Feel like we felt they were there for the taking, but made a grave error. I thought 3-0 flattered Real at half-time personally - 2 worldies and 1 top finish after a lucky deflection. But, it was alarming seeing how quickly Real went from back to front against us. The high line with Guehi and Dias is criminal, and playing wingers, along with 2 central forwards is suicidal. Poor crosses cause transitions, and when you have zero legs in midfield, you cannot stop counters.
In addition, I think Assistant Pep has made us easier to play through. It's staggering how exposed we are when the first line of the press is beaten. Equally, our build up is terrible, and I don't think it is all on the keeper. We haven't found a way to counteract man for man pressing at all.
But, I think a lot of it comes down to extremely poor squad rebuilding. We have now signed a plethora of players who aren't at the level. Marmoush, Doku, Savinho, Reijnders, are just not good enough for where we want to be. It's debatable that Semenyo is - numbers wise he's been good, but i'm not sure he fits us all that well, and if his numbers just come at the expense of Haaland scoring, we are no better off. I'm not even that convinced on Guehi - because I don't think you can partner him with Dias and play a high line.
There is also a very serious question about Foden in there somewhere. Top players don't usually drop to his current level for almost 2 years and then recover from it. I don't know what's gone on with him, but nowhere to be seen tonight when we badly need a goal - pretty much tells you everything.