is like watching us at our best again, but imagine Kev picking out first time balls to either side as well. The options are crazy.
We need cool heads to place the tap ins in the corners. Personally Sterling is the one I’d be dropping at the moment. It’s a tough one too but I would rather Jesus on the right than Mahrez. Maybe Mahrez is a good option through the middle.
Pep is right to be happy with the squad he has. I don’t envy him the task of picking a team week in week out though. That’s why hey paid the big bucks.
Until Kev is fully fit I doubt he could do the graft Bernardo does but fully fit he can and nobody opens a defence like him.
Options all over the place. As long as half a dozen of our team are scoring over 10 goals this season we might just get away without a 30 goal a season striker.
