QUOTE (X-Offender @ Sep 25 2015, 09:21 PM)
Diego Lopez; Calabria, Zapata, Romagnoli, De Sciglio; De Jong, Montolivo, Bertolacci; Bonaventura; Balotelli, Luiz Adriano.
I'd rather have De Jong as anchor and Montolivo as CM. De Jong as CM is very one-dimensional. At least as holding mid he can provide good cover to our defense.
I think you have to look at the De Jong-Monto issue in a different way
Technically speaking he's playing in the position that a CM occupies, true, but the role he's playing is different. De Jong in the centre simply stifles the entire flow of our midfield imo. I think we've seen him play there enough to be pretty familiar with this.
Switching Monto and him around imo gives us the added benefit of someone who can put his foot on the ball in the centre of midfield and direct the game (sort of since Monto isn't really all that great at it but much better than any of the others in our midfield). Plus by playing both of them in this way, we still have the physical aspects of De Jong's game and his ball winning skills while also having Monto in there who helps our midfield flow better.
Also great to see that Honda is finally benched
Any word on Mexes and if he's fit? I really do think we need a leader in there. Our defence holds stable as long as there's no pressure but once the opposition apply even a pin-prick of it, we simply open the flood gates