Berba, Modric, Rafa, Bale, Kane, Sonny...?

[braineclipse]

Yeah i'm always a bit wary of stuff like that though as I like to overlay a bit of an eye test piece. We were shaky with Romero and VDV starting. We had some very poor defensive lapses with both of them there which cost us. They're our best centre-backs. So it gets even worse without them. Plus playing the high line we did without VDV's recovery pace and Romero's aggression is basically suicide.

Saying that, they'd both have to push on to convince me that they're good enough if we are wanting to get to where Levy says he wants to get to.

We were shaky in a system that was essentially set up to be somewhat shaky at the back to have more attacking threat.

There were lapses. There always will be. More than acceptable perhaps. But a lot of their defending was also really good. Romero is also imo exceptional on the ball.

I have mild concerns about VdV in a different system. I think he'll do well, but the Ange system perhaps highlighted his strength to some extent.

Romero has shown under several managers and for Argentina how good he can be. Will he always have inconsistency? I don't know. But more protection will probably help quite a bit.