''Certainly take your point on Elhamed being the square peg I argued against further up the field, though I only meant that until the world class left sided central defender who can also deputise at full back, wing back and defensive midfielder is signed
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☝And therein lies the problem mate, wishing for magical unicorns!
Seriously though we're leaving ourselves vulnerable at the back and overcomplicating things elsewhere in the team in order to play a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 system when the reality is we simply don't have the necessary personnel to play either right now!
I think what baffles me about this whole thing is that we're putting the cart before the horse. What we should be saying is 'here are the players we have to work with, what system works best with these players' but instead we're saying 'here's the system we want to play, how can we shoehorn players into positions to make it work.' It just seems like we've got things back to front with this!
No matter how much we want to see either of these systems it will continue to rely on 'square pegs in round holes' and result in erratic defensive displays until we bring in a left sided CB and 2 proper WB's that can make it work because what we have right now will get found out the minute we come up against the first team capable of mounting a half decent attack.
As for Elhamed or Ajer playing as the right sided CB my question would be this.....Who out of these 2 is the natural choice and most competent to play there? If the answer is Elhamed then moving him to the left and playing Ajer there instead is just nuts imo? Why make a simple straight forward choice needlessly messy and overcomplicated.
And as you know already Niall I agree 100% that left sided CB is not Ajer's natural position, mainly because I don't think he's a defender
My concern about the lack of physicality in the midfield you've went with is not just about the lack of old school tackling ability but the ability of that 4 to handle the rough and tumble of dealing with more physical midfield opponents. Look at Cluj, Copenhagen and even the huns to an extent, all inferior teams ability wise but all managed to turn us over because they physically dominated us.
Are any of these 4 bhoys physically up to holding off or getting past a midfield full of hammer throwers who rely on their physicality to outmuscle and bundle their opponents off the ball. My worry is if we can't mix it with these type of teams when we have Broony (or that type of player in there) then where does that leave us if we go with a less combative midfield because we come up against this type of team quite a lot?
Aye maybe sacrifice Broony (or any DM) for more mobility in the games where teams park the bus but if we try this against teams with a big physical midfield presence then it's a definite risk because if we can't intercept and distribute the ball quick enough they will likely just run over the top of that midfield 4.
Sorry for yet another lengthy post mate, will try harder not to waffle on too much in future.....honest!