- Aug 25, 2012
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Firstly, the good news: it's pretty clear that our CB partnerships will be Toby and Verts for all premier league matches and probably Wimmer and Dier for cup matches / Europa group stages. Both are well balanced, so we're well stocked at CB even if Fazio does go, but I can't see Dier playing in CM long term, if he's part of our back up CB partnership pairing, which means we need to settle on our CM two.
Assuming we don't manage to get a CDM in, I honestly think we need to consider pairings to suit the type of opposition we're up against and I would personally prefer we played Dembele in the holding role of two CMs, not in the front four.
Our strongest partnership last year was Dembele and Bentaleb vs Chelsea, which is because of their style of play and is something we need against the top teams. Possible CM partnerships then:
Dembele and Bentaleb - (more defensive) use against a 433 set up (like man utd) and the other top flight teams like Chelsea, City or Arsenal and any teams with dominant, strong midfields.
Bentaleb and Mason - use in the league against other teams with less dominant midfields.
Dembele and Alli - use in the cups and Europa.
Mason is an attacking CM, as is Alli. Dembele and Bentaleb can both sit, if required and Carroll should only really be used against lower level teams or in the number 10 position IMO, due to a lack of tackling and defensive work. I think Carroll could become an excellent no 10 given the chance.
Assuming we don't manage to get a CDM in, I honestly think we need to consider pairings to suit the type of opposition we're up against and I would personally prefer we played Dembele in the holding role of two CMs, not in the front four.
Our strongest partnership last year was Dembele and Bentaleb vs Chelsea, which is because of their style of play and is something we need against the top teams. Possible CM partnerships then:
Dembele and Bentaleb - (more defensive) use against a 433 set up (like man utd) and the other top flight teams like Chelsea, City or Arsenal and any teams with dominant, strong midfields.
Bentaleb and Mason - use in the league against other teams with less dominant midfields.
Dembele and Alli - use in the cups and Europa.
Mason is an attacking CM, as is Alli. Dembele and Bentaleb can both sit, if required and Carroll should only really be used against lower level teams or in the number 10 position IMO, due to a lack of tackling and defensive work. I think Carroll could become an excellent no 10 given the chance.