There were a lot of theories as to why utd could not maintain the initial good form under ole in 2018/2019. From he simply was out of his depth to the team were never good enough in the first place.
I love that we signed Bruno. But I will pose a theoretical questions.
What do you think would have happened if pogba was for some reason unavailable in the run? Imagine McT and fred supplying bruno instead of pogba. Actually just recall the spurs game.
What I am trying to say is this was effectively what happened in 2018/2019. when we lost herrera(initially to injury). To compensate ole moved pogba from #10, where he had been excellently combini with the attackers like bruno is now doing. Moving pogba to cm created a problem in #10 which we have only just solved with bruno.
My point is what we need now is a top cm. Pogba as a cm is decent, and infinitely better than the other options in cm at the club in the same way I am sure bruno would be if he was forced to play cm but would not be worldclass in a deeper role.
Bruno/Pogba parallels
posted on 28/7/20
They're rare occurrences but Ole did use Pogba in more of a number 10 position at least twice when he first took charge and two of those games were the 4-1 home win against Bournemouth and the 2-0 away win against Newcastle.
Cardiff wasn't one of those games though as suggested above.
They're the two games I can definitely remember the change of shape in midfield, not sure if there are any others.
posted on 28/7/20
rosso, yeah that’s also why he played Lingard and Pereira there instead.
posted on 28/7/20
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 41 minutes ago
rosso, yeah that’s also why he played Lingard and Pereira there instead.
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posted on 28/7/20
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 4 hours, 32 minutes ago
comment by N2 (U22280)
posted 13 hours, 42 minutes ago
Since the restart, Pogba has 2 assists and 1 goal from a corner routine. He's wasted in that deep role.
In possession, Matic drops into the defence, Bruno is in the 10 position, often leaving Pogba on his own in midfield.
The tactic of Matic dropping in between and splitting the centre backs has to stop. It works for teams with attacking fullbacks as it allows them to push up more.
But for us it's pointless sacrificing midfield to push our attacking limited fullbacks more forward.
We need to find a system suited for our players, and not borrow from other teams with different strengths.
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We only do it when needed whilst we’re playing out of our half.
It doesn’t happen every week, and once we’ve carried the ball into the opposition’s half, Matic joins Pogba in the double pivot.
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But it slows things down. Pogba is more effective when he gets the ball a bit further forward in space, before they create 2 banks of 4 at the edge of their area.
posted on 28/7/20
comment by N2 (U22280)
posted 21 minutes ago
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 4 hours, 32 minutes ago
comment by N2 (U22280)
posted 13 hours, 42 minutes ago
Since the restart, Pogba has 2 assists and 1 goal from a corner routine. He's wasted in that deep role.
In possession, Matic drops into the defence, Bruno is in the 10 position, often leaving Pogba on his own in midfield.
The tactic of Matic dropping in between and splitting the centre backs has to stop. It works for teams with attacking fullbacks as it allows them to push up more.
But for us it's pointless sacrificing midfield to push our attacking limited fullbacks more forward.
We need to find a system suited for our players, and not borrow from other teams with different strengths.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We only do it when needed whilst we’re playing out of our half.
It doesn’t happen every week, and once we’ve carried the ball into the opposition’s half, Matic joins Pogba in the double pivot.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But it slows things down. Pogba is more effective when he gets the ball a bit further forward in space, before they create 2 banks of 4 at the edge of their area.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It depends how the opposition sets up though.
Leicester, for example, sat their two strikers in and cut off the ball to Pogba, rather than harrying our two CBs. Matic dropped in deeper between them so that we weren’t reliant on Maguire and Lindelof to look for deeper balls between the lines and so that we could push our fullbacks on a bit to create more space centrally further up the pitch.
If Rodgers had had Vardy and Iheanacho pressing Maguire and Lindelof, Ole wouldn’t have dropped Matic in; he’d have held the fullbacks back, and we’d have looked to play around the press as we do more often.
It was a smart decision by Rodgers: Pogba was kept out of the game as it was played in the centre of the pitch, our fullbacks weren’t a great threat and he knew we wouldn’t want to be playing the ball long. On our part, I thought we were patient enough, and although we didn’t move the ball quickly enough when we had managed to pass the first Leicester bank, the plan to get the ball out and retain possession worked pretty well.
posted on 28/7/20
rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted on 30/12/18
comment by Benched (U7195)
posted 6 minutes ago
This looks like a 4-2-3-1 with Poggers at #10. What I've advocated for months.
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That's how we started against Hudds and it was waank. Pogba switched with Lingard and still wasn't in the game until he came back to number eight.
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From the Bournemouth match thread.
posted on 28/7/20
comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 16 minutes ago
rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted on 30/12/18
comment by Benched (U7195)
posted 6 minutes ago
This looks like a 4-2-3-1 with Poggers at #10. What I've advocated for months.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That's how we started against Hudds and it was waank. Pogba switched with Lingard and still wasn't in the game until he came back to number eight.
----------------------------------------------
From the Bournemouth match thread.
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I couldn’t remember the game(s), but I do distinctly remember Pogba stinking the place out at number ten in the limited time he’s played the role for us
posted on 28/7/20
I can't remember much about the Huddersfield game but he didn't have a bad game against Bournemouth. I think he did alright against Newcastle too.
posted on 28/7/20
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 3 hours, 48 minutes ago
comment by N2 (U22280)
posted 21 minutes ago
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 4 hours, 32 minutes ago
comment by N2 (U22280)
posted 13 hours, 42 minutes ago
Since the restart, Pogba has 2 assists and 1 goal from a corner routine. He's wasted in that deep role.
In possession, Matic drops into the defence, Bruno is in the 10 position, often leaving Pogba on his own in midfield.
The tactic of Matic dropping in between and splitting the centre backs has to stop. It works for teams with attacking fullbacks as it allows them to push up more.
But for us it's pointless sacrificing midfield to push our attacking limited fullbacks more forward.
We need to find a system suited for our players, and not borrow from other teams with different strengths.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We only do it when needed whilst we’re playing out of our half.
It doesn’t happen every week, and once we’ve carried the ball into the opposition’s half, Matic joins Pogba in the double pivot.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
But it slows things down. Pogba is more effective when he gets the ball a bit further forward in space, before they create 2 banks of 4 at the edge of their area.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It depends how the opposition sets up though.
Leicester, for example, sat their two strikers in and cut off the ball to Pogba, rather than harrying our two CBs. Matic dropped in deeper between them so that we weren’t reliant on Maguire and Lindelof to look for deeper balls between the lines and so that we could push our fullbacks on a bit to create more space centrally further up the pitch.
If Rodgers had had Vardy and Iheanacho pressing Maguire and Lindelof, Ole wouldn’t have dropped Matic in; he’d have held the fullbacks back, and we’d have looked to play around the press as we do more often.
It was a smart decision by Rodgers: Pogba was kept out of the game as it was played in the centre of the pitch, our fullbacks weren’t a great threat and he knew we wouldn’t want to be playing the ball long. On our part, I thought we were patient enough, and although we didn’t move the ball quickly enough when we had managed to pass the first Leicester bank, the plan to get the ball out and retain possession worked pretty well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
As you said, it would work better with fullbacks that carry more threat.
I think this tactic works better with a midfield three. Rashford was dropping a bit deep, maybe to get on the ball, or too fatigued to make runs in behind more.
posted on 28/7/20
I see a lot of people getting hung up on the term #10
when ole tookover pogba played as our most advanced midfielder. and that is a fact Usually with rashford, martial and one of mata/lingard completing the front 3 or some iteration of this
but pogba was always our most advanced midfielder whatever formation we played. I have posted direct quotes from ole saying why he was moving pogba to a deeper role
It was to help us get a foothold in cm. And it also coincided with the phanthom injury herrera had. And we went from playing one of mata/lingard alongside rashford and martial with pogba as the creator. We started playing pogba in a deeper role and experimented with playing different combinations that involved 2 of mata/lingar/pereira.
This was the period pereira got most games playing in a variety of position withou exceling in any.