Sorry my doesn't 'really matter' comment was shorthand for how it isn't a 'huge priority,' isn't 'necessary to spend big on' and isn't 'likely to improve your results that much'. My sense is that DMs actually can move the dial more than you think they do. I may well be wrong on that but it's interesting that Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool were willing to go over £100 million for DMs in the summer, perhaps they're less fungible than the common narrative on here? I reckon we're much more vulnerable than we could be defensively because we're not very good in transition and we're not good in transition partly because our deepest lying midfielder is often one of the worst athletes on the pitch. Admittedly some of the fees for DMs comes from their on ball work not just defensive work but I also think we could do with an upgrade here. Are our difficulties in beating a press entirely systemic or is personnel playing a role too? In many systems the DM is a key player in progressing the ball through a press, I reckon our inability to do it (quite often this season) is partly down to issues with the DM.
Can you remember the last title winner without a top class DM? Probably United 10+ years ago. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, we know what works.
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