This isn't his squad, he has not had a preseason with this team, so until the start of the next season (hoping he is still here) he has a free run. The issue I have is that you can see the system doesn't work that well, because the players are shit, so why is he being so stubborn and tactically rigid? Especially in games like today when we know how they are going to set up. What is wrong with giving Lucas or Bergwijn the RWB spot? Yes they are limited, but at least they can play better than Royal.
Agree, honestly feel he doesn't rate/trust a lot of these players to do the business every game. He has improved us but we are nowhere near the stage where I feel he truly has faith a lot of the players he is currently sending out won't let him down. We have players who can give you a 7/8 out of 10 performance but are quite capable of dropping to a 4/5 out of 10 performance in the next game and it won't just be a one off.
We just don't have what I'd call dependable quality outside of Kane, Son, Lloris and now what looks like Romero. Kulu and Bentancur (thought both were poor today) have started brightly but probably need more time to make full judgement.
Apart from that, likes of Dier, Sanchez, Davies, Hojbjerg, Moura, Bergwijn, Doherty are not guys that I trust to perform at a high level week in week out. Yes they'll have some good games/moments over the course of a season which give you hope they have turned the corner but they are quite easily capable of not turning up in games like today and having average games/stinkers. It won't just be the odd average performance, will be enough to cause dents in a season. Even someone like Reguilon is drifting into that group because after a bright start, he has been very patchy. Can carry some as squad players but becomes a problem when too many of them are starting regularly.
Throw in the likes of Winks and Royal who look completely out of their depth at this level, a Sessegnon who just can't get going and beginning to wonder whether his lack of confidence is maybe partly due to not trusting his body, I'm not sure it's possibly to extract much more out of this group.