don’t think they do, they think he can do a better job there than the alternatives - and marsch will be playing him more as a partner with rods. Jm likes an aggressive press - James can do that far better than joffy… joffy to come on when the game slows down, get the winner and than everyone can say we should have started with him.
Think it’s more like two up front, James and Rodrigo, with Harrison and Raphinha behind/overlapping on the wings.
Got to say though, apart from Phillips that is probably the exact same team Bielsa would have picked.
This 100%. With no Bamford James is perfect to go up with Rodrigo due to his pressing. We lose how Marsch or Bielsa plays by having Gelhardt and Rod up front as neither press that well. Think our fan base is a bit silly to keep asking for Gelhardt to start, he’s only 19 years old. Yes he has bags of talent but starting a game is completely different than coming on as a sub, see Tottenham where Gelhardt did nothing.
Not sure why you’ve taken that as a criticism, though not all agree Cooper and Harrison are our best players, it was more to emphasise that this option wasn’t open to Bielsa for a large part of the season.
James was never going to score from that angle. We need more players pressing forward to give the pass option
