Simply untrue. And it certainly doesn't "require" both FBs to get forward, which is a standard feature of our attacking play.
Sorry Robbie, but if you’re going to make a perfectly reasonable debate about each person’s personal opinion on how to play McLean best and whether we like his style into yet another damned-if-he-does, damned-if-he-doesn’t, lambast Farke rant, then I’m afraid I’m out.
Nobody’s pretending Farke’s an untouchable Ferguson type manager of flawless brilliance. But there were far too many factors at play last season to have reductive arguments where everything is blamed on Farke.
I'm sure you enjoyed our goal yesterday: Vrancic to Stiepermann, instant one touch pass forward to Hernandez in the area, cushioned across the area to Dowell running onto it. Could have been from the 2018--2019 scrapbook, when 12 consecutive losses would have seemed inconceivable.
Re. McLean, there were 13 league matches in which he played further forward. In 9 of those he played in the centre of the attacking 3 in the usual 4:2:3:1 formation, with 2 DMs behind. In the other 3, he played centre left in the forward 4 in a 4:1:4:1. Here are the average xG and xGa for those 13 matches compared with the same for the other 25 matches and the season as a whole:
McLean at CM/CAM (13 matches): average xG per match: 0.77
(PPG: 0.53) average xGa per match: 1.76
McLean at DM or not selected: average xG per match: 1.08
(PPG: 0.56) average xGa per match: 1.94
2019--2020 season: average xG per match: 0.98
(PPG: 0.55) average xGa per match: 1.88
Re. McLean, there were 13 league matches in which he played further forward. In 9 of those he played in the centre of the attacking 3 in the usual 4:2:3:1 formation, with 2 DMs behind. In the other 3, he played centre left in the forward 4 in a 4:1:4:1. Here are the average xG and xGa for those 13 matches compared with the same for the other 25 matches and the season as a whole:
McLean at CM/CAM (13 matches): average xG per match: 0.77
(PPG: 0.53) average xGa per match: 1.76
McLean at DM or not selected: average xG per match: 1.08
(PPG: 0.56) average xGa per match: 1.94
2019--2020 season: average xG per match: 0.98
(PPG: 0.55) average xGa per match: 1.88
That's supported to an extent by my figures, which indicate that, when KM plays further forward, our average xGa per match is lower (at the cost of our average xG). There's no real surprise in our being a bit more solid with e.g. all three of Tettey, Trybull and McLean on the pitch. I'd love it to be true that we gained substantially more points and conceded far fewer goals in those games; it would add support to my argument that we would have done much better, and maybe even survived, had we accepted reality early on and resorted to playing counter-attacking football.
IMO it's precisely the flexibility you describe which leaves us so open to counter-attack. Normally a player in that role is free to become more attacking when in possession because one or other FB holds defensive position. In our case, however, both FBs standardly advance together with the "flexible" CM, leaving a back line of only 2 with the DM in front of them. As a result we become wide open on the flanks. All the opposition has to do is wait, primed, for us to give them the ball, and then exploit those spaces. In practice rather than theory, the flexible DM/CM has no chance of getting back quickly enough to cover a well-executed counter-attack; he is stranded upfield and would have to have the speed of Usain Bolt to get goal side of pacy forwards who already have a start on him. (Don't we all have a picture of poor Trybull imprinted on our minds, trying to get back after being caught in exactly that situation?)
