Chelsea (A) 13/08/23 - 16:30 BST

[Craig_H]

A team can justify carrying a guy who is still a regular game changer but we are carrying a guy that is not a game changer in his current role or rarely is.


All I know is when he is central he looks bang average most of the time with a few nice glimpse. Might as well be Ward Prowse there. High reel player that needs to be carried by others.


But in the past when he played at right back he was one of the best, if not the best, attacking right backs in the game for four or the last five seasons.


So hmmm let's try to shoe horn a guy into midfield that has never consistently looked great there when tried and needs other players to cover for what he is poor at when in midfield (basically everything off the ball in the centre and when pressured) or let's see if he can regain the sort of form at right back that he showed for four out of five years.

As I say, what we’re seeing now isn’t him playing in midfield. Not properly. If he’s played in midfield conventionally, and we have an actual RB in place (rather than Trent being asked to do 2 roles and not being able to fulfil either properly), then we can make an accurate judgement as to how effective a midfielder he actually could be.

[Cerbie]

433 at our peak had Hendo and Gini as enablers, allowing Trent and Robbo to do their thing.

Can Mac and Szoboszlai do this same role and will that be the best use of their talents?

If we did go 433, think I'd prefer our FB's to be more orthodox and play a bit deeper. I'm sure we could get close to a similar setup that Klopp wanted when he thought we we're getting Naby and Fekir, but has the game moved on from then?

Hendo or Fab would drop in behind whichever wingback moved forward providing cover. We now want them to do all the attacking and all the defending on the flanks. The system needs to change, 3 CBs is one solution, but so is going back to what worked before, assuming we manage to get a good 6 in before the window slams shut!