Sicario2 - Tier 1 So essentially Odegaard is irreplaceable?

Not that's not what I'm saying.

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Getting someone better at half way house is better than doing nothing

However I am saying getting a half way house player to fit the same system will make no difference. You're implying that if Odegaard gets injured, Nwaneri gets his minutes when in fact it'll be one of the more experienced players (Nwaneri gets on the bench) but we'll tweak our midfield system to play differently. A good mitigation strategy isn't doing Plan A but worse.

        Mirth what does that mean specifically though? I don't want to field a midfield where three players out of Merino, Partey, Rice and Jorginho are starting. Regardless of whether you change up how you play, someone would have to play instead of Ødegaard.

            I'd wager that nwaeri, havertz, merino, saka and trossard would be the emergency fill-ins for odegaard.

            QuincyAbeyie Havertz and Trossard are options too. And I don't mean Havertz in the role he's taken previously in midfield for us but as a more offensive role. This could be a viable option because while Havertz is not as good as Odegaard on the ball, his pressing is elite and he could be as effective off the ball - in that sense we get to a halfway house compromise position. You've got to make it work - City played Alvarez at number 10 for some games when KBD was out and he wouldn't have been the like for like replacement but they tweaked how they played and it worked.

            For what it's worth, the real cast iron insurance policy to cover Odegaard or Saka getting injured is to have another elite player for our front three (most likely left wing) so that it takes the pressure off the replacements.

                Mirth I guess something like that will be the solution - so let's just hope Ødegaard doesn't get injured.

                City had the PL player of the season filling in for KDB most of the time, so I'd say our situation isn't quite similar.

                    QuincyAbeyie City had the PL player of the season filling in for KDB most of the time, so I'd say our situation isn't quite similar.

                    No, Foden was the one who stepped up in KBD's absence (which is what we'd need Saka or Jesus or whoever to do) but Alvarez was the man for man replacement.

                        Mirth 13 goals scored as a 10, 5 as RW. Doesn't really change that their situation for dealing with KDB's absence is different from ours in Ødegaard's. Moving Havertz would mean moving our starting striker - Alvarez isn't theirs so they wouldn't have to move him around. So I guess the similarities would be between Trossard and Alvarez, which to me just tells me how much easier it would be for City than us.

                            QuincyAbeyie yep, City have a deeper squad and can pretty much cover any injury crisis so KDB's example is illustrative of the strategy that another top manager uses when one of his key players gets injured rather than the specifics of tactics. We are not as well equipped as City to deal with a loss of key personnel.

                            The original claim was that the way to address Odegaard's injury would be to have an Odegaard-lite on the bench and play more or less the same way and hope that works. That's not how top club's approach that challenge, you need to redesign your system to rebalance away from your weakness and towards your strengths.

                              Ødegaard being out for us would be like both Rodri and De Bruyne being out would be for City. He's both our metronome and half our cutting edge at this moment.

                              Sicario2 - Tier 1 This loan is not to make him a better fit for the PL - feels like this is more to give him minutes so that someone (perhaps Porto themselves) will buy him next summer.

                                Don Pacifico Partey can't cover what Ode does though, can he?

                                TBH Partey would likely be better than Vieira if we were that stuck.

                                The reality is in the event of an Odegaard injury Havertz or Trossard were probably still going to be ahead of Vieira. And I'd rather see Nwaneri fill in if we've a crisis than Vieira too.

                                  Turning into quite the protracted saga

                                  Also so strange if accurate cover for a player you refused to ever pick what are we covering a place sitting on the bench.

                                    awooga83 imagine it's a reaction to Vieira going on loan given he was playing RW in pre-season.