Liverpool v Arsenal, 15/08/10, SS1, 4pm GMT

[Tourbillion]

Agree with anyone who thinks Cesc is best in a midfield three as a box to box player. This way he can come deep and receive from the defence thereby giving us proper composure and intelligence on the ball early on in our attacks, while being able to run from deep into/towards the box to assist/score. He gives the entire team BALANCE as a central midfielder. It's that simple. And yes - THREE FORWARDS up front.

 

[Clrnc]

Finally someone dispel the myth about Cesc as an AM. It was always clear he have much more influence on the game if he is being played deeper. Great post, thanks.

 

[Burnwinter]

Combine that with the heat maps in the last post, and it's beyond question that Cesc plays his best football, and produces his best numbers, as a proper, box-to-box central midfielder.

not necessarily. correlation != causation. we were more productive in general with van persie on the pitch than we were without him. so you can't really conclude that cesc is as, or even more, productive as a box-to-box midfielder rather than an attacking midfielder.

Precisely. The goals dried up after van Persie's injury. Any stats concerning goals and assists afterward are going to be skewed, and I think it's reasonable to state (as we all did at the time, loudly and for months) that the change had more to do with our best forward being unavailable, than with Fabregas' changed role.

I think the topic of whether Fabregas is best as an AM or a CM is best answered by the question "who else is available?" anyway.

 

[qs]

thats all very nice, but lets not forget we have a clown in goal

Indeed. Too much debate over minor details while the major flaws remain.

 

[Wokich]

Those stats prove the value of Van Persie. We saw how effective he can be just in the last 20 minutes of the game.

I wanted to bring attention to Theo's free kick. It didn't go in, but it was on target and dangerous. That was something he couldn't have done two years ago.

 

[Accomplished]

hard to debate major details when we've been doing the same ones for about 3 years now...

 

[hesham]

Id take a fit van Persie and Fabregas for the whole season over a new keeper.