QUOTE (X-Offender @ Mar 15 2024, 10:37 PM)
I'm afraid for Pioli nowadays there are no starters in midfield (aside from Loftus). Adli, Bennacer and Reijnders all could play, depends on his choices. Musah less so, although I thought he was pretty decent last night. Definitely not all over the place.
Personally I'd always play Bennacer and Reijnders. They are by far the best in those roles. But even when he does Pioli for some f*cked up reason will play Bennacer more advanced than Reijnders -___-
Agreed re Bennacer and Reijnders. I don't understand what Pioli sees. RLC is good at carrying and putting himself about but his decision making is atrocious.
Musah I like him a lot, but we need to figure out how best to use him. When he plays in midfield he ends up too wide and he leaves a lot of wide open spaces. I don't understand why he's considered a DM. e's not disciplined in his positioning. Same with RLC, he's great at carrying the ball but he needs to improve on his positioning/decision making.
Our biggest problem this season has been that we cannot control the game through our midfield and our midfield doesn't cover the defense either when we don't have the ball. That is why we're conceding almost as much as a relegation side. For me this is all down to the coaching. Especially now with Benna back there are no excuses. I said in the summer, we're going to spend all this money and neglect the most crucial role in the squad, all because Pioli wanted to give the keys to Krunic. We conceded the season before it even started because of that.
QUOTE (X-Offender @ Mar 15 2024, 10:40 PM)
Also, just wanted to say that I really love Pulisic. He might not be world class, but he fights like a lion and has the mentality of a winner. He only cares about football, unlike someone else I know *cough*Leao*cough* who's too busy with his music career and other off-the-pitch BS.
I love Puli as well, but for me, Rafa is a top top player. And I disagree that he lets the off-field stuff distract. We play a system where he's constantly put in positions where he's double or triple teamed. Someone on twitter posted a vid of Arteta explaining how best to use the wide players by making the extra pass so they can get free. We never do this. We constantly feed the ball to our wingers when they still have 2 players ahead of them.
If we can get the right coach to free up both Leao and Pulisic/Chuk, we'll cook next season. We need someone like an Arteta/Spaletti/Sarri. Someone who knows how to get the team playing in a way that makes the best use of our wings by utilising the midfield properly in the build-up.