Firstly, the non-negotiables.<\/p>\n
Amorim’s system involves two deeper midfield players, wing-backs who push high up the pitch, two inside forwards and a striker.<\/p>\n
It is assumed Sesko will be the striker, with Matheus Cunha playing behind him on the left and Bryan Mbeumo on the right.<\/p>\n
That would mean skipper Bruno Fernandes taking on one of the deeper midfield roles.<\/p>\n
Now, Fernandes is many things but a box-to-box midfielder is not one of them.<\/p>\n
Fernandes likes to roam. He likes to get on the ball. He likes to find pockets of space to take a pass.<\/p>\n
But the 30-year-old Portugal international is not someone you would rely on being alert to danger. He is not someone who is going to make a 10-yard run in anticipation of closing down space.<\/p>\n
This seems to be a problem even if it was something Amorim dismissed when I asked him on the specific point about his midfield in Chicago a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n
“Bruno runs a lot,” he said. “Maybe in the sprint he’s a different player, but he runs a lot. He has a lot of endurance. He’s smart. So it’s not about that. Bruno’s physicality is not the concern. He’s ready for the physicality, playing deep or as a midfielder.”<\/p>\n
If that was accurate, why would United be making discreet inquiries on Baleba? <\/p>\n
After all, the Brighton player is very much a box-to-box midfielder, someone with energy and endurance, who can tackle and pass. More pertinently, he is precisely the kind of player Amorim does not have in his squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firstly, the non-negotiables. Amorim’s system involves two deeper midfield players, wing-backs who push high up the pitch, two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[94,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-326490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114990231307588714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}