Thread by @mixedkidremix

#AFC 🧵| I see the Rob Holding discourse is alive and well...and that's quite frustrating for a few reasons. 1. There is not a club on the planet that has a 4th or 5th choice CB that is not a considerable drop off from their starting pair...this is accepted. (1/8)

2. People are up in arms about Holding after the West Ham and Liverpool results, despite Holding not being the reason we ended up drawing both matches, while also playing our brand of football to even get to a 2-0 lead to begin with (2/8)

3. They forget that, with Holding in the team, we still dropped four on both Palace and Leeds, while with Saliba in the team, we struggled re: the build-up and chance creation in quite a few performances; Leeds part 1 and Saints come to mind, as well as the Everton defeat (3/8)

4. No one is saying Holding can do what Saliba does re: distribution from the back, but this insistence that we are incapable of playing our brand of football with Holding is folly...and it smacks of the same head-hunting we endured in previous seasons (4/8)

5. Did the build-up massively suffer to get to 2-0 against Pool and WHU? Nope. Did we blow a 2-0 lead because the build-up suffered? Nope. Is it more likely we let it slip because of other factors? Yes. Did we miss a pen to restore a 2-goal lead against WHU? Yes. (5/8)

6. This is nothing more than a situation that comes from poor timing. Had Tomiyasu not been hurt (not his fault), White likely shifts to CB and Tomi slots at RB; Holding wouldn't feature. But this is how a squad works..moaning about a drop-off from 1 to 4/5 is ridiculous (6/8)

7. Moreover, do you expect us to move on from Holding and bring in a 4th or 5th choice CB in his place that is better? You're fooling yourselves. Kiwior as in-house might come good for us and he showed well for Spezia, but there's no indication he will be a better player (7/8)

8. End of the day, its fine to criticize Holding and what he cannot do as well as Saliba (no surprise, to anyone), but to tailor the discussion around his inclusion as a key reason why stuttered the last two weekends is actual nonsense. And now's not the time for it. (8/8)