I just wonder how Fred/Pogba will look against the big teams. Fred looks like he has a lot of energy but I'm not sure he can play a "disciplined" role in a way Thomas can.
Tolisso is a decent player and definitely good enough in a rotation role. The biggest issue with him are injuries and how much teams are willing to pay for essentially a backup.
I agree that from a first XI perspective, a specialist DM is more important.
And I don’t think backups need to be cheap and average. We’ve seen this season with Pogba’s injury for example that backups play a lot of football. If they are not good enough to play for you, it is a problem. I’ve seen a lot of rubbish players defended over the years by simply saying ‘he’s a squad player’ - but by one way or another, the likes of O’Shea, Lingard and co seemed to end up in the lineup most weeks for us. Tolisso at the prices touted would be good business, as would VDB. If the players are happy to play the role, then great. Ultimately, I want cover that genuinely believe they can start on merit. Not realistic for all positions at top clubs, because sometimes a real world class player is ahead of you. But if you can have actual competition rather than cover that is condemned to averageness, you should do where possible.