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Sandro Tonali Official
- Thread starter LutonSpurs
- Start date
Gazza
Christian Ziege
He’s going to be our new Carrick isn’t he?
Yiddo.1882
Øyvind Leonhardsen
No, that’s Fernandes.
Gazza
Christian Ziege
Maybe both
Daisuk
Jimmy Cantrell
I hadnt watched much of Tonali before he joined us, but his abilities are clear as day, in my opinion, even though everything doesnt come off at the moment. As soon as the team starts functioning better together, he will glue that midfield together like Carrick did, indeed.
revlis
Nick Barmby
Meaning he'll get a lot of brick from fans because most of the work he does is invisible/the minute details?
metalgear
Paul Stewart
Bishop
Ian Walker
I thought he had a good game. The issues we had this match I don't think came from the midfield partnership, it's the lack of a real 10 or the counter point to what Bentancur and Tonali offered. There wasn't a balance in play styles and attributes.
Bishop
Ian Walker
The problem is Gallagher was playing as the 10 so for his good off the ball actions there weren't many quality on the ball moments and what we need from an 10 are good on the ball actions.
Yiddo.1882
Øyvind Leonhardsen
On paper Tonali and Fernandes compliment each other perfectly and are the counter balance, I think a lot of people are completely underestimating the defensive contributions Fernandes will make while his passing range is a huge step up over Bantancur.
He was being loosely linked with PSG at the end of last season and it was for his defensive contributions, £85m for Fernandes to play as the #10 is a waste of money, £85m for Fernandes as the #6 will be looked at as a steal in 2 years time.
ricky2tricky4city
Gary Stevens
What we don't know at this stage, is whether losing what Gallagher DID give us (stats above), would lead to more defending for us or possession/pressure from the opposition?
I don't think this is RDZ being cautious, mostly just personnel available.
Bishop
Ian Walker
Yeah I agree I don't think he did it to be cautious. We simply don't have an available player for the role currently and he's picking between options to see who can cover it best for now.
Some think it should be Marmoush although I disagree as he's more a SS than a 10 and so I don't think he solves the structure issues not having a real 10 poses in this system. Some think maybe Kudus can be it, some might even Bergvall and obviously we've seen Gallagher and Fernandes tried there. For now it just feels like a square peg in a round hole until one of Kulu or Maddison is available.
MartyFunkhouser
Vivian Woodward
I think the idea many went with on Marmoush was having him as the SS at the expense of a 10 because he still does alot of work deeper whilst also not being a 9 to occupy the box or defenders enough.
For Tonali we clearly have a very very fine player here
metalgear
Paul Stewart
perhaps but its an extra man in midfield and more space up front for tonali to then play his line breaking passes or runs forwards - which he did sparingly. lots of safe running passing backwards. of course, early days and he's got to get used to marmoush habits
johnaliola
Edgar Davids
This is the guy. I am convinced he is the one who can be the catalyst to better things.
Bedfordspurs
Bert Smith
Agree with all of that
But Bentacur has been better than both which i think causes RDZ a selection issue
I’d really like a 2 man midfield instead of 3 which is what we have seen
Bishop
Ian Walker
But Tonali isn't in the team to play line breaking passes. He can play them occasionally but surely we haven't bought him for that as it's not a strength of his. I get your thinking re having an extra body but it's a trade-off when that extra body doesn't add anything on possession.
metalgear
Paul Stewart
why not, tonali as the deepest midfielder needs to be that third man to pass through the midfield - its a key de zerbi tactic and hence baiting the press.
also alongside bentancur, i feel that tonali needs to play higher up the pitch to take advantage of his ball carrying ability.
anyway like what de zerbi said, it will take time and at the very least, credit to Tonali for being conservative - if not too conservative for our own good and leaving us outnumbered in midfield (case in point - van hecke would have easily cleared that disputed forest goal that tonali fumbled)
Bishop
Ian Walker
Why not? Because that's not his strength. Sure you can ask him to do it but you won't get a particular great result doing so. Tonali can pass, but that really isn't what he's there for and if that's the expectation he's a bad buy because you don't pay £100m for Tonali's passing range. It's just not of that standard.
Fernandes is more suited to that role between the 3 starting quality CMs we have. If you want a midfielder to break the lines with their passing its Fernandes who should be the one doing it and I expect that is exactly why we bought him. That is his strength much more so than Bentancur or Tonali.
For me it's fairly obvious that a midfield 3 of Fernandes, Tonali & Bentancur/Gallagher is too static and that blend doesn't cover all the roles needed in a 433/4231. If we were to play this way then you have to put so much more importance on the creativity and quality of the wings. As that is where the playmaking, incision, precision and goal scoring would all have to come from. Ala Liverpool circa the Klopp era with Mane and Salah. We don't have wide players of that quality or even skillset blend to do this so we do need to spread this responsibilities into the more traditional 10 area.
The general system I see lots of green shoots for, it's just lacking that 10 that is causing a lot of issues. We are unable to drive at defences or really pierce through the lines with quality. I do think it will come when Kulu and Maddison are back up and running at full speed, it's just that full speed might take a while.
Muttley
Simon Davies
De Zerbi was even talking the other day about how much time Fernandez has spent playing as a 10 during his youth football. I think what may have happened is that he ended up at Saints and Hammers in tough league situations and got deeper and deeper. Perhaps our manager wants to release him back to the more attacking areas of the pitch.