- Oct 3, 2011
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It seems that way, but for all we know it might have not have been as drastic as that. He will only play 2 CMs in his squad and he will feel that he only needs 4, supplemented by youth like Winks and Edwards. He has Dier and Wanyama doing the dirty work, something that doesn't play to Nabil's strengths. Then he has Dembele and Mason in the support roles who he'll want to cover ground and bring the ball forward. Bentaleb isn't really the kind of player who covers a lot of ground. He's very much a passer, a link up man, similar to how Huddlestone was. I think he's best suited to a 3 man midfield. It could just be that Bentaleb wants to start games and Poch has told him that he won't. They may not have fallen out over it.
i don't think he'd have ostracised him from the squad if it was simply a case of not thinking he suits the team or even not rating him, the only other players to receive similar treatment under poch were ade, kaboul and capoue/lennon to a lesser degree and we all know why that was. plus he knows that by saying all of this publically it weakens our position when trying to sell but seemingly he doesn't care about that and just wants shot of him, which leads me to believe they've fallen out for one reason or another.