sorry to bring this up again, but these are the exact kind of games that show us what we are missing in our team. as I said before southampton press us differently to any other english side. they do not high press and at the same time won't drop back, they block the middle of the pitch and press the center of the pitch and prevent the ball moving through the middle.
When our false 9 came deep to receive the ball there was no one near their box and at the same time they have double marked our wingers out of the game. so essentially there was only two way to progress the ball and both of it involves using a striker who can hold up the ball under pressure and also score. because of the way they press the free men for us will be our fullbacks. so essentially you either use the free fullbacks inside and make them pass to the big center forward who can hold the ball and pass to midfield runners who go beyond him or you use the fullbacks outside to cross to the forward in the box. we had neither today.
I feel southampton have given a very good blueprint to beat our false 9 system and I feel we are in for a tough season end without a forward and the decline of our false 9 system has started. I think right now this system we have makes tight matches a 50/50 game we might not score and lose some of the important games I feel and especially in the CL it is going to be tough.
