Ok fair enough, I don’t claim to be a tactical genius but I always thought that you needed fullbacks to provide the width in a 433 and with the legs to get up and down the field, that had decent defensive positioning.
Where as a 4231 the wide men of the front 4 have more emphasis to provide the width. Either way I still feel our weakness is in our individuals rather than our formation.
Something needs to change and I would love to see us give 433 a proper fucking go, with a DM whoever that may be.
Is Skipp really a DM? Does he tackle well, how is his positioning and sense of danger? I just haven’t seen enough of him and from what I have he reminds me more of a tidy winks like ball playing DM, less of a Fernandinho battle and break up play DM.
I think there are numerous tactical variations that can be applied depending on the personnel you have at your disposal. Kyle Walker's positional awareness was never "great" he was a pretty stupid footballer, certainly not a game reader, he just had quick legs and very good stamina which allowed him to do it for 90 minutes.
The proactive versions of 433 definitely can and do use FB's as attackers, but look at Guardiola, he'll vary it, sometimes playing inverted wide forwards (Mahrez right, Sterling left) and sometimes playing more orthodox wide forwards (Sane left, Sterling right). He sometimes asks his FB's to provide attacking width and sometimes gets them coming inside when he wants his wide forwards more orthodox.
For me, the point is right now, 433 makes even more sense because we don't have a decent proper DM/6 - because it would allow us to play three of our current group and compensate for none of them being a true "holder" whilst all being able to play "football".
Skipp isn't a pure, one dimensional, DM, but he is tenacious and dynamic but also capable of seeing passes and moving the ball quickly and efficiently. he could either play as the central hub, or we play Winks as the Jorgino role centrally and have Skipp as one of the 8's but will add some tenacity and dynamism - the way Kante kind of played it for Chelsea last season. Or we can have either Skipp or Winks (or even Wanyama if he's truly fit) in the centre and have two ofWinks, Skipp, Ndombele, Lo Celso, Eriksen, or at a push Alli as the 8's.
This way we could compensate for the midfield lack of a top drawer 6, cover for the FB's, get quick direct legs either side of Kane, and three players who can all score - transition a bit quicker, move the ball a bit quicker and even evolve for a life beyond Eriksen.