I agree they're crap.bman2 wrote: ↑2 years agoThe point is that Ole plays two midfielders who barely contribute at all to the attack or to controlling the game. They just don’t have the quality, especially in passing. The position is not as important as what they do. Pirlo and Carrick were holding midfielders because they sat deep, but they were obviously very important to building the attack and to controlling possession.
We’ve also tended to sit very deep defensively, which exacerbates the situation.
Jorginho, Fabinho, Rodi etc are plainly very different players to Fred and McTominay.
I don't think the plan is to sit deep. Ole's style of football has been the pass the ball out of defence, by keeping the ball low ie avoid aerial balls to the midfielders. But unlike other clubs the midfielders are (probably) told to look to make the risky passes or long passes the second they get the ball, without much buildup. The attackers make the runs to accommodate this. To do this you need top quality passers. You also need good decision making skills ie high football iq. The players should know when not to make the pass. We have neither of these skills in Fred and Mctominay. Even if we did have these players, there will be more interceptions of those passes so this results in us defending again. This is why we end up counter attacking often. It's a result of this system, not the goal.
This system also let's us create a lot of chances and is entertaining to watch especially because of fewer aerial balls, and end to end football.
Fergie had this system too. But he had the players to suit this. Our midfielders can't pass, and neither can our wide players and right back. Our players just try to blindly make those ambitious passes because those are the instructions. The quality isn't there. Rashford, Martial and Wan Bissaka are much worse, they can't even make a simple 5 yard pass.
This makes it all the more bewildering why the Beek doesn't get more opportunities.