Weirdly, The Athletic is trying to create a Narrative about the Palhinha/Bentancur pivot not working The fact they don't have Kulusevski or Maddison as an outlet is the problem, not the personnel ...though when the title is "The Palhinha problem" you know what they're doing
As a squad option, I’m fine with him. But to progress, he’s like Vicario, Maddison, Solanke and Richarlison and shouldn’t be a regular starter as lacks the consistency to be a top player.
I think he has it, he’s just not recovered it yet. He and Kulu were instrumental in getting 4th under Conte and then he would’ve probably won our POTY if he didn’t pick up that ACL in the following season. We’ve seen flashes of that form, just need it to be more prolonged, I think it’ll return though. Just probably needed/ needs more time than I initially thought. I like all four of our main CMs in general to be fair though, don’t really have any issues with what pairing Frank goes with at the moment, albeit Palhinha has probably pushed himself to the top of the list but him, Bergvall, Sarr and Bentancur are a very decent bunch to choose from with Gray and Bissouma in reserve. I just hope we see a pivot of two of them behind Xavi soon instead playing a three man midfield, I wasn’t overly keen on Xavi’s signing as I’m concerned with many Bundesliga attacking mids/ forwards stat padding over there and then struggling here but if we’re to potentially see the best of Xavi it has to be in the 10, not LW.
If the issue was fear of re-injury due to Usain sprints or bad tackles, I could live with that ... IF for all the game time the above is not likely, he was driving the attack forward or splitting busparquet with incisive passing. As we have not been seeing that, then he becomes a on-pitch luxury.
You may be right, but time is not on his side and unfortunately at this level, he cannot be a passenger - which sadly he is in most recent performances. I agree we have seen an occasional flash of the player that he was pre-acl, but they are few and far between, and no sign of continuous improvement. As King indicated, there are 4 or 5 players, including Bentancur, who should not be considered first choice starters at the moment.
Bentancur new deal as well. Shown glimpses of where he was pre-injury but not a starter in our best team at the minute. Very good player to have though to rotate in and out as and when needed and if he can consistently get back to where he was then great to get him tied down.
I’m not against it but he should be a squad option at best unless he can show consistent form. Would like to see another good CM signed in January. Don’t know who though but hopefully the club have targets.
That's the vital factor in any 'squad option' You have to rely on them being ready to fill the role randomly, which is tough. Trouble is, Bentancur has shown no sign of being consistent post ACL injury, even when playing as a first choice, so I really have no faith that he will be able to provide the level of performance needed.
I’m also unsure if he will either but I can see why he’s been given a new contract. The squad has had a lot of turnover in recent years so it’s good to keep some players for a longer period.
ESPN claim that Orlando City offered $48m for Richarlison in the summer Considering he turned down an offer from The Oilfields last year, there's no way he'd be headed to the Premier League 1996-7 season
I don't think that Bentancur's been the problem in the midfield, to be honest. The lack of balance and having Richarlison as our only striker until the Leeds game has been. Hopefully Frank's working on that.
I posted them elsewhere a day or so ago, but the pass maps show that Bentancur is guilts of a lot of sideways and backwards passing. Hang on, I think I know where I posted them... please log in to view this image As you can see, he makes a lot of passes...but so few of them are forward that there isn't sufficient data to display them The key exceptions being against Brighton and Wolves, the former where he regularly had Odobert as a progressive outlet while against Wolves he was bringing both Simons and Udogie into the game. Technically the Bournemouth game too, but Spence was passing the ball backwards when he got it
Wayward passing seems to have become an issue, too. I'm not sure if the midfielders and defenders are being encouraged to try riskier passes, but it doesn't look that way to a simple eye test. Even relatively straightforward passes are either overhit or go straight to the opposition. Lack of confidence perhaps after last season's chaos and total lack of control of games (which tends to require frequent passing at a high level of accuracy to happen)?
He's definitely been at fault for a few goals being conceded this season. Leeds' goal at the weekend came from him misplacing a pass out wide, triggering a counter It does seem that a Palhinha/Bentancur pivot doesn't work as both look to drop into deeper positions, so as a result we need to take slightly longer passes to compensate and that does open up the risk of them being picked off even before talking about misplacing passes
Agreed. Plus it has become clear very quickly that Palhinha is the better player defensively and poses much more of a goal threat, which poses something of an existential question for Bentancur which tbh a new contract isn't the answer to.
I think that the problem stems from having a lack of passing options, though. We weren't using an attacking midfielder for most of the games and we had an isolated striker. Tel's position in the West Ham game, for example, is in his own half. He's deeper than Palhinha. Having Udogie back, Simons playing as an attacking midfielder and Odobert on the left will help. Building up some rapport and chemistry will come with time, too. Tel and Odobert already have a fair bit from the France U21s.
Palhinha protects the back four better than Bentancur, but I think that they can become a pairing. Bentancur's better on the ball, more of an aerial threat and intercepts well up the pitch. Horses for courses, but they can do well for us when we're under it. There's certainly a case for playing one of them with Sarr or Bergvall against weaker teams, though.
Honestly, I can see Bentancur working as the DM against busparquet Have him as the deepest midfielder to receive the ball from the back, but have Bergvall in the pivot with him to move the ball up the pitch. That's basically what the Wolves pass map shows anyway Also... One thing that seems to be starting to click is the left hand side is used to drag players away from Kudus In some games we've seen defenders doubling or even tripling up on Kudus to stop him being a threat, but Odobert's pace and trickery does give defenders a reason to stay in position to keep an eye on him, and this is before adding Simons to the equation
