That's a damn good video man. You're right felix should play as a 10, that means one full back needs to overlap to allow plamer to occupy the right half space, while felix occupies the left half space and either neto, sancho or mudryk on the left wing...keeping enzo deeper in the pivot with either lavia or caicedo.
This is one really optimistic take on Felix, I would say. Can't say I quite agree with it. The kid is very good at what he does but what he does has so far been somewhat limited. The good part of Felix is that he has one mean as hell hero dribble. He'll manage to go past opposing players like they're not there in situations where a dribble doesn't look like it's on. That's the good part. There's also nothing wrong with his perception of the game or the space around him. He can absolutely understand the play nearly instantly and respond accordingly. General technique on the ball, full marks. His passing game is solid as well. The okay part is that Felix is pretty decent in the air, all things considered, and he's what I'd call "physically able". He has speed, he has core strength, balance, his general condition is decent. The not so good aspects? Felix has a lot of tools that are good'ïsh but not quite great. He has speed but he doesn't have the speed of a top tier winger or fullback. He has strength but he's not a bulldozer. He's decent in the air but not to the point where he'll dominate CB's. He can shoot but he's not particularly clinical when doing so. Think otherwise? Check goals minus xG. Felix can do magical dribbles but too often he overcomplicates and fails the take-on. Think otherwise? Check his successful take-on percentage. And then there's the decision making. Felix has a tendency of warming the ball too much, trying too hard to find a hero move before considering a pass. His defensive participation usually leaves a lot to be desired. He can do a half-hearted press, he can make the occasional slide tackle (which often looks more like a psycho lunge), but too often he's just not applying himself. And he has this aggravating tendency of wanting to shoot from outside the box even though almost all his goals are scored from inside the box. In short, Felix has a whole lot of tools but he has real struggles making the most of them. If he can get his shit together, cut out the lone hero mentality, apply himself defensively, and start passing the ball faster, then he might actually be good enough to justify displacing Nkunku or Palmer. But if he can't step it up then he's a worse creator than Palmer and a worse goal scorer than Nkunku. Having said that, even being third best number 10 in a system that uses two of them isn't bad. And it does open for some interesting concepts. Imagine Felix up front and Nkunku behind, the two of them taking turns to be the 9 and the 10, with Jackson left and Neto or Madueke right. Throw in a Palmer as a floaty playmaker and that just might be the most aggravating offense to try and defend against. The downside of Felix or Nkunku as a number 9 is, some times you want a level of physicality applied to the central defenders, keeping them occupied while other players are making runs. Neither of Nkunku and Felix are particularly suited for that.
You can’t compare Palmer against wolves with Enzo vs city. Two many variables but Enzo isn’t a good 10. Felix should play on the left in my opinion and share mins with Sancho. I think we should see how Jackson handles the 9 and maybe let Nkunku play a few games there to see if he can get back to his Leipzig form
It's going to be Neto, Felix, Nkunku and Palmer upfront (LW, LF, RF & RW respectively). Nkunku prefers to operate more from the right and felix prefers the left. Both players will interchange who drops during the game and this will cause teams problems bc they're so similar yet so different. The 2 upfront are going to be a problem once they hit full gear and the ability of palmer and neto to provide line breaking passes will only enhance them. Sancho, Jackson and Madueke off the bench will also cause problems. I'm more excited of the competition between Neto and Sancho once Sancho hits the ground running. They're so different yet both can provide the team with game winning chances. The ability of Sancho (dortmund sancho) to just get assists and goals out of nothing cannot be overlooked.
This is the ideal starting line up but the problem is the defensive side of the game, the reason we can't use this is because this group can't do the defensive phase so no balance at all.
Joao Felix and Cole Palmer as a double pivot only works if you play Reece James. Reece James can play high up the pitch and act as a traditional winger and can be supported by Neto on the left. However in such system you can't play Sancho; Madueke in as they will also looks to cut inside and occupy the same space as Felix/Palmer. Then comes the question, do you play Jackson or play Nkunku as a false 9. It will be very hard getting everyone fit into the system.
