braineclipse
Garth Crooks
Depends on what you consider to be Frank's prefered style of play.
As previously mentioned, at Brentford last year both Noorgard and Damsgard were playing progressive vertical passes through the middle of the pitch (both with more progressive passes than anything Bentancur has shown in the PL) and Brentford used the middle of the pitch for progression as much as either wing (more so than us last season and certainly this season) i think either Frank doesn't trust our CM options wrt giving up possession (maybe the data from last season shows this is where our high number of goals conceded comes from?) and/or he is starting here with a more basic, cautious approach before tweaking it. It doesn't make sense to me that he would consider this style of play the end goal given his best football at Brentford came off the back of something different.
According to fbref Bentancur played more progressive passes pr. 90 than Nørgaard last season (5.5 vs 4.9). Season before that Bentancur's numbers were even higher.
Didn't Frank do a similar thing at Brentford? Brentford 2.0 and all that. Maybe they didn't have good enough players for that early on either. Or maybe that's how he works. Safety first, the rest can come later?
While capable of more progressive play than he's shown this season Bentancur is also a fairly high risk player when he plays like that. Lacks awareness imo and is probably more at risk of losing the ball than Nørgaard (just an impression, haven't watched Nørgaard that much).
But that also shows priorities, assuming Frank had a solid say in who we signed. Of the non teenage options Bissouma seemed unwanted, of Sarr and Bentancur neither are deep playmakers, but Bentancur is the most progressive on the ball. So having no deep midfielder capable of playing progressive passes in a way that satisfies Frank we sign Palhinha. Which again points towards safety first, rest can come later.