Great result today, overjoyed with the mental fortitude that the players out there showed to come back and win it, but it still goes to show how reliant we are on the individuals that are on the pitch and their quality on the day.
I've touched on this before, but to me it's fascinating how much the CDM role changes depending on who's playing there. When Matic plays there he plays in his way, when Fred plays there he does his thing, when McTominay plays there he does what he likes to do in that role. When Telles plays LB we put in a lot more crosses (regardless of the recipient) than when Shaw does. When Cavani plays he plays like a proper striker and makes proper strikers' runs, and when Martial plays there he comes short to receive the ball in deep positions. I mean, surely there has to be some idea as to what the coaching team wants the CDM to do in a certain phase of play? How can it change that much depending on who's occupying the position?
I'm still at the point where I don't see the coaching improving players or instructing them to play in a certain way, other than their own preferred playing style. It's still like the team gets told to "go out there and have fun" every time they enter the pitch, and depending on who's on the pitch that "fun" looks different every week. Still of the opinion that an Ole team will never be better than the sum of their parts, and with this current board we're never going to spend our way past the teams above us.