THREAD:

Optimisation of talent at the highest level is a major key to success.

In football discourse it's common to find statements like “he can play [insert position]” in the sense of shoehorning players into the best teams. This isn't useful because talent at the highest level should be optimised in order to achieve the best results.

In most areas of life it's harder to go from 90 to 100% than it is to go from 80 to 90%. Football follows this. So, when facing lower quality teams it might be OK to play players suboptimally from a positional and role perspective because their weaknesses will often be masked.

However, the best teams are masters at maximising their own strengths and exploiting their opponent's weaknesses. This makes suboptimal personnel choices often detrimental to one's chances of winning.

For example the following line-up consists of some players in positions where they *can* play:

GK: de Gea

RB: Lindelöf
CB: McTominay
CB: Maguire
LB: Shaw

CM: Bruno
CM: Pogba
AM: Mata

RW: Van de Beek
CF: Greenwood
LW: Rashford

The talent is there but the weaknesses are clear.

Some may argue “it's OK if it's just one player”. Well, no. It isn't. The best teams exploit things like this and one player's weaknesses being exposed—we've seen it all season with us—can result in major consequences.

A life example pertains to building something. If one uses the wrong tools or tools that *could* work but aren't designed to work in that way then they might be able to repair a shelf but they'd struggle to build a cupboard or do so inefficiently due to that choice.

Another example comes from weight lifting. If one can deadlift ~200kg then picking up ~30kg with suboptimal technique is easy. However, once that weight becomes heavier, prioritising technique and form comes first or else the chances of injury are increased.

The general principle is this:

The more difficult something is, the more important optimisation becomes. This is the case in life and it's definitely the case in sports. Exceptions do exist but principles aren't built upon exceptions.

Summary:

In football, optimising talent is a major key to success at the highest level and this should always be remembered when discussing player positions and roles for the best teams. It's not about where players *can* play, it's about where they *should*.

End.