It’s difficult to sprint when there 10 players in your way.
Kane and Alli used to work well, Kane would pull wide, usually to the left as he liked to turn with his back to goal and be on his right foot when cutting in again.
Alli almost by instinct went right to the position Kane just left, forcing the centre half to make one of two decisions, follow Kane or mark Alli, Centre half’s don’t like to be pulled wide and more often than not stayed, Alli would simply start moving back out again splitting both Centre half’s leaving that gap for Kane to let fly with a shot when he turned back inside again, shot after shot after shot.
When a Centre half had no option but to follow Kane (normally against teams who’s wide player didn’t track back) Kane and our fullback back would double up and get those crosses into Alli, who was one on one with the remaining centre half, Alli scored a lot of goals this way.
Son, Moura, Lamella etc etc are more direct runners with the ball, and at times this is why it looks like they can’t play with Kane, I mean where can they run too if it’s all central and congested? They dont have the smarts Alli has, they just want to get the ball at feet and go......
If we are to play them in the same team then it has to be wide in a 433, the problem here is at the expense of who? Ndombele and Eriksen are a must in that 3, and Winks would be the logical 3rd man offering a little more protection to a increasingly vulnerable back line, a 433 also needs centre half’s with blistering pace, not just for tracking back but for going forward to turn those 50/50 loose balls that get hacked up field by the defending team under constant pressure, watch how many times during a game VVD leaves his line to win those balls 15/20 yards up field.
We are at a point where again recruitment has given us too many square pegs for round holes, and Pochettino has to find a way to integrate those players into a formation that gets maximum return from them, 433 isn’t the answer as we are too loose at the back , 442 isn’t the answer as our fullbacks are championship level at the minute, the Diamond isn’t the answer as it smothers Kane and offers no pressure in the final 3rd.......is start with offering up that defensive midfielder Dier, and go back to 4231 pushing the fullbacks on, but good luck Poch whatever you decide......