Fermín López

I, I, I think that right now, in this team, there's no doubt that playing centrally for him seems to be a natural fit.

But with the freedoms that he has at Barcelona, where he can drop underneath and he knows full well that now Dani Olmo's gonna take that space or Fermín López is gonna take that space.

And even if he goes and combines out wide with Lamine Yamal, then other players are gonna take the inside channel.

If he goes on the left-hand side, you know he has certainty that Anthony Gordon is gonna shift inside.

He wants space to isolate defenders on the right side.

They've got Fermin Lopez or Dani Olmo roaming around as, like, the free man.

And then you've got Pedri as the progressive passer, and Rodri as the anchor.

Like, it's kind of a...

Oh, I mean, it wouldn't at all 'cause you're losing Erling Haaland.

But if, if he goes to Barcelona, then yeah, I guess Alvarez would, would-

I, I was, I was surprised, though, in this game, like, Fermin Lopez in particular brings a physicality and just a willingness to, like, run over people literally if he needs to to try to win the ball back.

There was a bit more of that from Pedri.

Yeah, I wanna say left wing back or your left forward stepping down.

But instead they keep bringing the left center back over, and what that creates is not necessarily Olmo so much, but when it was Fermín, and especially against, uh, Valencia, when it was Fermín for Olmo, that half space was just over and over and over, right? Fermín making that run to that half space, which means that behind the ball there, we felt like Gündogan and Raphinha, they didn't do as much.

Well, that's because they were just waiting for the timing of those runs to be available, because now they're in 1v1 situations to that point with the center center back and the right center back.

Because of course, Cancelo or Aspar, well, Aspar would also be diving in, and same thing with Cancelo against Feyenoord.

If you don't track the runners [chuckles] coming, either the underlapping left back or you fail to track the, the runner in Gündogan or Adeyemi, whoever it is from that left side.

We saw Adeyemi's goal yesterday was scored exactly that way because it was already...

The defense had shifted to Lamine Yamal's side because Olmo was also playing close to him, as was Fermín López, right? And I find that really interesting because in the first three matches of the season, and I know I'm making you [chuckles] do a lot of movement here on the tactics pad, against Elche, Athletic Club, and Rayo Vallecano, who largely played at four at the back, we felt like Lamine Yamal, uh, actually hadn't done as much and that Gündogan and Raphinha were much more involved, and this is a tactics pad for another day.

But because Gündogan can carry now and you do have a left winger that can legitimately carry in a way that Raphinha wasn't doing last season, right? Because you have a left winger that can actually carry, it is strong siding or you're getting now a numerical advantage on that left side.

I don't see how it, it can't work.

There'll probably be Rodri and, and Pedri, and then they get Dani Olmo or Fermín López.

It can, it can rotate.

Uh, I wouldn't say it didn't work at the World Cup, it's just that De la Fuente's decided that it was gonna be a better balance with different players, be it Mikel Merino, be it Dani Olmo, be it Fabián Ruiz.