interesting ... his importance is clearly underrated based on that ... but I think about how Sølskjær was ridiculous coming off the bench for a short cameo, but only rarely impressed when he got the full 90 ... is Park's situation analogous? too far into the realm of conjecture to justify analysis, I suppose ... but it needs to be considered ...ShiftyPowers;2938467 said:If I put Park on the pitch I will probably have Eto'o on the other side and leave Robinho off. If I just wanted to pin a fullback back, I'd use Robinho, but Park is one of the only players in the world who will tackle and harass a fullback all over the field, which is why he's so valuable. Maicon, Cole, and maybe Alves (although I might want to just use Robinho on him and hope he gets caught out on a counter) are perhaps the only fullbacks that are so excellent I would need a special player to mark them. It's kind of funny to go through Park's matches last season and see all the wins; almost all the losses happened when Park was substituted in the 65th-ish minute. He neutralized Lahm at the Allianz for example, got taken off, and then we had the late goals to win.
hah, why? btw, I'd never consider Pastore or Cassano "on the wing" ... all the attacking players will have free roles, drifting and dropping from certain starting positions ...ShiftyPowers;2938467 said:If you put Pastore on the wing, I consider that a victory for me.
Schweini is definitely, by his own words, a man to break up play -- i.e. he cherishes operating as a ballwinner ... that he used to play up front with a good shot shouldn't distract you from what he has become now ... I think every team needs at least one pure ballwinner in there ...ShiftyPowers;2938467 said:Ramires and Mariga aren't holding midfielders, but you don't really need one in a 4-2-3-1 if you have two disciplined central mids. Schweinsteiger and Khedira couldn't be mistaken for holding midfielders, but they were arguably the best two in that formation at the World Cup. Both of their ability to get forward adds some uncertainty to my attack as well, which can only help. And hell, if they start to get overwhelmed I can always drop Cesc a little further back; afterall the kid came up in a flat 4-4-2.
and yeah, Khedira and Piggy worked well together at the World Cup ... but I think I mentioned this before: Germany only dominated possession against Australia, and Ghana to a degree ... against Argentina and especially England, they played on the break ... it was effective against those two defensively incompetent teams, but were not impressive performances as far as I am concerned ...