Is left back really a problem?

If Cancelo plays right back, laporte or Ake are ideal for left back as they are very comfortable on the left of the 3 when we have possession.
If he is 1st choice right back next season, I don't think we need a new left back.
 
Is Zinchenko now a genuine left back? He lacks a little pace but our defense still looks pretty decent with him there and his positional play has improved immensely. He's also a pretty good ball player when Pep plays full backs in midfield
Weak points is that he still isn't the strongest defender and he lacks a bit when overlapping but really not bad.
I reckon Ake could do a pretty good job there as well if we needed someone a bit stronger defensively. A really high class left back might improve us but nothing like as much as a high class striker at the moment.
 
We still need a left back. Ake might be more injured than mendy at this point and hasn't proven himself yet.

Zinchenko has been fantastic but this stop-gap approach I think has been hurting us over the long term. Every summer we go through with the mentality of "that's fine, X would do a job, we don't need to get a leftback" and I think it's due that we actually acquire another one, whether to fight zinchenko for game time or to replace mendy who's clearly not good enough.
 
It is a really interesting topic and I am sure Pep and his staff with Txiki aren't sure yet what to do in the summer.

Zinchenko gives Pep exactly what he wants in all aspects of the game with the current setup. Not many full backs in football can play like Zinchenko. They are mostly attack forward players but if we have Cancelo on the right doing that then we need the balance on the left.

If Cancelo doesnt play though and we have Walker then we need the LB to be an outlet and Zinchenko isn't the best at that, this is where a 'Mendy' or someone comes in.

Should we win the prem this year we would have won 3 titles with Delph and Zinchenko as the LB, its a bit ridiculous just saying that. If it all goes tits up next year then we will be the first to kick off and say we never bought a LB but as things stand, I dont think any LB in football gets in over Zinchenko for Pep.

I guess the best option is we move on Mendy, find another young and talented forward thinking LB to change with Zinchenko and play in games where Pep wants the LB to be forward and not the RB etc. I don't think Mendy will ever give us this again sadly. I think the rumours of someone like Rayan Aït Nouri back this up, the obvious answer seemed to be already here in Angelino but for whatever reason he just didn't fit and to be fair, given the option of rotating with Zinchenko or being the starter for Leipzig its an easy choice to make.
 

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