Completely agree with your analysis on the tactics.
The dying on the hill though is the biggest worry. He has decided this years tactics "suit" the squad he has. And the reason he hasn't done short term changes to a defensive shape is because when people come back to fitness, he believes the current style will suit the squad.
I just cant see it at all. All of our attackers are better suited to counter attacks with space in behind to attack. None of our midfielders have the legs to play the solo 6 role. Our back 4 (especially CBs) are really slow and unsuited to a high line. We are almost perfectly suited to a deep block counter style, and completely unsuited for high press or intricate build up. Boggles the mind he cant see it.
I think ETH's latest interview with Gnev addresses your points. Gary asks him if has considered switching back to a more pragmatic approach.
He says he has but he was first of brought in to instill a proactive approach and second he believes the full squad is more suitable to this proactive approach. He says if you switch to pragmatic approach during injuries and you don't get the results everyone loses confidence (probably means in him as much as anything), which is true, just ask mourinho! He also says that when players do come back, he'll have to switch back and it would be problematic. The thing is we've not really had these players come back properly at all the whole year!
It's along the lines of what I said, he's made his bed and he'll have to sleep in it. For what it's worth, I thînk a good chunk of the squad could easily fall under the 'proactive' side. Shaw, martinez, onana, dalot, mainoo, garnacho, mount, malacia and hojlund all fall in this category. Problem is 4 of these have been injured throughout. Another 3 are young players and onana is... Onana haha. Antony fits the bill too but is just not very good.
The rest of the squad is in line with what you said. Bruno can adapt. Maybe a couple more but so many others just don't. Ideally, our turnover of the squad would have been much faster but it's just not happened.