(Emphasis added in your words above to show you the key phrase)
If you cannot see that as the squad has dramatically aged, sometimes as a result of progressive injuries and workload, and as the tactics have received more study and scrutiny, we have found it increasingly more difficult to penetrate the opposition, while they have found it increasingly easier for them to absorb the pressure and break on us, then we are unable to have a discussion, because we are watching different football…or at least seeing different things from the game.
As time has marched on, we have been increasingly fortunate to not only scrape victories, but also have to rely on others tripping themselves over, to win the League. It has happened that way REPEATEDLY, and it has only been a fantastic run in of games that has salvaged the season and the titles.
2012 was a prime example, with United dropping points, not the least of which were the 2 they dropped against Everton at home in a 4-4 draw. The difference that season was literally the 6-1 at their place! That 10 GD swing and the “six-pointer” nature of the game won the League, even though it required Vinny’s header and the craziness of injury time against QPR!
Then, Liverpool…Steve Gerrard slipped on his arse and they gave away 3 goals, after being up 3-0, at Palace to hand us the advantage.
And so on and so forth!
We DOMINATED once, as did Liverpool in the COVID season, but the others were all down to the other team blinking and us managing not to lose any more points than they did in the run in.
That is clearly not happening this season, and we look to be nowhere near it, as Liverpool continue to pull away. They are where we were about 2 years ago…players in the prime of their careers, with all systems firing and the squad feeling interchangeable without losing a step. We are two years away from that with this squad, and it was not fixed on the fly, so it’s going to be painful trying to play catch up by bringing in new talent to return us to the top.
All I’m saying is that there has been an increase in the ability to nullify our possession AS our possession-based game has become increasingly stale and our defence has become more porous.
Yes, of course injuries have exacerbated that, but that would be just a result here and a result there, not this relative freefall, such that we would be BOTTOM OF THE LEAGUE if it started two months ago!
The two things have combined to make us a soft touch…even when we do have 60+% possession. Therein lies the problem…or one of them, at least!
If we are light on personnel, then let’s address that by tightening up and making us harder to beat, not play a bunch of patched old players, who can no longer press or perform as they have, in the exact same system…which had already been sussed and overcome repeatedly, often by teams nowhere near our supposed standard!
As this is the Jack Grealish thread, I’ll simply state that while he does often retain possession, when needed, he’s not bringing anything else to the party at a time when we need goals and assists for others to score. He’s never been that good at either thing and when thinking of him as a £100M player (even though not
his fault), it only adds to the lack of good stewardship in recycling and renewing the squad over the last few years.
And, in furtherance of the
@Metal Biker and
@dhruvblue discussion above, he is neither to blame for what ails us, nor the savior for what ails us, but he is
indicative of what ails us! High priced talent that isn’t making a difference to results!!!
“Difference makers” are what big teams pay big money for. KDB, Haaland, Salah, Son, Rodri, Rice, Ødegaard, Fernandez and even Fernandes…these are players that were bought and spent big money wages on BECAUSE they are difference makers and they change every team they are in for the better by having impact on results.
Jack is many things, but he’s not THAT!
