Right now we have a huge problem and that is our midfield. What is worse is that the midfielders aren't the problem:
We play with 2 or 3 midfielders, but when we are pressed we will be always out numbered and lose midfield battle for most part. This isn't an issue when a team of Villarreal caliber try it, we will beat them easily like we did twice since Covid. But a team of Seville caliber will cause troubles, a team like Bayern/Liverpool will eat us alive.
I only see 3 solutions for this:
-Press hard when we lose the ball, while tiki-take your way with the ball from box to box. This is almost impossible, only teams who were able to do that was Barca Pep and I am not sure that even this team will be able to do it in 2020.
-Play highline and push the team to be more intact: Great game plan if you have speed in defense, especially in CB. But doing it against top speed teams with Pique & Lenglet will be asking for trouble.
-Have quick attackers: Simply punish a team who tries to press you with counter attack. Problem is when your quickest starting attacker is Fati, no team will care enough and you will fail to make such counters.
Elite teams like Bayern and Liverpool have both last 2 options, and IMO this is the way to go. We have quick FBs but not CB, we have zero quickness in our attack
Without those options we will always suffer against teams that are pressing us, because there is no outlets for midfield in attack or even defensive coverage. Koeman against Seville tried to fix solution with adding another 2 midfielders in Pjanic and Pedri but number of midfielders isn't the problem. It is how the midfielders get support from the rest of the team
Good post.
Liverpool and Bayern press hard after losing the ball. It's no surprise that they are the best team in the world.
High line + pressing hard go hand in hand. When you press, to keep the distance between the lines short, and compact, this translates all the way to the backline who plays 20-30m. higher than usual.
Also, for the last point, you need way more than just quick attackers.
Liverpool and Bayern can be best described as 1) from your list. Pushing up and pressing hard is what they do best off the ball, the main part of their success (no wonder Klopp's Gegenpressing is so talked about). For this, you do need fast players with great stamina. No wonder both Liverpool and Bayern are very strong physically.
Bayern's and Liverpool's front line are incredibly dedicated to working hard and pressing constantly. Remember how many balls Stegen passed straight to the opponent because he was pressed to death. Or the mistakes we made on Anfield because we were constantly under pressure from Liverpool.
Tiki-taka-ing our way form box to box is, indeed, near impossible without all time great players at their peaks. But pressing as a well-drilled unit deep in the opponent's half is THE go to tactic both defensively, and offensively.
