He's got license to roam, not as much as towards the end of last season but still a bit of freedom. He's clearly not part of the defensive two in your 3223 claim
Yet every single game we played in preseason, plus the first 25 v Chelsea there he was right in the base of a box midfield with Macalister. there hs is bang in the middle off play with ball being played round the back "roaming" to the base position of a box midfield. I'd suggest that we have been in a lot of chaos i nthe first 2 games for different reasons but the tactic has been consistently worked on in preseason. V Chelsea we fell apart after 25 mins and ended up with a total of 35% possession. In that first 25mins trent was at the base of a box midfield with Macalister and even got caught out on the left side of it once. (fatal error) Against Bournemouth is a gain a different type of game but a red card changes a lot. As i have said consistently this system cannot work well if nobody knows who is covering who. If you are asked to sit in the box shape then sit in it. Don;'t wander across to LCM, don't go down the wing, don't run past your CFs in to the box. this system can only work if a) theres genuine width provided by diaz and salah. this also means the out ball on half way for alisson as wide option where a full back owuld be normally. b) If trent realises that as this right side 6 in possession his job is to stay with the ball and in knine where he needs to be. not all over the place. Why? Its simple, konate has to go wide so he is relying on trent to drop into the space he vacates. If hhe cannot reyl in him then he won't go. c) if its really3223 then Robertson can't be running off down the wing much at all. d) players need to push on up as the top of the box. Gakpo and szoboszlai need to be on the opponent midfielders big time. If we see errors like the two 6's (inverted or whatever) crossing over each other then who drops in where? Or If they are running off ahead of the ball who is covering the spaces vacated. If trent runs off like a no 8 then you rea in effect left with a left sided 6 on top off vvd and konate covering an entire half of the park all on his own. OR you have two wingers who are inverted also. they want to go infield. When they do (and they are good at it) then theres zero width left and the opposition will have the freedom of the park. Unless players hold stations in their system this cannot work. Not every player can have total tactical freedom. We imply need to decide who do we want to have freedom and where to have it then work on it. When klopp started first mane and salah and firmino were all over the place anywhere they liked and it worked BECAUSE wijnaldum, fabinho, henderson et all gave them a platform to do it off of. Structure is no a bad thing. we are too easy to play round now and thats just what is being seen week in and week out
right now Its a death match for top 4. the first thing to not go do is give any rival 3 points. I'd certainly take a draw now.
Even you know I ain't reading all that Don't care what we did in pre-season, I'm going by what we've done in our first two league games; 433 with Trent and to roam.
Does anyone else see Emte Can when they watch Szobo? Just in terms of his stature and how he moves with the ball. Just reminded me of him a bit. Didn’t realise he was quite so big so does offer a bit of physicality in the midfield which is nice.
You're right that we shouldn't read too much into pre-season - certainly in terms of performance levels - but if it shows a desire to play a particular system then it does have some relevance.
Some yes, but not 100%. Maybe we tried it, it didn't work so reverted back to the 433 we played against Chelsea and Bournemouth. The 3223 is something the media's been pushing but it's just not true. Trent is not sitting as second DM, he's prominently on the right as is to be expected of a RB. With Gakpo playing, there is more of an argument we're playing 424 (we aren't) Anyway, doesn't really matter what the system it is actually defined as. Only reason I pick up on it is because people seem to believe Robbo is playing LCB and he just isn't, is still a LB.
bascially none of it makes sense. Robbo goes off one one. ok the Left sided 6 has to cover somehow. Except now you end up with a vacuous gap in the middle as apparently trent has also gone awol So you are really left with vvd all on his own in one half of the park and Konate all on his own in the other. If theres no discipline at all we will just get walked through time and again. If its 3223 then get into those positions roughly. If its 433 then get into those. I can say with confidence gakpo is nowhere near LCM.
The only differences to when we were winning is a lack of a quality DM and Trent's freedom (Obviously different players too but I'm talking purely about the system)
