NamelessSCIAGCountryRoyal
It would be amazing, amazingly shit. We’ve seen our fair share of powder puff midfields in recent years but that would take the biscuit
I was mostly memeing, but I think you're underestimating McEachran's defensive ability.
This season McEachran made 2 tackles and 1.1 interceptions per 90. That was pretty standard for him - he's done better in two of his five seasons since he left Chelsea.
That compares well to Rinomhota who made 2.3 tackles and 1 interception. In real terms, Rinomhota wins the ball one extra time every five matches.
Baker made 1.3 tackles and 0.7 interceptions for us, by far the highest he's made at any club. Swift made 1.4 tackles and 0.8 interceptions.
Ejaria made 1.8 and 1.1. Kelly made 1.6 and 1.2.
Think it's fair to say that Rinomhota/Baker/AN Other looked like a solid defensive midfield base. Put McEachran in for Rinomhota and there's no good reason to think it would be noticeably worse at winning the ball back.
I think what we'd actually miss would be Rinomhota's ability to carry the ball out of danger. From McEachran's Chelsea days I thought this was one of his strengths, but he's actually terrible at it, even worse than Kelly. Statistically, Rinomhota is almost as good as Swift at dribbling, though I'd say they use their abilities differently (Rinomhota relieves pressure and gives us time to get set up, Swift dribbles more creatively). Ejaria on the other hand is one of the best dribblers in the league and the best who regularly plays in midfield.
God, spent far too much time defending that shitpost. But basically the problem with the modern British technical midfielder isn't that they can't defend, it's that they can't dribble. Oliver Norwood syndrome.
Does whatever the definition of a ‘tackle’ actually define what defending involves ?
James Harper used to,talk about this when people,said he couldn’t tackle. He said on the one hand you had Sidwell charging in and ‘tackling’ , getting lots of praise for diving in, knocking people over etc. Harps pointed out that if you lost a ‘tackle’ you were on the ground, off your feet, out of the game. He said defending was about getting between the attacked and the goal, stopping them passing, stopping them dribbling and waiting for that moment when they took their eye off the ball or slightly miscontrolled it and then taking it away from them. He said it was much and people,didn’t See it as tacking but he saw it as much more effective and lower risk even if it wasn’t what got fans on their feet.
No idea whether the football stats reflect this.
Xavi Alonso said similar... tackling's a move of desperation of something.
Making a tackle often just means the ball runs loose. Better to force an error that leads to an interception or the ball going out.
Room for both, but Harps defensive ability was definitely under rated. "Arm waving and pointing"