Interesting perspective. I loved Ki yesterday, he was quality for all the reasons you describe. But my concern was that it didn’t seem like we had control in the middle of the park in the same way we do with Shelvey. As a result they had way more chances towards the end of the game because we didn’t do a great job of slowing the game down - which Shelvey is great at.Colly wrote: ↑Sun Nov 11, 2018 10:19 amIt's not even just the quality of the cross, when Shelvey plays those he's usually at least twenty yards further back and it's obvious that that's the ball he'll play. With this one Ki was up with play, first looked to see if the short one to Rondon or back to the right wing would work, then played that perfect ball having barely had a glimpse. Genuinely brilliant.Don Sholeone wrote: ↑Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:59 pmRondon was a beast today, also think Ki needs some recognition for that cross field ball that lead to the second, if that was shelvey people would have been going mental for it, also cracking cross from Kenedy.
I like Shelvey and think he's a good player, but positionally he's so influential on the way we play and I'd argue not in a good way. At the risk of risk of sounding like a stuck record (remember those?) Shelvey spends his games sitting so deep that we have a massive hole in the middle of midfield most of our games limiting our ability to pass through midfield. With Ki we suddenly have an option for the likes of Dummett and our wingers to pass short to, he's not scared to carry it forward, and his setpieces are no worse. Added bonus is the Schär can do the long balls from defense...
I think there are two solutions to that though - drop Perez and have Shelvey and Diame deep and Ki in front of them as a pseudo-no. 10; or replace Diame with a DM that is slightly more technical vs. a big physical lump - a Tiote-style player - to get that total control of the central midfield area.