I love your post, but I think you are really wrong here.
Yes, Eriksen is playing in the middle a lot, but:
1. He is starting from the left, and that is still his main action area (see heat maps below)
2. He is consistently switching around not only with whoever is in the middle, but also with Lennon on the right and Ade/Kane from up front, meaning it's true he's not pure left and nothing else, but what that highlights is precisely the point that we
are really fluid in attack at the moment.
You are spot on to say this fluidity didn't happen under AVB, but I think evidence shows that is one of the key tactical changes Sherwood has brought in. That fluidity of the front 4/5.
No. That diagram should have Chadli, Lennon, Kane or Ade on the left if that's where Eriksen is at any given point in the game. Look at the Heat Maps below for the Stoke game and you'll see this: Eriksen, Chadli, Lennon, Kane and Ade ALL spent time both on the left and in the middle (Eriksen's main patch is left, not centre, in these heat maps, and his periods in the middle are clearly being covered on the left by other players.) Eriksen also spent time on the right, as did Kane, Ade, Pauli, etc. as Lennon switched to middle/left.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/matchzone/index.html#s2013-c8-m695257
In our defeat at Liverpool - often cited as the pinnacle of our "wide open" shambles - they had 5 shots on target and scored 4. They had 5 shots inside the box to our 7. None of their goals came from a lack of a DM being there (not even the Cutinho goal because we had a bank of 4 right in front of him when he shot, so bodies weren't the issue). They had 11 shots in total, we had 15, with 6 of their 11 outside the box. None of those stats show that a DM was the problem that day, nor this alleged wide openness we have.
Stats:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/matchzone/index.html#s2013-c8-m695214
So yeah, I think this obsession with us being wide open is really overblown. I 100% agree that that obsession is even sillier against weaker teams.
