Can Holtby and Eriksen play at the same time?

[Misfit]

I don't know what you've been watching the last two matches, but these two have absolutely bossed the midfield, to the extent where Norwich and Cardiff, two decent outfits, were living off scraps. Dembele is getting back to his best and Paulinho has been doing a very disciplined role for the team. Bigger tests to come off course, but the balance in the centre of midfield looks very good at the moment.

No, I know what he's saying and, as he said, they're in no way a bad combo. It's not possible for us to have a bad combo now. Whichever one it will be massively strong. What I noticed though was that the tempo of our pressing game has been lower, again not by a huge amount, with that pairing. Won't matter in many games but one of Sandro or Kapow in there will give us the ability to win the ball back much quicker. Give us even more pressure on the oppo etc.

It's largely semantics tbh but fuck it. I'm a grown man following a group of millionaires playing a child's game for a living on the internet. Why the fuck not engage in some semantics?

 

[The Apprentice]

Absolutely not vs the top teams.

I'm fairly certain we would be fine with Holtby central and Eriksen in the LWF position. That's no different to playing Eriksen/Siggy or Eriksen/Chadli.

Both Eriksen and Holtby work extremely hard.

 

[Shadydan]

Yep, I said this before but I see Lewis and Christian and the natural ayers to Luka and Rafa

 

[Syn_13]

I'm digging this one out again. I can't see why, in a game like today's, where the opposition packed the middle and provided us no room to move, we can't give this a go.

Holtby can play a little deeper, he likes to come back to receive the ball. It's worked well so far but today I found having both Dembele and Paulinho a little redundant because we didn't require 2 holding mids when the opposition were sitting back so much. Sandro anchoring with these 2 in front would've been better. We've got a lot of players and should be deploying them circumstantially, rather than hoping the same thing will work against everyone. We play the same bloody system everytime, in the same style, and there's only a few teams out there that can truly get away with that. Not having a go at AVB, or his 'philosophy', it's done well so far, but sometimes you've got to change things up a bit against certain opposition.

I know it's just speculation and a lot of should've/could've/would've, but nonetheless, I'd love to see these 2 together.

Yes, I do realise how that last sentence came out and I'm sticking with it. They'd make a lovely couple.

 

[IGSpur]

Was sayin the exact same thing to someone earlier. We lost today because we played utter tripe and didnt finish when we should have. But nonetheless against teams that pack the midfield and sit deep dont see why we dont play Sandro Holyb and Eriksen as a mid 3. Dembele and Paulinho wont be able to break down teams with their passing as well as those 3.

In future would like to see that, against the appropriate teams

 

[laowaiandros]

I'd like to see Holtby given more of a role and we can't rely on eriksen to do everything.

I'd like to see:

---------Soldado-------
Holtby--Eriksen--Lamela

I think it has a lot of creativity and intelligence. Townsend can be a sub for either left or right depending on how much width we need. I am also looking forward to lennon returning as I think we miss him a lot. We have different options and we should use them.

The most important area of our play is our wing backs. We must play with width to break teams down and with rose and walker we can do that. If we don't have width from them then players like lennon and townsend are crucial to spreading the play.

 

[EnfieldYiddo]

Eriksen can't burden our creative need alone, he looked weak at times today

 

[liam17oi]

Been banging the Holtby drum for ages now and he needs a start in the Prem. This game was crying out for his energy and urgency and creativity. I don't know what else he needs to do to get a start.

Want to see Eriksen on the left and Lewis in the hole.

 

[Yid121]

What's so different as to Siggurdsson and Eriksen being able to play with each other? Both cut inside and play behind the striker, just like Holtby.

So why not Holtby? Personally I would play Eriksen on the left and Holtby in the centre, in the cup games he has found Defoe so many times with through balls, he just has to play... I'd even perhaps like to see Holtby as a CM, he played there for Schalke.