After Trent's performance the other night it does appear we are looking at where he plays especially when we have the ball. I'm not totally convinced it's been as thought through as you would hope, more a copycat from Pep that temporarily solves the issues in CM.
If it is how the coaching team and Jürgen see the way forward then we need to recruit accordingly and could be why MacAllister has become a real target as he could easily play they Henderson role the other night as he had the legs for it.
The calls to move Trent into the double pivot role will only intensify and I wouldn't be against that in principle but to do that were totally changing the make up of this side from back to front.
We'd need to buy looking at a new RB at the very least but is also poses mutiple questions further forward. For arguement sake if we lined up like this:
RB Konate Virgil Robertson
Trent Fabinho
Do we then see Gakpo as the 10 with Salah, Diaz wide with Nunez as the 9? This actually does work but then leaves us having to cover four positions with our starting attackers and too many CM not playing, as we will definitely buy at least one of those.
It's more likely that we'll keep Trent at RB and refine the inverted fill back role he's been playing but the CM ahead of him needs to be that one to shift to cover the RB slot. It's really a 2 2 box midfield when Trent moves inside.
The other question is do we want Konate isolated week in week out as well as that will massively impact him.
A lot of questions for how we set up the rest of the season, how this impacts the squad as it stands and more importantly how it impacts our recruitment in the summer.
I hope that it's not a flavour of the month tactic and we haven't thought about how this affects what profile of player we but this summer.
I think Jürgen is planning ahead and using the rest of this seasonās games as a kind letās of try it and see, and if things work out favourably heāll tweak it and bring in those who will make it work better and perhaps even master it,
I think his gegenpress system is done, obviously we no longer have the legs to implement it these days, and others have found a way round and at times thru it, rendering it a pointless exercise,
Trent moving forward is interesting, we seen it against Arse where it almost worked but obviously teething problems and Arsenalās quality curtailed Trentās movement, against Leeds tho it was almost magical, the freedom Trent had gave him the confidence to roam finding himself left side of midfield on more than one occasion, but also freed up space further forward, space Mo can exploit, add the passing accuracy of both Trent and Virgil we can turn defence into attack in a instance,
Jota been selected ahead of Nunez is also interesting, now I know predominantly Jota is our go to striker and he should trump Darwin anyway, however, with Diaz return imminent Jota or indeed Nunez may have to concede that left side, so where do we slot in Jota/Nunez, if Gakpo sits in the hole ? Obviously as central striker, and we all thought, Mane, Bobby & Mo wouldnāt be bettered,
Getting back to Trent briefly, some humble pie will be eaten by yours truly, didnāt imagine Trent would be so good, but he looked so natural didnāt he, as if heād been there for years, but but but, he is still a rwb, and Iām of the opinion that him moving merely shows his versatility, and should only be used if he has sufficient back up, or we indeed bring in a predominant rb !!
YNWA