Doesn’t the right back at Leicester usually roam into a different position when they are in possession, though? I remember when we played them, their goalkeeper would move into the right center back position, the center back would go into the right back position and the right back would become either an extra winger or central midfielder, creating a virtual 4-3-3-1 formation without a GK. Pretty neat, actually, but detrimental to us since I’m pretty sure that’s where VI picked up the idea of playing TDB at right back…
This is the stuff I'm talking about. Pereira is actually their right back. Not totally surprised that they will occasionally use Choudhury in that role, even if the right back actually moves to .. right back, when they are not in possession. But let's face it - they're always in possession this season.
I know Maresca's tactics aren't the most popular among Filbert's mob, but he's a true visionary to get 12 on the pitch without anyone noticing!
I'm actually surprised that more teams aren't doing this yet. Granted, I haven't seen a Premier League match in two years, so maybe everyone's doing it and I'm just not aware While it's innovative to use the GK as an extra outfield player in that way to create overloads elsewhere I think this will lead to extremely boring and stale games when it catches on. The problem is that the opposition team cannot really press the GK and the other center back at the same time. It happened once in our home game with Leicester. Kone lost his patience and pressed their GK, which immediately created a 9 v 8 on the field and literally 12 seconds later the ball was in the back of our net. What will probably happen when this becomes common is that the dominant team can just leave the ball with the GK, occasionally passing it back and forth with the center backs, and the other team cannot press. So the dominant team can literally freeze the game and if they score first - well, that's pretty much game over and the rest is just going to be dreary passing back and forth until the losing team have no other option than to press and likely concede another goal.