This is almost the entire issue, or it would be if we had enough creativity coming from just the wings and the two strikers to make a wing-centric 442 work, as well as two superb 'stoppers' in midfield.

For awhile, having two championship level midfielders who tackled well ( Jedinak and Ledley ) was enough for us to scrape to 40 points, because teams would overcommit and we'd hit them with Zaha and Bolasie's pace. Minimal skill was required.

But then teams wised up and sat back more. Suddenly, we had to pass the ball a bit, both quickly and in tight spaces. Cabaye was not enough. We needed at least a penetrative box-to-box midfielder ( RLC gave us that for a limited, rental period ) or a classic, creative midfielder. ( which we only tried, in Eze, after we had lost Cabaye and eight seasons in the Prem )

So we've been reliant on wing play and Zaha ever since our second season in the Prem and solid defence for the entire duration. Recipe for eventual stagnation / relegation. We've spent almost all serious investment on defence and on trying to find strikers who can convert poor service into goals and only had a single season of marginal success -when we played Zaha as a striker alongside Benteke, under BFS.

The creativity issue in midfield hasn't been addressed and Roy tried to overcome that by playing Zaha up with Benteke again, as per under BFS. It has worked in that we've scored more but it has meant a 442 was required, which gets us back to the problem of having only two midfielders, often outnumbered. If we had two exceptional tacklers who could at least pass a bit then they could just sit back and let the front four do the creative work.

Yet our only good passer in midfield is Jairo and he isn't a good shield for the defence. We didn't buy either a passing midfielder like Gallagher or a great tackler like Gueye, both of whom we looked at but didn't commit to. We chose to ignore Townsend's deterioration, refused the wages which would have brought Fraser on a free transfer and also allowed Benrahma to go to a club that wanted him enough. Instead we -you guessed it -brought in a striker. This January we ignored the midfield / creativity problem again and -you guessed it -brought in a striker.

Our recruitment and set up can be defined as 'insane' because we keep operating under the same mistaken assumptions and never learning they just won't work. As for Jairo, he will only flourish in a three-man midfield where he is free to pass with a two-man shield behind him. Same issue as Meyer, although he is a better physical specimen. I fear we will only continue with our focus on striker / defense recruitment, leave our midfield as is and let Jairo continue to be utilized wrongly in a team which will go down next season.

Luka hasn’t played well for two years.

Riedewald has had several good games this season.

I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that.

I think they've both had about the same number of good games. Jairo's are just a bit more noticeable because he does more pretty and attacking things than Luka.

Can’t agree with that.

Luka has been pretty awful for a long time now. The guy can barely pass a ball anymore, his set pieces are poor, and he’s a yellow card waiting to happen.

Used to always be one of my favourite players but he’s lost his way over the last year.

I don’t get the anti-Riedewald sentiments on here but each to their own.