I agree with you about Kelechi mate, he's more of a natural number 10 than an out and out centre forward. However I think he has got the physical attributes and more of a natural instinct to play as a number 9 than De Bruyne or Sterling.
While we're on the subject of number 10s, I think it's important to raise the issue that there are two distinct types of number 10. There's the forward who drops deep (Bergkamp, Cantona, Gullit) and the midfielder who pushes on (Kinkladze, Juninho, Oscar).
The forwards are obviously much more suited to playing centre forward than than the midfielder. For me Kelechi is the former and De Bruyne the latter.
Although Kelechi has played more as a number 10 so far in youth football, I think he'll end up being a number 9 in the professional game.
1. Change in shape wasn't forced on him. He had the option to bring a on a centre forward to replace the injured one.
2. Bringing Navas on to increase the tempo is not exclusive of bringing on a centre forward. It's quite plausible that he could have done both an sacrificed a holding midfielder.
Mate, a goal scoring midfielder is very different to a centre forward. Just because a player has a good shot on them it doesn't mean they can play centre forward. It's a specialist position. As you said, it's professional sport. Navas has put in some great tackles, but I don't want him to play centre half. Leave that to the specialist centre halves.
According to MP, 'apparently' Kelechi isn't a striker as he plays behind the striker and that's why Navas was brought on.........
So that must mean KDB & Sterling are closer to being strikers than Kelechi then.
And on another note, if Kelechi isn't a striker who's bright idea was it to go into a season with just 2 strikers, one of which is injury prone and the other who was recovering from malaria
Waldorf and Statler strike again.
Bony has performed better in his games this season than Dzeko did last season. Besides which Dzeko wanted first team football and wouldn't have stayed to play second fiddle to Aguero.Well said, mate.
Why on earth did we let a sure striker (Dzeko) go and put all our chips on under-performing Bony?
Look, yes we are top the table blah blah, but it wont hurt to be 2-3 points ahead. People aren't flapping, just upset that we keep dropping easy points. How can we be level with Arsenal after the huge investment this summer? Really, our team is so much stronger with more depth, yet we can't seem to just edge a couple points ahead.
Pelle clearly made wrong decisions, you can't apply Seville match tactics against a bottom team that lost 7 matches in a row, they were too scared to charge at us ffs. 3 holding midfielders... where on earth will creativity come from to unlock their parked bus?
Pelle's first sub was right, if Nacho isn't a striker. But early second half, Fernando should've been subbed for Nacho to give us more weight up front. And Delph subbing Yaya was just needless and gave villa and their fans a purpose. Not very smart from Pelle.
Personally I had no issues with the starting line up or the formation as Barca have proved there's nothing defensive about playing a 4123. I personally would have started with the same players as against Seville as I thought Navas & Sterling's pace and endeavour would have been invaluable against a Villa side plahing their first match at home under a new manager.Well said, mate.
Why on earth did we let a sure striker (Dzeko) go and put all our chips on under-performing Bony?
Look, yes we are top the table blah blah, but it wont hurt to be 2-3 points ahead. People aren't flapping, just upset that we keep dropping easy points. How can we be level with Arsenal after the huge investment this summer? Really, our team is so much stronger with more depth, yet we can't seem to just edge a couple points ahead.
Pelle clearly made wrong decisions, you can't apply Seville match tactics against a bottom team that lost 7 matches in a row, they were too scared to charge at us ffs. 3 holding midfielders... where on earth will creativity come from to unlock their parked bus?
Pelle's first sub was right, if Nacho isn't a striker. But early second half, Fernando should've been subbed for Nacho to give us more weight up front. And Delph subbing Yaya was just needless and gave villa and their fans a purpose. Not very smart from Pelle.