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Juan Mata

What are Eriksen, Siggy and Holtby's positions then? All 3 played predominantly in that role for their previous clubs.

I'm not sure many teams now accommodate a #8 and a #10. We did with vdV and Modric I guess, but Modric's defensive work was unusually good. I'd still like to see more of what Capoue can do in the deeper ballplaying role, as he looked a lot better passer than Dembele or Paulinho.

Longer term I don't think AVB wants to use a #10 anyway. He'll have both Lamela and Eriksen being creative from the flanks in a 4-3-3.
 
mattls said:
With the Valencia friends connection it could work and if Mata wants to come.

Lemala - He's still a few years away from making an impact on the premiership, we need something now otherwise it's 6th or 7th place at best. I meet him 2 weeks ago and he's so lightweight, he needs to bulk up more.
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Well we don't know when he will come good, if ever, but 2-3yrs seems a bit of a stretch. For that sort of money I would expect more instant payback.

For me Lamela looks a bit better when he comes inside, from the right especially, so why not play him in there from the get go. Our other options, Holtby and Eriksen, have not really worked out so far for various reasons. And although Lamela has not set the world on fire he does at least try to pick a through pass or try a mazy little run.

I'd love Mata but that's a non-runner really.
 
Both Sigurdsson and Holtby would be better as box-to-box midfielders in a 4-3-3 IMO. Eriksen plays in the hole or not at all I think.
 
Would love us to sign Mata but never going to happen from a club who signed Willian largely just to stop us from getting him it seems.

Oh to have an attack with this level of creativity...

@Footy_Jokes: Once upon a time in Valencia.
BVU7qunIUAACTQY.jpg
 
love Mata, but it's a complete and utter non-starter. That tinpot bunch of russian rentboy pikeys would never sell to us. No chance of us getting him. As SteveAWOL said, they signed Willian not because they needed him, but primarily to stop us getting him FFS.
 
Eriksen played the creative role in a 433 for Ajax, or so i have read.

I feel alongside Sandro and Paulhino (or Capoue/Dembele) is where he should be used for us with two wide/inside forwards supporting the CF.

Don't think we really need a no.10 as such.
 
billyiddo said:
Eriksen played the creative role in a 433 for Ajax, or so i have read.

I feel alongside Sandro and Paulhino (or Capoue/Dembele) is where he should be used for us with two wide/inside forwards supporting the CF.

Don't think we really need a no.10 as such.
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Admittedly I haven't really seen enough of Eriksen yet, but if Modric could play CM, then so can he I suppose.
 
billyiddo said:
Eriksen played the creative role in a 433 for Ajax, or so i have read.

I feel alongside Sandro and Paulhino (or Capoue/Dembele) is where he should be used for us with two wide/inside forwards supporting the CF.

Don't think we really need a no.10 as such.
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I could live with that, but don't think we have a left inside forward to be able to do that (unless we try Ade out there or Chadli starts looking good)


Jordinho said:
Admittedly I haven't really seen enough of Eriksen yet, but if Modric could play CM, then so can he I suppose.
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Modric was a lot tougher and more dogged than Eriksen.
 
Stopped reading after the first paragraph as Chlesea would NEVER sell to us, especially with Mournihio there now.
 
We already tried to get him in the summer. AVB said prior to the Arsenal game I think, that we'd made an enquiry but were rebuffed as they didn't want to sell to a rival. From there we moved on to Eriksen.
 
The problem is, even if we did try to sign someone better for that position it would kill off any confidence that the three of our no.10 players actually still have.

Eriksen is definitely a natural number ten player, even if he hasn't yet hit high heights for us there. Sigurdsson did well in that role with Swansea. Holtby played there for Schalke and did a goob job.

I think the reason it's even being suggested that none of them are number tens is AVB. His overcoaching of them has resulted in them losing their flair and creativity. I bet you, if Eriksen was with a team more reliant on flair he would do a better job.

By the way, I would argue Man Utd play functional football like us, and have done for years now, not expansive football. They are just far better at it and have two strikers better than any player we have dig them out of holes time and time again.
 
billyiddo said:
Eriksen played the creative role in a 433 for Ajax, or so i have read.

I feel alongside Sandro and Paulhino (or Capoue/Dembele) is where he should be used for us with two wide/inside forwards supporting the CF.

Don't think we really need a no.10 as such.
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The thing is once be move form 2 in the centre to 3 in the centre we not longer need to play 2 physical central midfielders.
The reason we have should physical midfielders to so the 2 can compete with 3 man midfields.
But with 3 we'd control the midfield based on just numbers alone. We'd be better off play 2 creative players in that 3 man midfield. So we're only need one of sandro,capoue,dembele or paulinho really. We'd effectively have 4 players competing for one position.
 
well id assume that in a 3 man midfield either Paulhino or Dembele would be freed up to make more runs in to the box - Paulhino already does that a fair bit for us tbf and for Brazil quite a lot. Sigurdsson/Holtby being other options should that not be the case.
 
Seeing as this is turning into who plays in midfield, check our second goal tonight. Sig, Holtby and Dembele being the main instigators. They were all in and around the box with Townsend sitting near the edge too. Dont think there was anyone on our left flank
 
I've watched eriksen since he came on the scene and he always looked like a Modric type until the last 18 months when he has become more of a number 10

What he doesn't seem to have yet (and was notorious for it at Ajax) is any fight about him. He was known to go kissing I games mainly against poorer sides who are more physical (ring any bells???)

Hotlby himself has said he wants to be a box to box player and that looks his ideal position to me and I'd like to see hi replace Paulinho with a fixed role there

Siggy is a limited players in my view. I was chuffed to get him but he generally IMO shows very little creativity and awareness and seems to be about getting in the end of the move rather than instigating it. He can shoot for sure but I don't see another dimension to his game

We have to find someone soon or scrap the system.... In fact the on,y spurs number 10 I've seen who actually looks like one is Pritchard at Swindon :(

Lamella could do the job from the YouTube footage I've seen

Lennon has done it once and looked great but that was a surprise tactic

Ade looks our best option at the moment IMO as he holds the ball in the right places and generally does link up play

The one player with all the tools and one of the nous is Dembele.... He could be the prefect player in that role if only he played an attacking rather than sideways role and could shoot better :)
 
Glenn Hoddle
Zinedine Zidane
Michel Platini
Gheorghe Hagi


…my kinda 10s…

…their like has become a rare breed indeed…

We need a Cruyff clone, or Cruyff/Hoddle hybrid...
 
thfcsteff said:
Glenn Hoddle
Zinedine Zidane
Michel Platini
Gheorghe Hagi


…my kinda 10s…

…their like has become a rare breed indeed…

We need a Cruyff clone, or Cruyff/Hoddle hybrid...
Click to expand...

Yeah - a bit like the classic poacher, they sort of died off after the 80s and 90s as too much of a luxury.

At least they've been replaced by the Modric/Xavi/Moutinho breed, who do the pretty passing and put in a defensive shift too.
 
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