Defensive Full-backs

[stevoc]

Darmian is underrated. He's barely put a foot wrong for us and was excellent in the Europa League final.

No chance is Darmian underrated if anything he's overrated right now after he improved defensively towards the end of the season. But thats been his first decent run of form in nearly 2 years.

As for barely putting a foot wrong well he barely put a foot wrong in the opposition half mostly because he barely got either of his feet in their half.

 

[Pete Dahh Sneak]

Chelsea was probably one of the few times it was a good idea. Azpi stayed deep because he's an excellent one on one defender and kept Terry from getting exposed on the outside.

No doubt, he let JT read the game and almost took away any open field opportunity attackers had at exposing him, having Matic and Azpilicueta in the forms of their lives (Matic anyway, Azpilicueta 16-17 surpassed 14-15 for me).

 

[stevoc]

He did it at Inter (Maxwell, Zanetti, and Chivu across Maicon) Madrid (Ramos, Arbeloa, I even remember Diarra and Essien getting matches there opposite of Marcel of course) and Chelsea (playing Azpilicueta out of position over Filipe Luis for some reason because he loved Ivanovic's ability to bomb forward and cross to no one, instead of just ya know playing Luis and Azpi).

Well i don't know if he did it at those clubs. But he isn't doing it at United in my opinion, as the quote from Shaw above states at United anyway he doesn't instruct one of the fullbacks to sit back all match.

 

[Womp]

Darmian is underrated. He's barely put a foot wrong for us and was excellent in the Europa League final.

Don't think so, there's many posters on here, myself included, who agree he's very good at what he does, which is defend. You'd be hard done trying to convince anyone he's a threat going forward though, he's dire.

He's a very good squad option in games where we will get smacked, as his side of the field is usually very secure from a defensive pov, but in games where we need to take the game to the opposition he's not what we need.

 

[Physiocrat]

You cannot have two playmakers in the midfield and Pogba is the playmaker in our case. Thus you pair him with a pure DM like Matic and not a DLP like Verratti.

Juventus say otherwise-

Pogba-Vidal
----Pirlo-------

IMO the best setup for Pogba. Allows him the freedom to produce sparks of magic and bomb forward and score goals. It does not require him to control the game and be the teams sole playmaker a la Riquelme or Zidane.

@SS

Pogba is an offensive 8 who produces flashes of creativity and a lot of dynamism but he isn't a proper playmaker- he also prefers the space afforded to him further back rather than in the 10 position. To facilitate this he needs someone else to share the playmaking to burden with and also not to be played too deep such that it will restrict him going forward.

IMO there's only two positions I'd play Pogba. As a narrow left midfielder in a lopsided 442/4231 or on the left of the midfield 3 in a 433/352. He could play on the left of a diamond but I don't trust his defensive contribution to play there

 

[cheeky_backheel]

Juventus say otherwise-

Pogba-Vidal
----Pirlo-------

IMO the best setup for Pogba. Allows him the freedom to produce sparks of magic and bomb forward and score goals. It does not require him to control the game and be the teams sole playmaker a la Riquelme or Zidane.

@SS

Pogba is an offensive 8 who produces flashes of creativity and a lot of dynamism but he isn't a proper playmaker- he also prefers the space afforded to him further back rather than in the 10 position. To facilitate this he needs someone else to share the playmaking to burden with and also not to be played too deep such that it will restrict him going forward.

IMO there's only two positions I'd play Pogba. As a narrow left midfielder in a lopsided 442/4231 or on the left of the midfield 3 in a 433/352. He could play on the left of a diamond but I don't trust his defensive contribution to play there

Pogba was not the playmaker at Juve, only Pirlo was.

It is not a question of if you can have two players that are capable of being playmakers, but that only one of them can be the playmaker on the team. Another example, both Modric and Kroos can be playmakers but Kroos is the playmaker at Madrid. Whoever dictates the tempo and conducts the team is the playmaker.

If you feel Pogba is not good enough to be our playmaker, that is a different issue, but for now he is and so far has done well enough.

 

[Physiocrat]

Pogba was not the playmaker at Juve, only Pirlo was.

It is not a question of if you can have two players that are capable of being playmakers, but that only one of them can be the playmaker on the team. Another example, both Modric and Kroos can be playmakers but Kroos is the playmaker at Madrid. Whoever dictates the tempo and conducts the team is the playmaker.

If you feel Pogba is not good enough to be our playmaker, that is a different issue, but for now he is and so far has done well enough.

I don't think it is the case that one only does player dictate the tempo nor that you can only have one. The United side of 94 essentially operated without a playmaker as you described. In addition Brazil's 1970 side was called the team of the four 10s.

Also I don't think Pogba is best served with the responsibility to dictate- he should get forward, use his creativity and score goals. As I indicated I'd prefer more of a playmaker as you described in a DLP role with Pogba.