Even if it was defensively lacking, Kroos and Modric are two of the top 5 central midfielders of the past 20 years when it comes to ball retention. Our midfield lacks defensive and they treat the ball like a hot potato. It’s a double down.
I don't see Eriksen and Casemiro treating the ball like a hot potato. The team needs time to gel.If it finishes that way I still won’t agree with your point, more that vdb shouldn’t be playing, Fred or McTominay should in a game like this and Lindelof is making Watkins look world class
In the position Eriksen is in and Eriksen ahead of them (while Bruno's absence).
Brentford? City?
He was shite earlier in the season too. See Brentford when he was fresh
In a 3. The mistake here was not keeping Eriksen where he’s been playing well but not having the energy of Fred to compensate for Bruno’s energy
This. Such a weird choice to go with DvB instead of an obious choice in Fred.
That was on Lindelof storming out of position and not dealing with it. Had an acre of space to run into after Victor decided to let Watkins pull away. Should’ve just fouled him. Could’ve took away their momentum which just didn’t let off. Fact is we we’re just not at the races and the lack of rotation and having a useless attack costs us.
But if you're being objective, you can't just strike off all the games he was praised for in the exact same position when he was fresh.
It shouldn't be a direct replacement. Change to a 433 with Casemiro anchoring and both Fred and Eriksen having the freedom to float forward while also dropping back. It should suit the three of them (and the team as a whole) far more than trying to shoe-horn any of our midfield options into 4231 when Bruno isn't available.
ETH for whatever does not want to play the 4-3-3. He's avoided like the plague
Bruno doesn't really suit any other formation, so it's somewhat understandable that we focus on 4231 almost all of the time. However it's on ETH if he doesn't recognise that, when Bruno isn't playing, the rest of our midfielders fit better into a 433. It's not like it's a huge change that requires massive tactical adjustment between games.
He was playing as a holding midfielder against Brentford. Should we ignore all his brilliant performances in central midfield against the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea etc?
He was good against Chelsea while playing against RLC and Jorginho. The minute Kovacic came on, he disappeared and they were walking through the midfield.
Yeah, ideally, we'd have De Jong or an alternative similar-ish player in there with Eriksen filling in either there or at #10 as needed. Eriksen and Casemiro have been massive for us, and huge upgrades on what we had, but the midfield is still definitely not the finished article.
This. And the games against Arsenal and Liverpool, we were dominated in midfield by them. We were playing like minnows at home.
Exactly this. We can easily field a team in 433 shape, and that's actually what our squad is fit for. Obviously this will be 4231 with Bruno as the most advanced midfielder/attacker, but without him I thought we will just go for the obvious 433 with Casemiro anchoring and Eriksen+1 as #8s. ETH has been pretty stubborn with Casemiro-Eriksen two man midfield.
At least against Liverpool, we were compact. In the Arsenal game, we had no midfield for 30 minutes till we scored the 2nd goal on the break and Fred came on right after.
The story of our fans. The truth is, they vastly overrated his start to the season. He was decent, but he wasn't pulling up trees. He was offering what we hoped he would offer in the midfield, despite not having elite energy or defensive nous. Casemiro is a better player than him and my hope was he would rotate with Fred consistently. However, it seems like ETH has lost faith in Fred due to how poor his ball retention has been. Eriksen isn't playing higher up the pitch, because in our current set up, he no longer can. He doesn't have the energy or the sharpness to do that anymore. People don't understand how much Bruno actually does for us in his current role. He moves into channels consistently providing options and looking for space when we have possession, he presses like a mad man to cover for Ronaldo, he has to consistently keep moving to avoid tackles as when he's more central he's playing with his back to goal, whilst also providing crosses, shots and key passes and providing himself as a runner. That's a lot of duties and he manages to do them to a decent degree every single game, hardly getting injured. Not saying his form didn't drop, but once Ronaldo joined our team, he's had to take on far more defensive responsibility than someone in his position should and that is something Eriksen would not be able to do in this game. Ronaldo hasn't been the only issue defensively. Sancho also presents a problem at time, particularly when he plays with Ronaldo. In those games, Bruno has to press for three people, as well as still be the sole folcrum of the attack. I'm not sure Eriksen can do that in 2022, which is no indictment. Scholes wouldn't having been able to do that in 2007 either.
Correct.
Except in 2 weeks when he plays that exact position for Denmark in a 3 man midfield with Højbjerg and Delaney behind him…
Baffled that he didn't, VDB will get you the sack.
Could not agree more. He always plays Eriksen cuz he is our only controller/passer in CM. But yeah can't play Ronaldo and VdB ahead of him.
When playing for Denmark, he's not playing behind Ronaldo
