I think maybe the conflict here is that I don’t think that is an accurate description of what the 4 midfielders are responsible for. When we first lose the ball everyone is as defensively important as anyone else. If we don’t win it back quickly, everyone will then be forced to cover back as quickly as possible and we either win the ball back in transition, or we slow them down enough to get bodies behind the ball. Fab offers no unique traits in that latter scenario and there is arguably no one at the club who offers less in the former.
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Of course, we have a style where we don’t carry any passengers, in both directions. Only Salah has (and has merited it) certain tactical freedom (and that forces opponents to think twice how they risk on his side, which also helps us defensively), but by no means is he inactive defensively.
But there’s still a difference who is part of whichever structure, whether it’s 2-3 midfielders in another structure or 4 midfielders in the 3-2-4-1 structure.
It will take more organization and people knowing where they’re going and what they’re doing rather than just “cover back as quickly as possible”, that’s too wild. The pace of movements will be important, as always.
And it doesn’t have to be Fabinho, but for now to start with I just don’t imagine our XI without a Henderson/Fabinho/Lavia/XY (not necessarily in that order) type of player.
When and if, with time, our evolution leads us to potentially having Trent as the “deepest” or Mac, we’ll see.
Mac Allister was an offensively minded player at Brighton but I think he’s much more naturally a deeper player. He has the ability to play lots of different ways.
I’m not worried about it defensively. It’s way stronger than any formation that features Fabinho.
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I’d say Mac was both for Brighton, but it just depended if he’s playing more as the #8 in a double-pivot alongside Caicedo or single #10. I see him as a nice player who will probably be best in between things. Like Gundo, let’s say. Able to come deeper for the ball as the double pivot or even as the third man and then also pop up in the final third, he showed he has a nice sense for that. Szoboszlai will probably ordinate a bit more higher than him, even when the box structure is on. My hope is that Szoboszlai shows he can defend properly in this league in the phases of game when he needs to be a proper midfielder.
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[quote=“Zoran, post:144, topic:3633, full:true”].
It will take more organization and people knowing where they’re going and what they’re doing rather than just “cover back as quickly as possible”, that’s too wild. The pace of movements will be important, as always.
[/quote]
Yeah that would be silly. The way modern formations work is that there are triggers - predictable events that happen in the game which tell players how to react.
Pressing with 4 demons in CM and forcing a low percentage aerial pass from the CBs to a winger is, for example, a trigger. Once Trent sees that he knows to begin to cover back to RB.
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I’m interested to see if this rumour actually has any legs. There’s been a lot of talk but no contact with So’ton yet. Who is leaking the information? I would think the main beneficiary of leaking our contact would be So’ton to drum up interest on a player that they are desperate to recoup money on now that they are relegated, yet supposedly they haven’t even been contacted? Doesn’t quite add up to me.
The Szobo link happened in like a day and two days later he was wearing the shirt. This doesn’t appear to be happening here, which makes me question whether there is anything legit in this.
I keep seeing Labia 
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Funny you should say that. Every time I read or hear his name all I can think about is this outtake from Derek.
https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxPsBkpfq_2yc2nXftE--ABq2x571C4Y6B
Or he’s big in Japan?
Serves you right for becoming a gynaecologist.
Probably used to dealing with a lot of bollocks too.
People are talking about Trent and his hybrid role but aren’t looking at how Robbo fits in when he goes to the midfield.
I see Robbo slotting in as a LM in some transitions where Trent stays as RB. It’s about coaching and how that instinct is drilled into players.
Trent slots into the right sided playmaker category when he initiates attacks… And Robbo slotting into a LM role when the attacks originate through the left side
You mean central midfield when you say LM or more as the left winger or wing back? I don’t think Robbo has what it takes to come inside into central midfield. A bit like when Pep said Walker can’t do it.
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Certainly forever young
#niche
Robbo already does what Trent does,he just does it in a different way,plus he defends better than Trent.We all love the cross field passing,the quick pass from defence to attack from TAA,but Robbo has been just as successful with his attacking play since he joined and we have never seen the need to accommodate his shortcomings by creating a new position for him.
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Left midfielder as in the left midfielder in the traditional 4-4-2
I’ll try and do a football tactics board version.
But basically , Robbo when he’s going up towards midfield. The transition will have Trent still staying. It’s all about where the initial ball is played and the understanding. One fullback goes up , the other stays back. Was always the case previously as well
We did have different games (especially big games) in last years when one went forward more than the other. Different examples also.
In the final games last season when we played the box structure in possession, it was interesting to look at the average positions of our LCM (Jones) and our left winger (either Jota or Diaz).
Jones would be a bit wide, almost like that LM zone you mention. And the left winger would be deeper than Salah on the opposite side (which isn’t anything new, that was how it used to be a lot of the time with Mane).
Robbo’s position has changed in that phase (more tucked inside, almost like Tierney for Scotland), but we still saw him bomb forward when he could. His natural talent is different to Trent’s. Trent can reach to every part of the pitch with his range, from anywhere. Robbo is more of a runner.
This will still evolve of course, once we get this pre-season under our belt, we also have new individuals, etc.
It’s mostly about overloading certain areas of the pitch to gain a numerical advantage.