I've said this before, but I do wonder whose signing Berge is. He does look like a Premier League footballer, at times, but he's never looked like a player who fits into how we play. I can't put my finger on it but he just seems to be the wrong kind of player for how we play.
I keep reading this about Berge. I can't help but feel that Sander gets a free pass quite regularly.
Look at the WBA defeat. All emphasis was on whether Ramsdale hadn't been able to see through solid objects where somehow Hendo had that ability. Very little initial reaction focused on how Sander completely fluffed his clearance and played it right into the danger area your clearances are supposed to avoid - something which intimately cost us the game in the same way Fleck's lack of basic ball control did yesterday.
I've also read about how he doesn't fit into how we play. He's played right of a three going forward a little which as a central midfielder is a bit of a luxury operating in a 3 rather than a 2. He's also been deployed in a defensive midfield role too. So if he's not a number 6 and he's not a number 8, then what is he?
20m+ seems an awful lot if his role is to play alongside vastly superior offensive players and just pass the ball to them sideways and allow them to do they tricky stuff especially when you're not showing you can dominate defensively either, even with a build of Yaya Toure.
He needs to contribute far more.
The decline of the rest is inexplicable. They aren't 34, their legs going. They are all 30 or under, arguably at or approaching their prime.
Norwood has gone from the PL's long range passmaster and ping expert to a guy who can't beat the first man for love not money in dead balls and just disappears in the midfield.
Lundstram has gone from substandard back up to box to box goalscoring maestro to always choosing the wrong option when facing goal.
Fleck has always been a slow starter. He's never been the liability he was yesterday and at one point last season he looked every bit a top 6 midfield player with 20m being bandied around. Funny thing is, we would have probably been daft enough to turn it down!
Whether the pre-season was too short and they just got no time to recover and came back behind, I've no idea but I look at that midfield and I find myself thinking of ways to not pick any of them! Could Ampadu sit in front of the back 4 to give them more protection? Could McGoldrick drop into the hole behind a front two? Who could we loan in to make a third option?
Just seems so much inexplicably wrong with the team right now.
