Lionel Messi | Joins Inter Miami (pg4111)
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What is the basis of Zinchenko and Delph at LB, either haven't played there. Even at UFA he only played a few games there, and didn't really show any defensively qualities, that makes him a starting LB for a premier league club. Nevermind one fighting for the title every year.
And if the idea was to get him to be a starting LB, wouldn't we tell PSV to use him there? Or at least try to use him there, and not as an attacking midfielder/winger?
The above premise was "if all we got was Messi:" how would we work it.
That's how is have played it. Zichecnho will be a revelation at fullback. I know this from how he plays, His intelligence, his aggressiveness on defense, his vision and passing will all improve our passing put of the back. And our link between defense and attack will also improve.
Fair enough if you're working on the basis of no other signings you'd need to make the numbers uo but I'm not too sure he would be as good as you mention, same for Delph, we tried playing Fernandinho at full back V Monaco and he was found out in a big way.
You're way out there on this topic. I think it's fine to speculate that a player might be good at a position he doesnt play but you're far too confident in this opinion. Our manager moves players around but it is a two way street and many players who seem like a good fit for a decent position can drown in it because the movements, available options,etc are just too different and they haven't spent years training them.
There's an alternate universe where Zinchenko or Delph or whomever are great LBs. I'm not sure it's in the cards for them at this point. Same with Silva at DM, you're just too strong in your opinion that it would definitely work. I'd love to see it tried, but there's probably better odds on it being a massive disaster than it being something viable. These are crazy experiments you might try (like Kolarov at CB) and find that it clicks and works, not something a smart team should plan their roster around.
Was Dihno found out in a big way? Or was he part of why we could bang in 5 gols against a top end team? I think its debatable.
I appreciate your measured position on the issue. But at the core, I think footballers are footballers. And some are bbetter than others. I look at us philosophically and from what we try to do I can easily conclude we Will be at our best when our players are at their best when in possession.
The more people who know what to do in possession the better we are. This was the main problem with Mangala for me. Same with Sagna. They are players who are at their best when the other team is in possession.
For example, take the Stoke game, our starting LB was Clichy. I've watched the game 2ice now. And I saw nothing Clichy did that any average player wouldn't have been able to accomplish. But I saw a great deal of stuff while in possession that Zichenko would have done a whole lot better than Clichy or Sagna for that matter..
Labels are just that, labels. Its the skill set that matters not the labels. Milner is excelling at LB for Liverpool right now. He is way better than 75% of the LBs in the league. That he is succeeding is not a surprise at all.
As a matter of fact, I used to suggest we play him at RB coz I thought he had the skill set.
I'm no Sherman, but a players label is often not as indicative of his ability to perform at a position as is his skill set.
Take a look at how whoscored describes Zinc's strengths.
Sometimes, these things stare at us. With Zichenko he has fullback written all over him.
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/273257/Show/Oleksandr-Zinchenko
I take your point about how Big clubs shouldn't operate. But I'll put it to you that that is exactly how big clubs often operate. They take advantage of gaps in convention.
Marcelo and Alaba are considered 2 of the best LB in the world today. Neither was a LB originally. 2 big clubs who eschewed convention and ripped the reward.
Moses at Chelsea is another example of a player eschewing labels to succeed at a new position. Valencia at United, and the examples go on and on etc. The idea of converting a skilled player to fullback is almost conventional to be fair. But best still is the fact that Pep wouldn't sit on convention. His own story is one of someone defying conventional boxes. Moving him from fullback to CM to exploit his talent. Its no surprise he doesn't let convention define his view either. I like that :)
As for Silva, we'll discuss that on a different day :-)
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