Robertson and Trent push up and Fabinho is basically between Matip and Van Dijk. We may not play 3 at the back, but during different phases of play we essentially do
However that's the flexibility of our play and other top teams. Starting with 3 back there feels a bit more rigid
Yes but not in transition. In transition when we lose the ball all the cms go for the press as they are taught to no matter where it is so we don't have that 3 man screen and often there's a country mile between the cbs as well. My view of this is that then a side is set and we start to panic (and we do) I see far too many players line up on the edge of the opposition box and expect vvd and matip to play the ball in. In the arsenal game for example there's minamino, jota, firmino, fabinho, milner and henderson all ahead of the ball expecting a pass but have nowhere to move as they are all blocking each other. Worse they are all then back to goal and back passing the damned thing. When Jones came on he managed to play one backhoe ball onto robertson who over lapped and it was the single positive run really made all second half! If fabhino would sit between the two cbs it'd be something as it'd open the passing lanes wider but someone has to glue themselves to the touchline. For me for 60mins that was jota and he was lost and put of the game. The wrong player in the wrong place. Worse he never went for anyone and never had the overlap either to play with. I just think we have a thing now about deep lying sides and really don't have an answer and the confidence dips and we just look even worse. We should have aggressively chased corners and frees v arsenal and used the available space round the back. Sadly it wouldn't matter as jota was 40 yards from gaol and minamino and firmino refused to run into the box to get on the end of anything anyway