None of us should be getting carried away by one league defeat to Manchester City, and pre-season should never be taken seriously either. I do think things will get better. And I also think that in some games, a midfield three of Romeo Lavia, Moises Caicedo, and Enzo Fernandez can work.
But in general, I truly believe that in his overall starting selections, Enzo Maresca might have to leave out one of his ‘star’ players going forward.
And by star players I mean one of the two most expensive players in our squad, Caicedo and/or Fernandez.
Look, we have plenty of games, and we play many different types of opposition, so sometimes there might be a need for Caicedo, sometimes there might be a need for Fernandez. And sometimes there might be a need for Lavia, Caicedo, AND Fernandez. Rotation can be key with so many games. But in general, I don’t think all three can start together due to the clear lack of balance in midfield.
Fernandez playing as a 10 for me is just madness. He’s played his very best football in his career, winning a World Cup and Copa America for Argentina, playing as a 6 usually in a double pivot. And as well as that, it takes away one of our true 10s playing there and what they can bring in that position, i.e Christopher Nkunku.
I think the overall starting Xl from yesterday lacked balance too mind, and lacked attacking threat in wide areas. But the main point of any successful team is the midfield.
I think our midfield lacks some steel too, but that’s a personnel thing rather than tactical really.
But Lavia has to start, that bit for me is clear. He’s the overall best midfielder that we have, so the midfield balance needs to be built around him really. I have criticised Lavia for his defensive side but that might be a tad harsh on my side, I think it’s something he can get better at and improve in as he is still so young. Physically he does get in the battles and will get better with his timing of tackles and the technique so as to give away less fouls.
I think it could work better if Maresca played the 4-3-3 rather than the 4-2-3-1 but again, that is not ideal at all because we now have SO many attackers with more expected to arrive, and playing 4-3-3 takes away positions for them. But so does Fernandez in a 10.
I don’t know the solution, and that’s a big problem for Maresca to figure out. He is the one who knows how he wants to play. But as I’ve said for weeks now, the setup with the players that we have really does concern me. How do you get them all in? How do you get your best players on the pitch playing in their best positions? Because that is what we need to do. And we need to sort out the overall balance.
I’m not hammering Maresca here, I’m just picking up on some points. I will give Maresca time for sure. And it WILL take time, I wasn’t expecting him to have it figured out by game one. But I’m very intrigued to see how he navigates this now and how he moulds the setup.
