View all comments
The thing is, everyone wants to be like Pep Guardiola by playing players out of their natural position.... The issue is that not everyone has the tactical nous of a Pep Guardiola.
It's the reason why (in Southgates head) when he plays Foden on the left or the right, his (Southgate's) brain is telling himself "you're a genius like Pep" but in reality when you watch Foden play, and his link up with the players around him, he's actively playing more like a number 10.... but Southgate doesn't have that part in his brain to have the players around Foden to link up in the same way, so what we get is ineffective and slow paced.
If we had someone who was tactically astute at the helm, Saka could probably play left-back, and it would probably work as well as Saka at right wing.... but knowing Southgate it wouldn't be like that.