Gakpo was dropped against Palace did he not? We were just as crap. So if we are to drop him against Chelsea, who's up next and is there a guarantee we will get it right? The answer is no.
IMO, Slot should have persisted with the team he started the season with, barring injuries . Our most successful period last season was when we were playing with the core 12-13 players rain or shine. He buckled under the pressure. We weren't playing well but we were miles better than Palace when he started with his tweaking. He followed that up by dropping Salah, Macca against Gala, more tweaking and as a result, 2 losses. I can accept a loss against Palace in the last minute but a loss against Gala without scoring is just borderline pathetic.
He needs to start putting round pegs in round holes and all that. If he starts with our usual core players in their correct positions, we will get a result against Chelsea. If he goes tweaking we will go bust again. IMO of course.
I've seen this "put square pegs in round holes" thing a ton of times now.
What the fuck are people talking about?
Our most common starting positions have been gakpo playing where he is supposed to play, tekkers playing where he is supposed to play, salah playing where he is supposed to play, wirtz playing where he is supposed to play, macca playing where he is supposed to play, gravy playing where he is supposed to play, robbo and kerkez playing where they are meant to play, vvd and konate playing where they are meant to play.
So it's szobo that has played at right back, because frimpong is a very particular kind of rb, who was injured, and bradley is coming off an injury and wasn't fit.
It's' almost as stupid as the idea that we should "just play our team from last year." That's something that we 1) can't do and 2) we generally have been, bar the selection choice of kerkez over robbo, and wirtz over szobo (which I'm not sure was a choice due to szobo being the best available 3rd right back).
Are we just talking about one square peg in one round hole, are we ONLY talking about szoboslai? Are we saying that one of our most performant players, getting MOTM plaudits at RB due to injuries and recovery necessity, is actually the root of the problem. I don't see it. We do also have to remember that these positions in particular were considered the most needful of replacements. I.e. robbo got consistent starts last year and we identified that as a big necessary replacement, szobo wasn't productive enough in the 10 according to most.
Slot isn't getting this team playing well, and I do think he shouldn't have tried the 4-2-2-2 thing against Palace, clearly, but the rest of this season its been playing the team about how you'd expect, and trying to let it develop.
Yes, there are too many changes. That's what happens if your club kicks every transfer down the road and does it all at once. It was pretty freakish that our midfield just came together the way it did. It's a stupid way of doing things broadly. It's going to have teething issues. But this narrative that is being built that somehow Slot is tinkering and making really weird choices, I just don't see. We are in that moment where he has to get some players in form.
If there are players who fit a position naturally and offer something different, then it's worth a go. That isn't tinkering.
