Spence is going to Spurs as well.
Chelsea and Man U are starting to annoy me now - feels like their new owners / managers haven’t had a chance to put any plans together yet so they’re just following us around. Fuck. Off.
The type of fullbacks we need come down to those 5 lanes of attack - left, right, centre and the the two half-spaces.
We don’t currently need overlapping RBs because the right attacking lane and the right half-space are covered by Saka and Ødegaard, who drifts to that side. Tomiyasu is a great fit for that side, and we have decent lookalike-cover for him now with White and Saliba.
We do need overlapping LBs (or at least we have up until now) because we’ve either played with a double-pivot or we’ve had Xhaka as the left-8, who is more likely to drop back and cover than attack the box. Martinelli / ESR move into the vacated left half-space and Tierney / Tavares go down the outside.
This is where I find our interest in Martinez really interesting - I’m guessing we’re looking at him as a Man City-inspired inverted LB, so does that mean we’re planning for a more attacking left-8 who we won’t be expecting to drop back as much? 5 defensive players staying back and 5 offensive players staying forward? Or maybe even planning to go with a back 3 more often? We have attacking options there already so it would give us a hell of a lot of flex.
Last edited by I am invisible; 02-07-2022 at 10:37 AM.
NOTE: The location of this post has been moved and the thread title (which was previously Wenger is Leaving) has been manipulated by a notorious pro-Wenger moderator. What was previously a message that contained no profanity and made a comment on a real life event has now been manipulated by a deliberately provocative title. An old and crude propaganda and censorship technique.
Sounds like Martinez could be more likely to sign for United, as Ten Hag has the inside track with Ajax.
The latest is he’s open to both moves, personal terms won’t be an issue either way and Ajax are going to let him choose. We’re having talks with Ajax this week, apparently.
United will have an edge because of Ten Hag - these things do make a difference, as we saw with Jesus - but I have a feeling the biggest factor will be how and where the two sides want to play him? United very much see him as a CB whereas we’re viewing him more as a LB.