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As pointed out previously by several posters, that midfield doesn't look well conceived or well balanced (especially from a defensive standpoint); and while Pogba has come up leaps and bounds wrt. defensive application, it would be a waste of his talent to sit as a deep-lying playmaker! I would expect two of Bruno, Pogba and van de Beek to start at once in the #10 and # 8 positions in a conventional 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, and the simplest way to incorporate all three into the same starting XI would be to place a proper defensive screen behind them in a run-of-the-mill 4-1-2-1-2:
Works quite well, methinks...
Works quite well, methinks...
- Both Pogba and van de Beek have at least some sort of extended experience as side midfielders and neither with be overburdened with defensive tasks — the former is excellent at dribbling and acting as a vertical creator from midfield and latter scores quite a few goals (close to 30 in the last couple of seasons), so you'd want to give them the added bit of individual freedom to affect things near the opposition's goal — which is something that Ole acknowledges if you read van de Beek's recent interview:
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- Because of Bruno's workrate, the rhombus will be quite robust...front-to-back.
- Tons of flexibility — Bruno can go to #8 while Pogba / van de Beek pop up as attackers, and it will also be easier to create overloads out wide.
- Fred and McTominay can rotate in and out of that rhombus, and you could argue that it will be easier for a youngster like Mejbri to play in a rhombus with 3 seasoned professionals.
- Works very well with our current batch of attackers as well — two of Rashford, Martial, Greenwood can start as the strike-duo.