Xabi Alonso has defended his decision to use Levi Colwill on the left of his back three, with Maxence Lacroix centrally.
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A manager’s job is all about compromise. He’s trying to get the best players on the pitch, and those players in their best positions. It’s not always possible, and his job is the find the most favourable outcome.
Xabi Alonso is doing just that with his back three. Levi Colwill is playing on the left, with Maxence Lacroix in the middle. Levi would look better centrally, but he also does better on the left than Lacroix would. It’s a compromise that Alonso was asked about in his press conference today.
Alonso defends defender setup
“We need to have good balance and for sure we know the best qualities of Levi when he is important on the build-up, more on this left channel, not so on the wing, when he has a different diagonal that he is able to see, not just what is on his flank, that he is able to find the pocket [on the other side],” Alonso said in his presser.
“But we need good partnership in defence. Maxence [Lacroix] is very consistent, he is strong, he is very connected to the game in terms of personality, in terms of awareness and that we have players that they want to have that impact is very good. We have talked about Morgan, Maxence as well, he has been just for three or four weeks here, but he is really settled into the team.”
In other news…
Two teenage academy midfielders were name-checked by Alonso in the same press conference, giving fans a lot to get excited about.
Alonso was asked about Caicedo’s injury status and refused to give too much of a concrete answer – we have our suspicions, which we’ve discussed here.
