Who is our best #8?

[djhotspur]

Against Liverpool we basically had a midfield of 3 #8s in Bentancur, Bissouma, and Sarr. I didn't think any of them did particularly poorly (and thought Biss had his best game in a while actually), but it definitely seems like they're all really trying to do the same sort of thing, and so there's a balance lacking there. I don't think there's really room for more than one or two at a stretch to play. Plus you could probably throw Bergvall, Lo Celso, Hojberg, Skipp into the same category. All of them are missing a true DM to sit behind imo. Sort of reminds me Liverpool's midfield last season, which was corrected this season by Endo coming in.

Just focusing on Sarr, Bentancur, and Bissouma since these three seem to be Ange's preferred 3, who would you start/bench/sell if you had to, assuming we get a good DM in the summer and Maddison plays as a #10 for most games next season? Who best suits the style of play we're trying to implement?

The issue is, there isnt the creativity or actual 10 in the midfield. They cant do the intricate passing required and benta at 10 looks lost as its not his natural position. None of the 3 pick up the position between the lines or really make the pass in between them either so we just look devoid of creativity

 

[Gassin's finest]

I’m a septuagenarian who’s been watching football all my life and have no idea what is meant by these numbers. Do they stem from computer games? Is there anything I could read to enlighten me?

If you're that old then positions based on the old shirt numbers, before the days of US style squad numbers, should mean more to you than modern football fans.