Most people criticized Joao for his comments about Atletico but he was right. It’s way easier to perform in a possesion side than in a defensive side
When you only touch the ball 5-10 times per game it’s harder to perform that if you touch it 45-50 times per game. Joao wasn’t lying when he said most players would prefer to touch the ball 50 times than 10 times.
Just compare today’s game between Barca and Atletico. Just compare how much touches did Joao had in comparison to Griezzman and you would see how Joao actually had a point.
They are different types of players.
Static 10s don’t fall into the vertical, pressing and positional style of play we see today. Guys like Felix and Havertz operate in the hole, with two wingers and a striker a head of the. In postional play, you want to open up the hole to have wingers, midfielders or a striker to come into to recive the ball, if there is a 10 in the hole permanently then there will be a 6 playing in the area occupying the space to break up play and press your 10. 10s don’t play well through a low block either. If you want to play around the block then you are better off with two 8s who can still deliver and assist but can also provide support defensively on the wings.
Two examples of this is Peps City and Klops Liverpool, who play with a 433, two 8s, two wingers who come inside and a forward that can drop deep (minus haaland)
There are 10s who are successful, Tomas Muller plays there, he has a high work rate and operates more as a shuttler moving around into channels than sitting to play passes. Bruno Fernandes is also an effective 10, he moves everywhere in the opponest half to play passes.
Joao Felix plays on the left now, but is still quite stationary, his movement in the atleti game was almost restricted to an 8th of the pitch (near left quarter of the opponents half)