Interesting thread with a spectrum of opinions.
“Modern football” as it is popularly termed now is a high press system. 5 years ago, modern football was tiki-taka. Anyhow, high-press is essentially a quick counter system, with the added component of winning the ball high up the pitch when lost in the opponents third.
To implement a high-press system, you need three quick forwards and three quick midfielders that can converge to the ball quickly, causing mistakes by the opposition, then playing quickly in attack. We have the forwards, we don’t have the midfielders. Matic is too slow to the ball. Pogba is very fast, but not quick. Lukaku is fast, and decently quick, but not like Rashford.
Matic, Fellaini, McTominay all have their utility, they just cannot play this system. Too slow. Don’t get me wrong, there are few players that have scored more important goals for the club than Fellaini, but he’s not an option in a high press system.
In defence, for a high-press system, you need ball playing CBs, but also, once the ball is lost and not recovered in the opponents third, the entire team drops and becomes very compact. Fullbacks support attack on the wings.
To play this style, actually, both defence and forwards are pretty decent options. Lingard is ideal for this system because of his high work rate. He’s essentially like a poor man’s Dele Alli. Rashford, Martial and Sanchez all fit this system. Lindelof, Bailly, Shaw and Dalot are great options, Jones and Smalling less so, but not a disaster.
The area that we need to improve is midfielders who can win the ball quickly and recycle possession.