It’s not about talented players per se. It’s about appropriate players. The system needs players who are good on the ball, and are comfortable passing in multiple directions quickly. We are willing to give up other attributes. We don’t need the biggest and fastest players, for example. Counter attacking teams like Spurs and a United may profile more in those directions.
It was painful to see such massive overhaul of our team, but take a guy like Lacazette. Overrated for his hood up play, all we needed was got him to be more mobile on the ball, to create real jeopardy around zone 14.
Take Pool. They haven’t had highly skilled CMs. Because the job of the CMs is to be the recovery zone in the press. Only later they added Thiago and have lost much of their original intensity. But originally, they had well defined requirements for their system. You can’t carry suboptimal players - eg Pépé who is often called the most talented player by Arsenal teammates, but has inadequate ability in pass and move play.
