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double pivot in a 4231 with Kante and Kovacic. We have DMs in Kante Jorginho (trading up for rice?) Bakayoko even though he’s never broken through, ampadu?

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i agree, but we've seen this experimented with a few times this season and it never really worked right. jorginho and kovacic have worked best in a pivot, but thats lead to other issues. maybe if Ngolo had been fit for more games, this could have been tinkered with more. but yeah, kovacic/kante seems like it should work really well.

I like the idea of Rice playing there. would love for ampadu to develop into that role as well, but his loan has gone so poorly i dont know what the plans are for him next season.

next year, theres no doubt we will have more success in the final third with werner, ziyech, healthy RLC, Kai? if we can get goals w/o having to over commit two overlapping FBs and two attacking 8s, itll naturally create a better balance and leave us less exposed. thats what im hoping anyway.

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That’s a great kit.

Freaking Kepa. Wasn’t prepared for that shot at all.

My take for the 1st half

We got lucky on the first goal (obviously).
Tough luck for Cahill.

Mount and Barkley seem to want to jam the ball through the middle of the defense. CP22 was the higher percentage option over a half dozen times out left and was totally ignored by Barkley and Mount (1 look in 6).

The goal by CP22 didn’t involve either of the two above.

Neither did the strike by Willian on the nice dummy run by OG (which froze the Palace back line) and nice look left by CP22.

On the Zaha goal for Palace, Mount trotted back and NEVER recovered. He had a front row seat to a beautiful strike.

Basically, not having Kante in the middle has been easy to see imho. Mount and Barkley ball chase and have success when applying high pressure. Working off of the ball...not so much. Barkley tracks back better than Mount...who can be a liability (he is on the hook for two goals in 60 minutes of play just by being lazy). Mount is young and plays with an edge, but he is no Kante.

Gilmour looks his age, but has played well.

Just my .02.

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Terrible from Zouma on Zaha's goal. He just stood there and didn't close down when he was the closest. Absolutely shocking from Kepa as well. I've tried to be patient with him, but he's got to go. He's not good. He's got to save shots down the middle. He also almost gave them a goal right at the start.

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Agreed. Our back line is shite and we grossly overpaid for Kepa based on his play. I guess I could have noted it, but it has been the case all season. To be fair, by Zouma delaying Zaha, it gave Mount tons of time to track. When he didn’t track, Zouma should have stepped to the ball (which obviously didn’t happen). In short a clusterfrick.

I noted the midfield play as Lamps made a living 18 to 18. Simply put, I don’t see that in Mount or Barkley (yet).

We overpaid kepa because courtois left us in a really poor spot. We had to overpay. I still can’t believe caballero is still on this team after the last WC. He was our only option.

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We overpaid kepa because courtois left us in a really poor spot. We had to overpay. I still can’t believe caballero is still on this team after the last WC. He was our only option.

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True

I thought Kepa turned the corner before the break against Liverpool but I guess not.

These kits are ??

Tammy finally contributes then gives it back on the very next possession. Defense and Kepa are rubbish although Reese looked good. And Zouma saves our asses at the end but geez these guys cannot protect a lead. This match reminded me so much of West Ham.

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