Can we play the diamond with Pogba's return and Rashford missing?

[Giggsyking]

I was thinking of the best starting 11 when Pogba comes back, we will have 5 midfielders, McTominay, Fred, Pogba, Bruno and Matic.
We can play 4 of them in the middle with the diamond formation specially with the injury of Rashford and our lack of attackers?

----------- Fred
Mctominay----Pogba
--------Bruno
Mason-----Marial

Or should we stick with 3 man midfield and rotate?

 

[VP89]

Does Pogba have a return date?

 

[Rozay]

Feck Pogba.

 

[Giggsyking]

Does Pogba have a return date?

I read he wants to be at least in the bench against City 8th March!

 

[Giggsyking]

Feck Pogba.

He must play and perform if we want to sell him for good money.

 

[ManchesterYoda]

2 defensive FBs, 2 b2b midfielders and a front 4 is best for us. My favoured front 4 would be Rashford and Greenwood as wide forwards with Bruno and Pogba as no.10s, rotating the false 9 position. With Rashford injured, Martial and Greenwood. With Pogba "injured", Mata and Bruno.
So next game Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Maguire, Shaw; McTominay, Fred; Mata, Bruno, Greenwood, Martial. Mata is not playing on the right, he's playing as a no.10, central. Greenwood right, Martial left with Mata and Bruno central.

 

[Santoryo]

Feck Pogba.

I was going to say you lots are relentless then realised it's you, so probably just trolling.

Though this thread is still going to devolve into a Pogba shitfest, some people are just whiny petty bitter morons who can't help themselves.

 

[Giggsyking]

I was going to say you lots are relentless then realised it's you, so probably just trolling.

Though this thread is still going to devolve into a Pogba shitfest, some people are just whiny petty bitter morons who can't help themselves.

There is many other threads about Pogba, the last thing I want is another Pogba discussion.

 

[Santoryo]

There is many other threads about Pogba, the last thing I want is another Pogba discussion.

I hope you get your wish because I'd like to have a decent discussion about the prospect of having Pogba together with Bruno in our midfield. In fact I'd like to talk about a scenario where all of Pogba, Rashford, Martial and Bruno are fit, playing at the top of their game in the same line up. That prospect is very exiting and mouthwatering.

Problem with this place nowadays is that you have way too many petty posters far too bitter to entertain any decent discourse surrounding Pogba without resorting to childish outburst and vilifying of his character, so it's extremely hard to have a thread which include Pogba as part of a topic not going off the rails.

 

[TrustInOle]

I was thinking of the best starting 11 when Pogba comes back, we will have 5 midfielders, McTominay, Fred, Pogba, Bruno and Matic.
We can play 4 of them in the middle with the diamond formation specially with the injury of Rashford and our lack of attackers?

----------- Fred
Mctominay----Pogba
--------Bruno
Mason-----Marial

Or should we stick with 3 man midfield and rotate?

When he is fit, add Rashford in place of Greenwood and I am too excited to see that front 3! Martial and Rashford already link well together, imagine adding Bruno to the mix.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I assume we're referring to Saul Pogba... Paul's long lost brother?

 

[Giggsyking]

2 defensive FBs, 2 b2b midfielders and a front 4 is best for us. My favoured front 4 would be Rashford and Greenwood as wide forwards with Bruno and Pogba as no.10s, rotating the false 9 position. With Rashford injured, Martial and Greenwood. With Pogba "injured", Mata and Bruno.
So next game Wan-Bissaka, Bailly, Maguire, Shaw; McTominay, Fred; Mata, Bruno, Greenwood, Martial. Mata is not playing on the right, he's playing as a no.10, central. Greenwood right, Martial left with Mata and Bruno central.

 

[Denis' cuff]

When he is fit, add Rashford in place of Greenwood and I am too excited to see that front 3! Martial and Rashford already link well together, imagine adding Bruno to the mix.

yep - feels like we’ve actually got things to look forward to.

 

[Giggsyking]

I would go so If Pogba returns next week.

 

[Lynty]

Hate diamond personally

 

[ManchesterYoda]

Yes, but I prefer Bailly and Romero over Lindelof and De Gea. I wanted Ziyech and think Rashford, Bruno, Pogba, Ziyech front 4 would have been amazing. With Greenwood able to fill in for any of those 4.

 

[Rolaholic]

I was thinking of the best starting 11 when Pogba comes back, we will have 5 midfielders, McTominay, Fred, Pogba, Bruno and Matic.
We can play 4 of them in the middle with the diamond formation specially with the injury of Rashford and our lack of attackers?

----------- Fred
Mctominay----Pogba
--------Bruno
Mason-----Marial

Or should we stick with 3 man midfield and rotate?

Switch out McSauce with Fred and we might have something here. Width on the wings might be a problem given the FB's we have at our disposal but I really would love to see how a diamond would look at some point this season given the MF's we have presently.

We wouldn't be lacking for creativity that's for sure

 

[Pexbo]

Novel idea - players get benched when we’ve got a fit squad. Romero is one of our most consistent performers but we've never tried to crow bar him into a side with De Gea.

 

[bosnian_red]

Novel idea - players get benched when we’ve got a fit squad. Romero is one of our most consistent performers but we've never tried to crow bar him into a side with De Gea.

Not really comparable. If we have everyone fit (even with Rashford), it absolutely makes sense to try to fit them all on. Push Pogba into a further attacking role with Bruno, behind 2 strikers (Martial and Rashford or 1 other while hes out), and have the base of Fred and McTominay behind. If we had a 3red attacker who was good enough to start every week, itd be different. But considering our options there vs the midfield, it makes sense and we should do it.

 

[bosnian_red]

I'd personally tell Pogba to play a left wing/wide attacker role, straight replacement for Rashford and let the rest of the team stay as is (and keep rotating that right wing between Greenwood and James... lean Greenwood more). Onviously hes a completely different player, but I have little doubt he'd be able to do it really well, especially playing alongside Bruno. He produces so many of his best moments from those areas, can dribble, can cross, can create, can shoot from range, etc. Think itd work really well.

 

[Zlatattack]

I was thinking of the best starting 11 when Pogba comes back, we will have 5 midfielders, McTominay, Fred, Pogba, Bruno and Matic.
We can play 4 of them in the middle with the diamond formation specially with the injury of Rashford and our lack of attackers?

----------- Fred
Mctominay----Pogba
--------Bruno
Mason-----Marial

Or should we stick with 3 man midfield and rotate?

Stick with a 3 man midfield and rotate. We're in Europa, FA Cup and chase for CL spot.

 

[Pexbo]

Not really comparable. If we have everyone fit (even with Rashford), it absolutely makes sense to try to fit them all on. Push Pogba into a further attacking role with Bruno, behind 2 strikers (Martial and Rashford or 1 other while hes out), and have the base of Fred and McTominay behind. If we had a 3red attacker who was good enough to start every week, itd be different. But considering our options there vs the midfield, it makes sense and we should do it.

Its reductio ad absurdum, but the gist of it is true. You need a mix of players, a balance. Throwing as many creative midfielders in as you can and leaving them light on players to distribute to is not a good idea.

James and Chong didn’t have a huge impact individually last night but their positioning was important. They both hugged the touch line, linked up with Shaw well and the little one twos around the final third on the left wing created width and made pockets for Bruno, Mata and Fred to take advantage off. That’s just one example, but loading our midfield because they’re our best players will lose that sort of balance.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Would prefer to see him on the left wing as an inside playmaker, similar to Payet/Nasri.

With Rashford out and James not in great form it would be the best way to keep the base of Fred/Mctominay and have Bruno ahead still.

 

[bosnian_red]

Its reductio ad absurdum, but the gist of it is true. You need a mix of players, a balance. Throwing as many creative midfielders in as you can and leaving them light on players to distribute to is not a good idea.

James and Chong didn’t have a huge impact individually last night but their positioning was important. They both hugged the touch line, linked up with Shaw well and the little one twos around the final third on the left wing created width and made pockets for Bruno, Mata and Fred to take advantage off. That’s just one example, but loading our midfield because they’re our best players will lose that sort of balance.

I agree with the point (very important for squad building especially), but with our likely situation for the last 2 months, I think Pogba can play that left wing role tbh. A bit differently to how Rashford played it, but I definitely think he can, and if we have them all fit, Ole has to find a way to get them all in (especially considering the alternative is starting both James and Greenwood every week).

 

[Pexbo]

I agree with the point (very important for squad building especially), but with our likely situation for the last 2 months, I think Pogba can play that left wing role tbh. A bit differently to how Rashford played it, but I definitely think he can, and if we have them all fit, Ole has to find a way to get them all in (especially considering the alternative is starting both James and Greenwood every week).

My point is that Pogba won’t. No way in hell he’s going to be shifted left and sacrifice himself for the team so our new main man Bruno can run the show centrally.

 

[cyril C]

My point is that Pogba won’t. No way in hell he’s going to be shifted left and sacrifice himself for the team so our new main man Bruno can run the show centrally.

This is also my point. If Pogba is a team man then we won't have so much problem in the past 3 years . Pogba is a show man, Ole and the team, possibly most of the fans, have had enough. I will play him as backup to Bruno, if he performs like Matic, good headache, if not then bench forever.

 

[MikeKing]

If we really needed to take the risk of playing him, the most realistic reason for it would be lack of quality options and if we avoid major injuries to key players I don't see it happening. His position would then be wherever we need him to fill in, depending on who is injured. I currently rate Martial ahead of him as an attacker and Fred ahead of him as a midfielder. If Bruno got injured I suppose he could play in the midfield in front of McTominay and Fred, but I don't see Fred-Pogba-Bruno as a midfield and you can't drop Fred. I don't see why we'd need Pogba, what we need is someone like Sancho or Odegaard, and probably another DM to upgrade or push McTominay.

 

[Hawks2008]

We don't have the full backs to make a diamond work.

 

[stepic]

When have we ever consistently played the diamond formation in our history? Yet it gets proposed every few months on the caf. Don’t get it.

 

[stepic]

Feck Pogba.

fecking yawn

 

[Aouer-United]

So how pressing would work? It doesn't look like we could press on front. Who will track back winger/fullback's run?

I'd prefer 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 with pogba sitting deeper as his long passing and his on-ball can bring us to progressive ball higher. Bruno play in the line between wingers/striker and have a free form anywhere to link up with forwards/midfield.

 

[Darlington Padgett]

Are we not going to talk about how good Bruno and Mata are together? I know Pogba is a star but those two are really working well together. Why mess with that? Mata won his place and seems to be the one helping Bruno be at his best.

----------- Fred
Mctominay----Bruno
--------Mata
Mason-----Marial
If Mata goes back to his bad form Pogba gets a chance.

 

[GailSpaceWynand]

We are having the same diamond discussions in 2 other threads. One is the best midfield when everyone is fit and other being Pogba Fernandes thread.

 

[UDontMessWith24]

Who do we have that’s naturally suited to play the 6 in that formation? Wouldn’t be surprised if it was Bruno but we depend on what he does in attack heavily so he has to stay where he is

 

[Florida Man]

What really is the benefit of a diamond when what we're doing currently seems to be working pretty well already?

Also, I gave up on Pogba appearing for us this season, but my curiosity wonders what a Pogba-Bruno partnership looks like.

 

[#07]

What really is the benefit of a diamond when what we're doing currently seems to be working pretty well already?

Also, I gave up on Pogba appearing for us this season, but my curiosity wonders what a Pogba-Bruno partnership looks like.

Exactly. Don't change your system to shoehorn players into the starting lineup. Make sure you recruit players to suit your formation and philosophy.

 

[Giggsyking]

What really is the benefit of a diamond when what we're doing currently seems to be working pretty well already?

Also, I gave up on Pogba appearing for us this season, but my curiosity wonders what a Pogba-Bruno partnership looks like.

the benefit is you dont need many attackers which we lack at the moment because of the Rashford's injury.

 

[cyril C]

Hate diamond personally

Don't give credit card to your girl friend. Seriously, to play diamond like Chelsea did during Mourinho, you need good wingback / fullback to cover your flank. Alternative is to play 352 but then it is not a diamond.

 

[Drainy]

4-2-3-1 with Pogba on the left of the 3 when defending, Bruno in the 10


4-3-3 when attacking, Pogba on the left of the midfield 3 and Bruno pushing up into a false 9 position

 

[TRUERED89]

I would go so If Pogba returns next week.

Lacks width, so more responsibility for the fullbacks, but surely we’d boss most midfields with the diamond.

I’d swap McT and Fred positions though to how you’ve done it.