We seem to mean different things by distributing. Think Alonso, Pirlo, Scholes, Besquets, Modric, or Marchisio's, role in their teams. You are thinking more of Moussa Sissoko style link between defense and midfield, I am thinking more of what Pogba was tasked to do for France. Kante's is purely a ball winner and simple pass player.
A DM distributor (what I have in mind) organizes the midfield and sets the tempo. A regista with some extra defensive duties. With the ball he (while under pressure) picks out passes (must have good passing range and intelligence to do that) to players up the field and can switch play from one side to the other. Without the ball, he has the right off the ball movement to make himself available to team mates under pressure and then does what I described at the beginning of the paragraph. When the other team has the ball, his main duty is not to recover it but rather to be close to the area where the ball is recovered by a Kante-type or a defender so he can receive it quickly and launch it to players on the opposite flank or upfront in space. Thats what marchisio does for us and what Pirlo did before him (with less defensive and more offensive responsibilities given Pirlo's exceptional range). Pjanic will be given that role until marchisio is back. I'd rather we got someone else to do that job capably so that pjanic can be a play maker whether as a CAM in 4312 or CM in 352.
Ben Atia and Rugani are back up for BBC so dont worry about their age.
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We want to win the CL now not wait around till he grows into a top player. We need someone who is ready and in a few years if Lemina grows he can take a starting spot.