With Ashley Young playing RCB in a back three, it translates to essentially a 2-6-2 because he attacks the flank so well and isn’t really a post-up defender that his position requires. This will either be a master-stroke to control the midfield or they’re gonna get steamrolled.
Agreed. Bilva may be my favorite current footballer, even granted that there are a handful of elite players objectively better than him. I maybe found him slightly more fun to watch last season than this, but every match I watch him in amazes me.
And that happened right after Fernandinho went off for Sane, B. Silva moved in as the 8, and Sterling went right wing. Which was a change I was hoping for (swap Sane for Gundo) when Gundo went down injured near the end of the first half, because of how stacked Man U's back 5 was against the inverted wingers
It's been interesting to see how KDB's prolonged absences have impacted Pep's "dual-free-8" concept that was deployed for so much of last year. It's a skillset he's much more suited for alongside Bilva than Dilva or Gundogan are.
KDB is probably the most deadly passer on the team when fit, so he can create ball progression from central, deep, *and* wide, or find the final pass around the box, or take the shot himself, and he has the pace to get anywhere he needs to be. I feel like Dilva and Gundogan can both do a subset of those things but maybe not all of them.
Pretty sure everyone agrees that the contact was exaggerated by Fabinho Issue is the disciplinary committee isn’t penalizing them.
As a wise man once said -- I think it was PT Barnum -- no one has ever gone broke overestimating the odds of an Arsenal or Spurs collapse.
