Phillips is the rodri alternative, or should be. He's not going to be playing the role stones is playing where he's moving into midfield from cb or Rico Lewis moving into midfield from fullback. Not going to say never because pep can do anything but he's yet to set us up with 3 defenders on the pitch and don't expect he will do unless injuries force it upon him. 4 defenders always start.
I completely understand Laporte wanting to move on, down the pecking order, doesn't quite fit in the system and still an outstanding defender that could start for pretty much any side in europe, makes sense he would want out and l said nothing about that, what I said was if he's to leave, he needs replacing as it leaves us short on numbers again.
It's silly to include Phillips and rodri as defensive options, unless you're looking at the defensive unit as a 5. who plays in their positions if they're played out of position? If Laporte goes and assuming cancelo is following him and gomez isn't playing in defence then we've got 7 options for 4 spots.
last season we had 8 options by the close of the window and had to bring in rico lewis from the academy as the 9th because it proved 8 wasnt enough yet youre happy to go into the season with 1 less than what wasn't enough last season?
Arsenal have white, timber, tomiyasu, kiwor, saliba, Gabriel, zinchenko, Tierney, holding, 9 options, liverpool similar, United have about 10, chelsea have god knows how many. it's not only realistic, but is in actual fact the norm to have a minimum of 8 defenders in the squad
