What about a 3-4-3 formation with Robertson and TAA alongside Fabhino and Henderson in midfield? Maybe would stop midfield being bypassed.
I agree, as I said 523 is the same as 343, just depends where the FBs are. It just means 3 central defenders
It would make sense given the shortage of midfield players we have and would give CB's more game time but I worry it would turn us into Spurs or Man U.
I like the way we play. TV loves our style which is why we are on more than Chelsea or Man City. Exposure brings more fans and as soon as you name a team containing Robertson, VVD, Matip, Gomez (or Konate) and TAA that's 523 in anyone's language however you dress it up. I just think we would lose something in our identity if we did that.
However a team containing 3 CB's suddenly becomes 343 when you take out TAA or Robertson and replace them with Jones or Ox.
Our problems v West Ham were trying to play balls through the middle when they were lining up with almost 2 banks of 5 at 0-1 and not deviating too much from it at 1-1. When we lost possession second half up the middle West Ham only had to commit one extra player forward to cause us problems. We stopped playing our natural game of stretching opponents from side to side.
TAA is not the greatest defender because he is often so far up the pitch and although he can deliver a killer ball from anywhere we have a better chance of that the further forward he is.
I think it all depends whether you want your defenders to primarily stop goals or to be a part of the attack. If you have attacking defenders who create as much as TAA or Robertson For that manner it is hard to criticise their defensive abilities. If you don't have a TAA in your team you have to spend millions of pounds on a creative midfielder who will do that for you week in week out.
