Our best 11 right now?

BolinCell said:
Mhrez is too predictable, get ball on right never try to beat defender on outside, turns into penalty area, lashes a shot straight at the goalie, or flashes a shot that deflects of a defender, or curls one wide of the post, on the odd occasion scores a worldy. One thing for certain he will very rarely pass.
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Id say he's been one of our best players in recent weeks.
 
BolinCell said:
Mhrez is too predictable, get ball on right never try to beat defender on outside, turns into penalty area, lashes a shot straight at the goalie, or flashes a shot that deflects of a defender, or curls one wide of the post, on the odd occasion scores a worldy. One thing for certain he will very rarely pass.
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Absolute nonsense
 
This notion of mahrez "predictability" and "goes missing against big teams" is absolutely bollocks. Since December this season he has been absolutely brilliant and in the last 18 mths hes scored or assisted against pretty much everyone, after Christmas last year he scored some really important goals Vs Leicester and Chelsea, scored what proved to be the winner against the rags in the league cup, etc. Some of our support just refuse to give the guy the credit he is due for some reason.
 
supercity88 said:
Those names are less "structural" and more based on consistency.

On the list that Billy shared in terms of our structural players, I would remove De Bruyne. I think Ederson, Stones, Dias, Cancelo, Rodri and Gundogan are the key structural players. If any of those aren't in the team then we do lose something (generally).

Ederson - obvious reasons
Stones - solid defensively but also carrying the ball out from defence and enabling space for others
Dias - obvious reasons
Cancelo - our best inverted full back, so creative and vital to how we look to play now
Rodri - obvious in terms of being a key cog in the side. Not always consistent but still a vital structural player
Gundogan - regardless of where he plays he is the one that keeps the ball ticking over and finds pockets of space to operate. Works best when allowed a freedom to move further forwards in my opinion.

De Bruyne I would say is not a structural player. We played some brilliant football last night with him interchanging as a false no 9. He's class of course, but I think he can be swapped in/out of the team more than any of the above without a change in result. I'd have him in it still as much as possible.

Foden and Bernardo are excellent players and I think when Bernardo is on the pitch we get the best out of Mahrez in particular because they are both so good on the ball and so hard to defend against. Foden similarly has so many strings to his bow and makes life incredibly hard for the opposition.
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Well I agree with your point. I added Bernado and Foden and removed Gundogan and Kev because the presence of those 2 ignites our 'Press' game. Which to me is a Structural part of how we want to play.

Our Structure in my mind is built on the underlying principle of "Owning Possession.' That's out Structure.

That Principle is then achieved with the following.

1. Playing out of the back: Ederson, Stones, Cancelo

2. Keeping possession: Stones Rodri, Dias, Perhaps Gundogan and Bernado

3. High Pressing: Foden, Bernado, Jesus

I think we keep Possession just as well with Bernado as we do with Gundogan, Hence why I didn't consider him structural. But I can see how he is viewed that way as he often epitomizes keeping possession.
 
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At the moment it's ederson, walker, stones, Dias, cancelo, rodri, Bernardo, gundogan, foden, KDB, mahrez for me.
 
I genuinely don't believe we have a single best starting eleven. It will vary dependent on the strength of the opposition IMO.

I think we could probably name a core spine of the team around which the starting elevens would be selected.
 
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