I fully understand the reason for bringing Lemina on, but the original point I made was that MP removed the only two players we can rely on, to hold the ball up. It’s not the first time either. Defence starts from the front, and by keeping the ball as far away from our 18 yard box as possible, by giving the ball to players that can retain possession for longer than 2 or 3 seconds, is also a good defensive tactic. It allows time for players to link up and also buys time for the defence to reorganise. In the absence of a good, strong striker who can hold the ball up, if MP2 has settled for 1 point, or to defend a 1 goal lead, I would prefer Boufal or Tadic to be the focal point for the out ball, that relieves pressure.
Yes, fair point. So logically a better substitution would be to replace the lone striker with Lemina, in that scenario...
