But you’d still expect to see progress over that 1st season and unfortunately we’re doing the opposite. Most of us agree that a large part of the story is that teams have worked us out (vs the beginning of the season where we had the element of surprise).
I think it's mostly:
- Players underperforming. That much is obvious. Maddison, Bissouma, Porro and Udogie all nowhere near the level they were at earlier in the season. Lack of decent depth to challenge them hasn't helped.
- Set pieces. We didn't concede a single goal direct from a corner until February. And up until then, had conceded just 22 goals from open play (with 12 of those being with Royal/Davies as a centre back pairing)
I don't think teams are playing much differently against us tbh.
Most of the lower teams have sat back against us all season, unless they were ridiculously naive like Burnley or Fulham when they came to the Lane.
It wouldn't have taken 10 games for these managers to suddenly find a way to win against us. There's been a lot of mitigating circumstances.
The drop in form in players like Mads, Son, Biss and Kulu (he was better yday but still) has pretty much killed us. I’m willing to give Ange the benefit of the doubt here and suggest this isn’t his responsibility but it’s worrying that these players who we assumed were going to be our bedrock moving forwards, appear now to be nothing of the sort
Yeah, I would say this.
Injuries have hit us hard. And it seems like the rhythm and confidence was knocked out of those players in the process.
One thing I've disliked is how the likes of Lo Celso has been treated though. He should have started more games for us this season.
Defensively is where Ange deserves most of his criticism. We have individually brilliant defensive players and just shouldn’t be conceding so many easy chances and goals. This has got worse over the season when we have had plenty of downtime (no Europe and out of cups) to work on it.
Plus his tinkering of that midfield is bloody infuriating- work out your 1st choice midfield FFS!!!
Again, I think depth a massive issue here also.
When we've had our starting back five of Vicario, Porro, van de Ven, Romero and Udogie. We've conceded just 12 goals from open play.... TWELVE.
Granted, they've only started together 20 games. Over the course of a season, that's 23 goals conceded....
We conceded 4 goals against Wolves over two games. One game we had Dier and Davies at centre back with Emerson at left back. The other we had Davies and Emerson at full back... Conceded 3 against Fulham, no VDV... Conceded 3 yesterday, no Udogie... 4 goals against Brighton... Had a Royal/Davies CB pairing...
Newcastle was the only game that included all five that we'd conceded more than 2 goals in a game...
The pressure is on him now and as is ever the question, how much is that bloody chairman going to help him.
Summer is key.