18 Apr 2025 09:45:53
I was having a conversation with a mate about the No 10 role (if you can call it that) in the team.
Szobo is the current holder of that place. He for me is not what we need in there, with the current players jn the squad it should be Macca or Elliot that play there. They are far superiour in the role and drop Szobo back alongside Grav. The problem is Slot prefers to play Szobo or Jones there, this for me is because of other players and they become a cog in the machine. There have been games this season I have been screaming at the TV or at the ground to bring Elliot on as he has that magic to unlock things but no he doesn't come on.
So the question is do we need a Szobo or Jones in there as a cog or do we need Elliot or someone else that's a bit of a maverick?
18 Apr 2025 10:07:24
Slot doesn’t rate Elliot. He’s going to be moved on. He never really plays.
18 Apr 2025 10:10:28
Ideally He would like a prime Coutinho to play in there. Who can dribble past players centrally and bang one top corner. The absolute vintage Philippe Coutinho who absolutely ripped some of the best defensive midfielders for fun. Unfortunately neither Szobo nor Jones or even Elliot comes anywhere close to him.
Odegard is a decent shout. But other than him I haven’t seen anyone in the league who can play that role with perfection.
He also likes two at the base. Both comfortable in receiving the ball from keeper / defender under pressure and can turn on with it. That’s why he doesn’t play Endo in there.
A midfield of Fabinho / Gravenberch / Coutinho.
Szobozalai must be an engine but possession football necessarily doesn’t need an engine. Xavi / Iniesta / Busquets.
18 Apr 2025 10:13:34
Szob has had a very good season, but like others I’m not sure what his best position is, or where he's played for previous clubs or internationally. General view is that Mac should be the 10 with Szob deeper but two top class coaches have now played them the other way around. It’s probably because Szob hasn’t got the discipline to play deep, but is great at pressing further up the field. I don’t think we have the solution in the squad, which is a more physical centre mid. We could then rotate Szob and Mac at 10 depending on opposition.
18 Apr 2025 10:23:21
Szob presses from the front and all across the field in a way Slot likes in that role and that he won’t get from Macca.
18 Apr 2025 10:26:04
All I know is that Szob was badly missed when he was out injured.
18 Apr 2025 10:27:17
Maybe we need to drop our preconceptions of what a number 10 is supposed to do and rather consider instead what slot needs a player in that position to do?
Szoboszlai not being able to affect the game on the ball as much as we want in the 10 position doesn't simply have to do with his own capacity to do so, it also has to do with everybody else in the team and the workload he has to shoulder because of the way the rest of the team presses or not.
Szoboszlai covers a lot of ground jumping into passing lanes and pressing, but he also has to do more sometimes because our press, especially from the front, isn't as cohesive as we would like sometimes.
I also feel like we haven't really worked out how we want that right side to operate sometimes, earlier in the season his interplay with Salah with szoboszlai overlapping or under lapping and salah occupying the half space while szoboszlai made runs into the box or vice versa was fantastic, later in the season sometimes I don't know what Dom is being instructed to do because he runs down a blind alley on the right or passes the ball forward into a space that nobody is in. He does this so often that it has to be an instruction, I'm not exactly sure what they are working on in training though.
I feel like this season we have been given a much clearer idea of the kind of player Dom can be in this system, and he hasn't always given us the performance we know he is capable of, but also I sometimes feel like it might be helpful to examine how he is playing in the context of how the rest of the system is working, especially our off the ball structure and the spaces Dom has to fill in or not, and whether his performance could improve if we fixed tactical issues in the season to come. I'm quite confident that we will see a much more consistent Dom next year when the system is tweaked and the accent can be shifted slightly to being able to showcase his attacking play rather than his defensive play, which as we know is already at a pretty much elite level. His signature move at present is sprinting from one part of the pitch to the other to close somebody down or cover a vacated space, hopefully next year he does those lungbusting runs to get on the end of passes in the box.
18 Apr 2025 11:14:15
I’d love to see a more creative number 10 in there. Personally I don’t see that as Elliot. I think he’s a good player but I’d love to see a top top class 10.
Slot so far seems to think differently though and is reluctant to use others away from Szob.
Interesting to see what he does in summer for next season or whether he continues with Szob being his man there.
18 Apr 2025 11:24:30
szoboszlai Certainly does cover a lot of ground during the game, never stops running and pressing. I’d like him to create and score more than he does. I see we are linked with Morgan Rogers…. can’t see us getting him but him and xavi Simon’s type player are more of flair players who possibly create/ score more than Dom.
18 Apr 2025 11:29:04
Won’t happen but Wirtz of Leverkusen would be perfect fit.
18 Apr 2025 11:29:46
It's most likely that Szobo gets picked because Salah and Trent need compensating for. There's also an argument that because we don't play with a defensive midfielder, we need his recovery runs.
If we had a more orthodox right back and a defensive midfielder, perhaps someone like Harvey Elliott or another more creative player could be accommodated in the starting line-up.
It will be interesting to see what Slot wants to change in midfield.
18 Apr 2025 11:36:53
Two of the best "Number 10s" I've seen were Roberto Baggio and Denis Bergkamp. Imagine what a play of their talents would be worth these days. Obviously Maradona was the best in that position but he was pure individual brilliance. As for our team i would like to see Elliot given a go but sadly it doesn't look like it's going to happen .
18 Apr 2025 12:01:15
I second that @RedJones. But Wirtz would most likely end up at Bayern or Manchester city.
You could also add David Silva in that list @Bigbaz.
18 Apr 2025 12:26:22
I don’t think Harvey will leave.
18 Apr 2025 13:20:48
Elliott's problem is his size and his speed. Seriously if he was a few inches taller, 15 pounds heavier and had that little bit more explosiveness he would be nailed on for that position for the next ten years. I think he is an excellent player, great vision and one of the players in our squad who can hit a ball cleanly and with power outside the box. I would love him to stay and for Arne to give him a chance after another preseason to show what he can do.
18 Apr 2025 13:27:11
Size and weight have very little to do with it. David Silva wasn’t exactly big in any shape or form.
18 Apr 2025 14:48:52
Jan molby was faster than Elliot, decent player but not Liverpool quality unfortunately.
18 Apr 2025 18:07:16
Bash szobo getting a bashing this week.
18 Apr 2025 20:06:24
The other thing to consider is that the players around Szobo are very direct. Szobo would benefit from players linking up around him, creating angles, 1-2s etc. he’s that kind of player.
18 Apr 2025 20:48:54
Macca is the weak part of our midfield not Szobo. Grab Szobo and a forward thinking midfielder should be the three. I am hoping Real Madrid still want Macca tbh. Get the cash and buy someone good.