Xavi isn't a CM, hes an AM. I'm talking someone who can recive the ball deep on the turn even and who can conduct. Someone who has a vision of the pitch in thier mind and can orchestrate. None of our CMs can do this, the two we are playing today can only pass backwards. Neither of them are at fault per se but it effects the structure of our play, it means we can never build up or flow with the ball.
Maddison would be our best option, despite primarily being an AM as he has the tools required for that sort of role,but that's obviously not available to us.
I think we'd have been better going 532 rather than 523 today with an extra CM in there as opposed to having 3 attackers