Of course - the question of whether or not this leads to players actually being in the optimal positions is a separate one.

Any chance of another pod with Jon on United OOP?

That’s what I’ve come to think too - that he expects players to make judgments about when to shift their positioning OOP. In some cases it’s 5-2-3, in some 5-3-2, in some 4-4-2 without it ever strictly being any of these as a dogmatic approach.

That consistent with how you see it?

Why not stick to the latter? Might it have to do with his IP goals/concerns? Is he just being stubborn?

Thanks for the response. Hope you and Kees keep posting on Bluesky. Not nearly enough good footballing content here.

Fascinated to watch Garnacho’s development. It’s interesting - I think playing on *this* United team and in *this* 3-4-3 setup makes his strengths and weaknesses uniquely visible.

I guess my question for you would be which specific traits of his do you think would be the ones that would take him to the next level were he to eventually reach it?

But I think there are players who with their skill sets may be a much better fit for *this team.* Anyhow, just thought I’d continue the discussion/debate. Thanks for the great United content!

And I don’t necessarily see any of those traits changing (regardless of his age). None of this is to say he isn’t a good player or that he doesn’t play a significant role for this team. But I struggle to see how he is irreplaceable. Buying a like for like player could be prohibitively expensive.

Is that good? That seems good. 😂

What’s your best guess as to what all led to this?