Messi983
Senior Member
Some good posts lately but also great overreactions as expected earlier in the thread.
Give the kid some break. He shouldn't be our 12th player in this phase of the season. It's good Koeman believes in him but it can cause him more harm than good putting him into situations he's not ready for yet.
In ideal circumstances Pjanić should be the one coming on when Busi got injured (or even start ahead of him; I'm sure if given a fair chance from the start of the season he'd show as much if not more than Busi) and then Ilaix coming on with 20 minutes left for Pedri. Also throw in Puig too for one of the CBs if we're going all in.
But Koeman has put himself in this situation by ignoring his bench for months (I've posted that graph/picture from Sport of Koeman's use of the bench in his thread) and trusting players he shouldn't use that much. Umtiti the prime example. Firpo has done well coming on in the 2nd game vs PSG and hasn't played since yet Umtiti is still starting some games. Alba can't play 90 minutes every three days, why not give Firpo a start or two? Or why not use him as a LCB if Koeman insists with 3 at the back (which I've said many times I dislike). He couldn't be worse than Umtiti and probably also an improvement over Lenglet.
Further, Trincao had some good games in March but wasn't given any regular minutes since then unless when we're in desperate mode (throwing 5 forwards in for the last 10-15 minutes).
Sure, bench is far from great but I still think some of those players were mismanaged and deserved more minutes earlier in the season. Don't expect anything to change now with only three games left and it's too late anyway. Likes of Pedri and FDJ are already burned out by being overplayed for months.
Give the kid some break. He shouldn't be our 12th player in this phase of the season. It's good Koeman believes in him but it can cause him more harm than good putting him into situations he's not ready for yet.
In ideal circumstances Pjanić should be the one coming on when Busi got injured (or even start ahead of him; I'm sure if given a fair chance from the start of the season he'd show as much if not more than Busi) and then Ilaix coming on with 20 minutes left for Pedri. Also throw in Puig too for one of the CBs if we're going all in.
But Koeman has put himself in this situation by ignoring his bench for months (I've posted that graph/picture from Sport of Koeman's use of the bench in his thread) and trusting players he shouldn't use that much. Umtiti the prime example. Firpo has done well coming on in the 2nd game vs PSG and hasn't played since yet Umtiti is still starting some games. Alba can't play 90 minutes every three days, why not give Firpo a start or two? Or why not use him as a LCB if Koeman insists with 3 at the back (which I've said many times I dislike). He couldn't be worse than Umtiti and probably also an improvement over Lenglet.
Further, Trincao had some good games in March but wasn't given any regular minutes since then unless when we're in desperate mode (throwing 5 forwards in for the last 10-15 minutes).
Sure, bench is far from great but I still think some of those players were mismanaged and deserved more minutes earlier in the season. Don't expect anything to change now with only three games left and it's too late anyway. Likes of Pedri and FDJ are already burned out by being overplayed for months.
