Really fucking bad performance. When you're not up for it like that you deservedly get blown away.
I don't care what results have been like recently, in my opinion since Xmas there has been a marked difference in performance. All of a sudden the primary game plan - possession, dominate, force the opposition right back - has become a real struggle and the sharpness and cutting edge to our play has become very very dull. We're struggling to progress the ball, let alone create chances. Most goals recently have had to rely on counter/transition/attacking space (valid ways of scoring goals of course, but simpler to do and really not the primary game plan). The build up patterns, the runs, everything are done to death, predictable, and the opposition contain them. We have to adapt.
Then there is selection. Look we're a top PL team, these are still PL footballers, if you keep playing them of course they will have moments every game and still do good play, score goals, and get assists. But lets have some standards and be honest - the likes of Bissouma, Maddison, Bentancur, Kulusevski, and a few others have been pretty rubbish for weeks now. You can't have numerous players going out there and giving you "vast majority poor, small minority good" performances. At some point a message needs to be sent to get a reaction and set some standards.
Obviously Rome wasn't built in a day and it is the first season and there won't be linear progress, but in my opinion the performances (even in that tough spell in Nov/Dec) were of a marked difference in those first 3-4 months compared to those since Xmas/New Year. We've got to find the solutions and get back the sharpness and verve to our play and start knocking the ball about better.
I don't care what results have been like recently, in my opinion since Xmas there has been a marked difference in performance. All of a sudden the primary game plan - possession, dominate, force the opposition right back - has become a real struggle and the sharpness and cutting edge to our play has become very very dull. We're struggling to progress the ball, let alone create chances. Most goals recently have had to rely on counter/transition/attacking space (valid ways of scoring goals of course, but simpler to do and really not the primary game plan). The build up patterns, the runs, everything are done to death, predictable, and the opposition contain them. We have to adapt.
Then there is selection. Look we're a top PL team, these are still PL footballers, if you keep playing them of course they will have moments every game and still do good play, score goals, and get assists. But lets have some standards and be honest - the likes of Bissouma, Maddison, Bentancur, Kulusevski, and a few others have been pretty rubbish for weeks now. You can't have numerous players going out there and giving you "vast majority poor, small minority good" performances. At some point a message needs to be sent to get a reaction and set some standards.
Obviously Rome wasn't built in a day and it is the first season and there won't be linear progress, but in my opinion the performances (even in that tough spell in Nov/Dec) were of a marked difference in those first 3-4 months compared to those since Xmas/New Year. We've got to find the solutions and get back the sharpness and verve to our play and start knocking the ball about better.
