I like your style but couldn't we have two actual midfield players rather than defensive mids or cart horses as we used to call them . Oh and lose Barkley , cheers.
Reality in the modern game is you have to have players who can interrupt the counter attack if it breaks down in the final third, because loads of sides now counter at pace. That's why the 4-4-2 is no longer really played, as too often you're out of shape in that system if your strikers lose the ball unexpectedly.
So I don't have an in-built problem with two defensive midfielders; what I have a problem with though is the lack of balance going the other way. If you're going to have those two players, you should be taking chances further up the pitch, otherwise you get pinned back too easy when the opposition figure you out and have no outball, like Liverpool did to us.
I know it's easy to "Football Manager" and theorycraft football when sitting at home on a keyboard, but I honestly do believe the way we currently set up is so obviously wrong that I'm amazed a manager paid thousands upon thousands a week can't pro-actively try and change it, given he's doing absolutely nothing different to Martinez other than hitting the odd ball long from defence.
