Nymzee
Player Valuation: £150m
Same answer to you:
We played the last few matches with three CMs in the team.
Before that (from the beginning of last February going back) at Stoke, Palace, City, Southampton, Hull, Liverpool we played two and we didn't always stick with 433 either: S'ton and Leicester we went 4-2-3-1 and 3-4-3 respectively. Against Liverpool we went 4-2-3-1. In fact, we've mixed formation up all season long but apart from the last 3/4 games have never played more than two CMs in a game.
...try looking beyond the end of your nose when analysing the trends in the way we set up this season.
The Barry/Gueye or Gueye/McCarthy combo has been the only game in town apart form the last 4 games or so.
Unreal.
Is it not at all possible that due to McCarthy/Besic injuries, before he could sign Schneiderlin he had to use formations to fit available personnel but now they're fit & he's signed he can finally use a "preferred" formation with 3 centre mids in?
Either way let's compare used numbers for the last two seasons:
2015/16
Barry
McCarthy
Besic
Gibson
Cleverley
Davies
2016/17
Barry
McCarthy
Besic
Gueye
Schneiderlin
Davies
Did you moan about having too many central midfielders last season? I suspect not. We've simply kept the numbers the same but vastly improved the quality.