How do we get back to this?

[metalblade]

It is all a case of movement, before lockdown there was constant movement off the ball from all the team. I don't know if it is all down to fitness but the team that returned after lockdown looked unfit compared to the rest whereas before lockdown they looked to be one of the fittest in the Premier League. To me the team has never reached those levels of fitness since, our players look static compared to how they looked at the start of last season. When people don't make forward runs or find space the options are cut and passes start to be played sideways and backwards with the inevitable last resort of a lump down field to McBurnie.

 

[BushBlade]

That this piece of play happened 2 minutes after a massive kick in the nuts (BS offside goal that took 5 minutes to disallow) is incredible. These players were so tough mentally, what the fuck happened to them

Part of that toughness was not being phased by crowds, if anything, they took energy from it. Mentally weaker players seem to have flourished playing games in empty stadiums, the type that just couldn’t perform to their best when faced with a baying BL crowd, like Arsenal under Emery. They played with fear and we fed off that.

I think more teams press us now too, we don’t really have players who can hold onto the ball and beat the press, so we go long and that’s not working either, as the ball comes back at us too quickly.

What we did last season, pre-Covid, was often to go long for the first twenty or so minutes while we were being pressed, keep it tight, keep a clean sheet and as the opposition tired a bit and started to drop a bit deeper and press less we’d impose our passing game and start to open them up. But with Moose absent and Burke looking like someone who’s new to football the threat of a ball over the top is virtually non-existent so they just keep pressing us and we’ve got no answer to it.

Plus we’re struggling to even keep a clean sheet. That puts even more pressure on the strikers to score, as they know if we don’t score, we’ll lose. And our inability to score puts even more pressure on the defence, because they know if they concede, we’ll lose. It’s a vicious circle. Losing JOC has weakened both our defence and our attack, it’s fucked up our entire left side, Stevens has turned shit, Fleck has turned shit, all that puts more pressure on our right side, two of the three struggle to deliver a decent ball and Lundstram has stopped scoring, and has been replaced by Berge, who delivers the occasional decent ball but couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a shovel.

Our players are so bereft of confidence now they’re struggling to do the basics, they’re still putting the running in, the stats support that, but the decision making, the passing, the balls into the box, players showing for the ball is all fucked.

We’re scared to keep a high line which means we don’t press the opposition like we used to (against Saints, we did try to hold a higher line, which was immediately exploited because we weren’t pressing from the front properly, too often it was just two players pressing and I could fucking beat that, one pass and they’d beaten the press, another pass and they were through our midfield).

And, as Bergen pointed out, the opposition pin our wing backs so we end up with a back five instead of a midfield five.

 

[BushBlade]

A clip of us proving we have at times repeated the nice passing in the OP's clip this season:



But no real big chance comes out of it. A consistent theme this year.

For stats nerds like me, left is the first 12 matches of last season vs. this season on the right:

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- The xG conceded delta is huge. We were expected to concede 16.7 goals last season, but conceded 9, in part due to Henderson. Other way around this year, conceding 2 more than expected.

- Pass completion very similar (and actually more passes in the final third) but overall leading to a lower quantum and quality of chances created. Big regression backwards in output from the left in particular. Enda was looking great this time last year.

- Goal conversion has been woeful. Scored 3 of our 19 big chances (~16%) this year. Same ratio last year was double that (~32%). Even if we do pass it around nicely like the clip in the first post, we probably wouldn't be able to finish it.

- Allowed 45% more goal attempts to opponents in the box (>9 per game) than last season. JOC...

- Mousset has been a huge miss. Scored 3 (joint most) and assisted 3 (most) so involved in 6 of the 13 goals we scored last year. 23% of his 13 shots went into the back of the net. McBurnie's converted less than 5% of his 22 shots into goals this year.

- Same goes for Lundstram. Last season in the first 12 games = 12 chances created, 4 'big' chances created (goal scoring), 18 shots, 3 goals, 23 penalty area touches. The clip in the OP shows his high involvement in the build-up. Berge has created the same number of chances, but half the big chances, half the shots and half the shots on target.

I’ve been bloody typing for ages and if I’d waited a bit longer I could have typed a lot less.

 

[bladesmanluke]

Any time we get pressed now it invariably goes straight back to Ramsdale to lump up field and then straight back at us, usually ending in yet another goal against.

 

[DronnieBlade]

Really is night and day.

And, for me at least, the reasons why are clear .

UTB