See, as if we have different definitions of the term "spine", right? If you see it this way, thats fine. I see it differently and to prevent misunderstandings, I initially asked you to try to explain it.
As far as I know, it wasn't always the CCB to push out, all of Amorims CBs at Sporting were very good on the ball and therefor creating a capable unit with no obvious lever for the opposition to focus on. And De Ligt and Maguire were being hailed for their ball playing ability in the past, I am the last one to defend Maguire here, but if those two seem not good enough on the ball, then probably a different factor that goes into making the system work, is burning rather than their technical level. This is generally pretty good from my point of view, we can talk athleticism and size maybe but compared to other areas of the team, we are much closer to an average level there than we are for example in midfield or on the wings, where I think our options are not suited for anything above 10th place.
I agree, having capable CBs is very important to what I understood Amorims ideas are. And my feeling is, we will bring in another CB. We shouldn't have extended Maguire and brought in a player who suits the system better than he does. But since we did extend him, theres no point of adding another player to the roaster since "Maguire isn't it" and now we won't use him while paying him 200k per week.
I am not against adding to CB but I see way more urgent matters further up the field to spend a lot on a CB, who isn't going to revolutionize our buildup single handedly as it lacks multiple factors, not all being able to rectified by simply throwing money at it.
Lets see how things will turn out. I really struggle to see the strategy behind the players we are linked with lately. All good players but I really struggle to predict, how the squad will look like next season.
Have you kept in touch with our latest overall performances and results though? For all of Brunos doings (and I agree, he prefer the more caring for the ball, less distracted version of him as well) but the team overall hasn't set the world alight at all. We look formidable when being able to play from a compact starting point and attacking the space and with a bit of luck, we are able to look reasonably competent when the opponent is forfeiting the ball mostly and doesn't engange but everything in between isn't great. I personally don't think Bruno playing as CM is a testiment of "he is the best among a few good options" but rather "the other options are so poor, to get by we need to sacrifice our only AM to CM to maintain at least a half-decent level of build up". No doubt, if he could beat a man playing at 10, that would be even better but at the same time, not being good at this isn't great when playing in the middle of the park as well.
