I wonder all along If the plan was timber left back and Zinchenko the number 8 but we never saw it cause timber got injured in game 1
I bet he has a good cross on him like KDB and we just don’t get to see it. I personally do feel he would be even better on the left.
Doesn’t really matter where Odegaard starts or what you call the position, LAM, LCM, RCM, RAM he will be good, my problem with the article is Fabio Vieira.
Having said that I actually think our best midfield would be Rice, Partey, Odegaard with Rice at LCM.
There’s a contingent of twitter “experts”, who are staunch believers that Odegaard is not overlapping enough, thus holding Saka back. They believe ESR or Havertz’s greater movement and willingness to overlap, will diminish the effectiveness of doubling up on Saka.
What they fail to answer to is how that would solve our continuous problems with central access? We have not managed to find our 8s all season and I see that as a much bigger issue, than pointing the blame at Odegaard and wanting to move him for inferior options. I’m all for greater movement and rotations in our front 5, but Odegaard has reached heights none of the other midfield options has come close to. I don’t see anyone replicating his finishing and moving Ode to the left, will limit his goalscoring.
how that would solve our continuous problems with central access?
Because a runner in the 8 let’s Saka and Martinelli drift centrally more often (without losing the width). More difficult to mark in terms of a pressing system because its a far more fluid arrangement, but also a qualitative superiority by getting Saka and Martinelli closer to goal.
People talk about how good he is with Saka but don’t consider how good he could be with Martinelli. I firmly believe he has the potential to be a prolific goal scorer but we’ve never given him the dynamics on the left to fully exploit that imo and even with that handicap he still delivered 15 league goals last season. He should undoubtedly be the one taking the most shots on our team.
Yeah that’s exactly what people fail to realize. There would be a need for some adaptation as our lcm usually has more defensive responsibilities and our rcm has more pressing responsibilities ( and tbh odegaard is our best presser BUT that should not ve the reason to be the starter). Martinelli is our best finisher along with trossard yet he never gets isolated as we do not hace a proper “passer” for him. His output with someone that could feed the ball to him would skyrocket. And odegaard also has an extreme bias for his left foot, which is a main cause for his lack of overlaps. Basically him and saka ocupy the same position if you look at the heat maps.
I could keep going about this, but I really believe either esr or fabio should be playing at rcm. Even with great output, Saka could do much more. And odegaard while great and one of my favorite players should have a different role, more of an enabler due to his skillset imo. Martinelli should be our top scorer yet he’s doing dogwork on the wing this season if we’re being honest, having to take on 1 or 2 players each time just to get in.
Are you suggesting Ode gets benched?
What’s this obsession with people trying to come up with new strategies.
If you’re thinking of it, Mikel has already obsessively and meticulously considered every possible angle and outcome of it.
Inevitably other teams find the tactics to shut down good teams. They need to adapt and evolve. Coming up with new strategies is natural in this process.
Because there’s nothing else to do during international weeks. Let them have their fun.
It’s a pointless discourse people love to engage with, same with potential transfers.
No
Nope. Fuck Havertz, play Viera/Rice as LM.
Havertz now LB
It’s obvious said this months ago
He got 15G/8A from RCM in the PL last season. He should not be the one moved around to accommodate for the others that aren’t performing.
Huh? If a change makes the whole team better, you make the change. Not even saying we should move Odegaard. Just this perspective makes no sense.
Odegaard is great but hasnt been the same this season last season we were a transitional team we thrived off a counterattack and odegaard was great for that but hes not that good when it comes to breaking a low block which is what we desperately need. At LCM he can play that Xhaka role weve been begging for he wont do it as great as Xhaka did but he’s defensively secure enough and will be better offensively, while our RCM can be someone who is more offensively minded and there main role can be that final action like a Vieira, Havertz, ESR or Trossard.
I know he has been injured recently but he hasn’t produced quite the same numbers this season. We have to look at last season as isolated from this season and ultimately the most important thing is getting the best out of the team. I don’t necessarily think it will make us drastically better but it could make us a little better collectively. If it allows Kai’s level to go up and Ødegaard’s level doesn’t drop that much, which I don’t think it will then it could be a net positive. At the very least it is an idea worth considering and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.
I heat you but last season is totally different.
Odegaard hasn’t been performing anywhere close to that level this season. He’s taking shots from outside the box, and he’s not creating chances for others. He’s also not been great foil for Saka, weird considering how good that duo was before
I hear you but I also think Ode could produce similar numbers in the LCM…happy to be proven wrong but I’d at least try it for a few games
Because that’s not what the team needs. Vieira/ESR can do the same from RCM. Also, Saka would be better served with a dynamic player.
MO needs to work more in the build up phase, also his passing will help unlock Martinelli better.
💯. We need to see him grow in that position. More goals and assists. Not make him play somewhere elevate just to fit in an underperformer.
Nah, I don’t see it. Odegaard plays on the right for a reason, I think the risk is too high. Just like ozil way back when, left footed creative players seem to shine more on the right and vice versa - it’s the age of inversion after all. I really think we would have seen ESR more in that lcm role of timber had not injured himself. Would have lent more balance with a right inverted fullback
Not sure why we need to move him. Kai plays LB now and im sure zinny can slot lcm very easily.
Kai LB… cmon man. He played there 1 game. What makes you think he will play LB for us
Clueless downvotes
Irony.
Because it was clearly a joke
Kai has a 100% success rate at LB 😅
100% agree, i think we should sign back giroud in january too so we finally can settle on a nr.1 keeper
He’s too light weight.
Don’t know how the club got themselves into a situation where all 3/4 of our midfielders can only play RCM and the 3 who’ve been tried at LCM all look horrible there.
He’s got good stuff going on with Saka, we do need someone to sync with Nelli.
He also got good stuff going with Martinelli, while Saka always had chemistry with Smith Rowe. It’s normal that people are wondering how to have both at the same time.