jayramfootball wrote:Highbury Hillbilly wrote:DiamondGooner wrote:Arsenal Tone wrote:He's not a DM and neither is Partey, that is the problem. Need someone who is pretty much a CB playing in midfield.
Elneny?
Ben White for me. He can play that role, leaving Saliba and Gabriel as CBs.
Elneny's passing qualities are better than his defensive attributes.
I don't get this 'move a CB to a DM role' idea.
They are two totally different positions to play.
How many CB's do we see playing central midfield?
If we need a DM (we do) then we should sign one - not fill the role with a CB.
While I don't agree with pushing Ben White into midfield to do a DM role, the idea of pushing ball-playing CBs into the DM role makes a lot of sense. I can't remember who I had an argument with about this, I think it was Zenith, lots of stats were thrown around by us both.
The idea makes a lot of sense, ball playing CBs are defensive-centric, so to have a player that can tackle and win headers and break up play sit in front of the defence is a good idea. Whether we have seen lots of examples of it happening or not is irrelevant. You see it a lot in amateur football when teams are short on numbers, CBs push into midfield and hold or holding CMs push into defence as a CB. Holding CMs don't do as much running as box to box CMs, all they need to do is sit and cover an area from the halfway line to the edge of the box, they need to read the play and identify the threat - especially on a counter. The fact the CB is a ball playing CB means he is comfortable on the ball so should be able to cope when put under pressure.
As a short term/tactical solution, I think its fine.