I have watched us in person a few times this season and watched when the midfield works and when it works less well.
When we play 3 in the middle in the 4, 8 and 10 roles then if KP is fit he hides some of the problems as he is so good at covering and breaking up attacks.
However, the number 8 role is possibly the most demanding in terms of positional play and running as the 8 should hold the middle, support the defence (both defending and giving options to progress the ball) and needs to be full of running in the Bielsa system. It is one of the roles that drives the energy of the team.
The 10! role is more attacking but ideally needs to track back and help too.
Klich is a natural 10 and less so an 8 - as he has got older (maybe his legs have gone or Bielsa just broke him in the 60 odd game season) he is less able to cover 8. Bielsa conceded as much post Everton.
However, when he plays with Rodrigo then he has to play 8. This is then compounded if by Rodrigo not really being a midfielder at all and struggling to get back or innately knowing where to be when we are defending . It’s not his fault he is naturally a striker or false 9.
If you have Koch in there too he has no one to guide or help him (which Foreshaw does) and we end up at time with a massive hole in midfield which other teams can exploit and leads to us losing the ball and then being vulnerable to the counter - how many goals have we conceded like that!!!
If Shackleton and Foreshaw are remotely fit then surely this madness has to stop and we need to play players in their natural positions where the role is so critical and demanding.
It makes the decision not to buy at least one quality midfielder bizarre as the options we have are either old (Klich, Dallas, Foreshaw) or unsuited (Rodrigo and Roberts) or too young just yet (Bate, Shacks, Allen).
If we then play three at the back with 2 in the middle and fill backs tucked in it just gets worse especially if the middle two are Klich and Rodrigo. Bielsa is a genius at times but that is so fecking blindingly obvious and a large part of why we got overrun by Everton.
Please god let us not play 3 at the back and make sure Foreshaw and Shackleton (who can run forever) are picked ahead of others for the 4 and 8 roles against Man U.
If we concede the midfield we may get thumped like we did in August.
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