I agree. Higuain would be very much the best option we could hope to get for the lone striker role in a 4-3-3.
Now, we'd need an upgrade on Pepe like Giovinco for example. Imagine:
Giovinco-Higuain-Vucinic
That would be awesome.
Pepe doesn't defend that well and I'm sure Giovinco could work just as hard. It could work.
pepe not good in defending ?
at that position, its not per se about recuperating balls, its about putting pressure the correct way, without beeing outplayd in 2 passes. every idiot can rush the guy in possession, but it takes positional awareness and reading to do this the correct way and cut out passes.
pepe, has a massive physical engine, and is pretty good ad putting pressure on opponents. isnt recuperating passes but closes the game down very effecient, allowing for the more adapt recuperators like vidal and licht, or marchisio is a slightly lesser degree to recuperate possession
our system is build around having a player with that ability on the left, unfortunatly,pure offensively, pepe is limited
giovinco as replacement ? plz, giovinco cant close down or pressures opponents at all, and is inable to go in physically. he could sub vucinic perhaps, but not pepe.
a serious replacement for pepe would be a player that has a high workrate, and is good at closing down opponents, cutting out passes. all this, but with added offensive value.
for this reason, a player like shaqiri would be extremely good for us, as he offers what pepe does, WITH an offensive endproduct.
Basically the only way to make giovinco replace pepe would be by replacing pirlo by a physically imposing CM, that also reads and dominates the game. he must have a bigger impact then pirlo and pepe combined, defensively. on the other hand, giovinco would need to make a bigger or simular impact on the team then pirlo, on their respective positions.
considering this, upgrading pepe with shaqiri, seems much better.
Unless the physically imposing CM is DDR. then i couldnt care less who is RW cause we would kill opponents dead with the 3CM's alone