a) Who can control the game.
b) Someone who can bring the ball out of the defence and recycle possession.
c) Someone who can switch flanks, good at occasional long pass and switching flanks etc.
d) Good defensive shield.
In a ideal situation we can find all of this in a single player, but that'd be difficult/pricey.
Which combination of CB/CM/DM would tick all the boxes above?
Nope, couldn't think of a single player that can do all of that.. except Verratti, but doubt he's interested in joining us.
Can't say for sure if players from other clubs joining us will solve it, so instead I'll just contribute to the thread with the players we got.
Players we have:
a) control the game is basically controlling the tempo of the game = quicken up or slow things/plays down, and this needs good ability in possession and reading the flow of the game -- Herrera at his best (not sure if he can still do it, showed this ability of his when he's playing as holding CDM 2 seasons ago). Just him.. and the two exs (Carrick and Blind).
b) i) bring ball out of defense (aka carry) -- Pogba and Lindelof (also Pereira should be able to do it).
b) ii) recycle possession -- Herrera
++ iii) keeping possession -- Herrera, McTominay and Shaw
+++ iv) transitioning possession upfield -- Herrera
++++ v) ball retention -- Pogba, McTominay and at his best -> Matic (Pereira showed glimpse of it but not convincing, maybe he'll improve it future seasons).
+++++ vi) passing support/options -- Fred and McTominay
c) i) switch flanks -- Pogba (but he's not doing it consistently), and Pereira should be able to do it.
c) ii) long pass (to the front) -- Pogba and Andreas Pereira (yeah Pereira showed it early of this season when he's playing as CDM).
++ iii) building up attacks from the back -- Herrera and Fred
+++ iv) receiving from the back -- Herrera, Fred and Matic
d) i) defensive shield -- McTominay and at his best -> Matic
++ ii) supporting defense -- Fred and Pogba (seriously Pogba can help defend well, only if he's motivated to do it, he showed it plenty of times).
+++ iii) screening defense -- Herrera, Fred and McTominay
*didn't include Lingard and Mata, who definitely can easily be in this list, but they're not showing what they can do this season, so omitted.
*included defenders (Shaw and Lindelof) since they help the midfield.
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What we're lacking are players that can control the tempo and recycling+keeping+transitioning possession well at the back since Herrera is likely leaving or even if he stay, the option is so lacking.
If we're considering budget and the potential difficulty of getting top players who will cost high,
then since we got McT and Fred who provided a lot of those already, and Pogba definitely who if he'll be consistent will almost solve everything, with Pereira whom if he'll improve will provide a good backup option, the target gets broken down to simply two missing options. Didn't include Matic and Herrera for below.
McTominay -- defense, support and retention.
Fred -- build-up, receive and support.
Pereira -- passing, carry? and switch?
Pogba -- passing, switch, retention, carry and support.
Player ??? --- tempo control! missing
Player ??? --- possession! missing
But then controlling tempo is a difficult rare skill, so at best we should just
focus on getting a midfielder who are good at possession.
The player doesn't necessarily have to be a fellow CM or CDM. A CB who can control and direct possession play at the back like a leading general, or a CAM/false WG/false ST who can drop deep to play possession can works wonder just like how Mata and Lingard used to do season before (now they're so bad at doing it, no idea why, but before it works). And the missing jigsaw need not be an expensive one, just as long as he can make our midfield functional to at least almost the fullest.
I second that.