It's ok... I understand that.
I do think you're romanticising some rather disappointing players tho (Piennar, Bentley, GDS).
You're also very much verering back to my original point which was "it's as much about what you do with them" than the list of players you or managed to cobble together.
I don't think there's any way you cobble together a midfield from Lucas, Danjuma, Gil out on loan that would ever get me reminiscing about them as wistfully as one from GDS, Kranjcar and Pienaar.
It's not about what any given manager would do with them, it's fundamentally about them being
football players as opposed to quick strong lads who play on the wing, which is what Conte wants to build his attacking style on.
That in itself is fair enough from his PoV, it's not what I want to be watching week in week out but what can I do, I do however find it borderline negligent that he's too stubborn to even allow a single space in the squad for a creative central player to use when plan A isn't getting shit done.
The fact that I so desperately want us to have one such option in today's squad is what makes me hark back to the days we had many that could do that role so gleefully. You're focusing a lot on my mention of Pienaar and the like, but start from the top, options we had as attacking central midfielder.
1 - VDV, if he was unavailable then...
2 - Modric, could be moved further up to the position he started out at, or if you preferred to keep him deeper then...
3 - Kranjcar, yeah he nominally played from out wide but he was for all intents and purposes an attacking cm played out wide. The drop off in quality from VDV/Modric to him was quite big, but largely down to lack of pace. If he'd have been quick he'd have been obscene...
4 - Pienaar - I'll happily admit, his time here was a nothing, came in cheap off of a very good stint at Everton, rarely threatened the first team and when he did he didn't do much to impress. It just didn't click for him. He's another similar to Kranjcar who I always saw as a central player used out wide because there was no room for him in the centre and you know what, we're 4 deep into the list now, compare that to the nobody we have at present and I'd say he wins...
5/6 GDS/Bentley - Kind of irrelevant at this point, at one point they had potential, but I'm not romanticising them, I'm reminiscing about the fact that they existed, they were just mentioned as the cherry on top to the rest of the talent we had available then.
You know, someone to throw on late in the game when you're desperate for a goal, as opposed to Davinson Sanchez...
:contelol: