Yep, mentioned it a few times. Bissouma and PEH are slow on the turn and don’t track runners well, he does. Also bright and crisp with his passing but if we stick to a two man midfield, is there space for a CDM and three CB’s? We badly need to go 433 or 532 and get a three in the middle with Skipp as the CDM. Even if you played a back 3 you could then allow Romero and Lenglet to push up at times and Skipp to slot in. Would see us be a bit more fluid and less rigid
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Naah, he ain't getting fitness back.
He ain't getting playing time.
As soon as Bentancur is back, we play PEH-Benta midfield for 90 minutes, 2 games a week and 5 weeks in a row if possible. No changes needed...
I have to disagree. We haven't looked good all season with that midfield combination. Skipp moves the ball very quickly.
He was joking
My bad, right over my head
Completely agree re: Skipp getting a run. Offers a different blend to the others, good at tracking runners and zips the ball around. We need him in a 3 IMO and if we play 3 at the back, get Lenglet and a Romero to step forward and break lines with Skipp covering
I just hope that 10 month period that he was injured hasn’t hobbled him permanently. Conte seems to have lost some trust in him.
I am starting to think that it is not about the players or trusting them anymore.
It is about Conte admiring his own belly button in admiration about what a bulletproof, universal, perfect and wonderful job he has done in PEH-Benta CM duo. He thinks he has found perfection, and thus all other midfielders (Bissouma,Skipp,Sarr) become irrelevant and secondary.
Well I don’t think anyone could possibly argue that Hojbjerg and Bentancur aren’t way above Skipp and Bissouma in quality right now.
If we are going to play with 2 midfielders then they pick themselves. They can score, assist and do the hard yards.
We’ve tried to play with 3 and being in Bissouma and Skipp and unfortunately they haven’t done anything this season. Every time we have deviated from the 343 with PEH and Bentancur we have been toothless.
Away to Brighton was the only 352 EPL start I can recall and it was maybe the only game this season we looked to be in control to some extent.
(Not that this is an outright vote for 352, but 343 really does demand elite levels of consistency and gives no quarter; demanding that PEH & B'cur are at their very best every week if we're gonna avoid chasing shadows for 70-80mins each game.)
.....Was saying this all summer in anticipation of us signing Bissouma; but it's only really Kante/Matic (Conte) & Wanyama/Dembele (Poch) that have nailed this at the top end of the table.
I could
Say what you will, but if you honestly think that optimal solution is for PEH and Benta duo to play 2x90 minutes every week for 10 weeks, then good luck. They are humans, not robots and their performance levels will be impacted.
At least I'm not alone :dierpochhug:
No I don’t disagree with that, unfortunately our inability to play well and control games this season means we have to play our key players to the point of exhaustion as the backups just don’t have the quality to win us the games.
If we could just go 3-0 up with 25 minutes to go, we might have seen more of players like Skipp. But when we are still chasing a winning goal with 90 minutes on the clock, it’s harder to involve them. Even a tired Hojbjerg/Bentancur can still score or create something in ways that Skipp simply can’t.
You could say he was...rusty
It was his first start for months, coming back from injury. I didn't expect him to look fresh. He will adapt.
Disagreed.
He started really well tonight. For first 20 minutes I felt he put his mark on the game.
What was so visible was how he did not panic when opposition player was close to him. And he attempted (and executed!) some short passes in tight area that both - PEH and Bentancur would not have pulled off. I mean... he made us tick faster.
But then something happened and his performance suffered a bit. Maybe he did not manage to shake off some lost possessions or smth.
If he can keep up the level of play from first 20 minutes, he will challenge other midfielders for starting spot.