I dont think so. He wanted partey rice havertz and odegaard all in the midfield. Only way to do that was to ask partey to invert from rb.

would require someone to do the role that white does on the right when zinchenko inverts. Gabriel can’t do that especially going out on the wings and putting crosses in. Tomi and kiwior are more suited for that.

The toss up was between white and Gabriel and white is simply the better player imo thus he got the nod.