Kel Varnsen
I don’t think they are told to be that rigid in the final third. Saka and Martinelli just have immature movement and positional sense. There were several occasions where Saka was doing exactly as you suggest, he came inside to escape being doubled up on, but picked up some really poor positions and half the time just stood on Odegaards toes.
I guarantee you there’s nothing stopping Martinelli from trying a give and go with Zinchenko, but the instinct to make a run is much harder to come by against a deep block.
The opposition has basically figured out 90% of our threat comes from the wide boys so a deep block that doubles up on them is what they’re going for.
We just need to get better at exploiting the space it leaves in other areas and swing in crosses relentlessly, so they realise it’s a bad idea.
