Six points dropped over the last 3 home games, 8 in the last 5 PL games & 11 goals conceded points to something being radically wrong with the strongest defence I can ever remember us having.
What I've also noticed is how profligate we've become in front of goal, & just as I feared, we're struggling to make up for the goal contributions we've lost without Gundog, Mahrez & KDB.
Something has clearly gone wrong, whereby two seasons ago we'd have been walking away from this game maybe conceding one, but sticking 4, 5 or 6 past opposition like Palace at home. And that's when we had no strikers!
Now the odd mistake is costing us points. It can't be that every keeper in the PL has improved exponentially. How can we dominate matches the way we are, but still be walking away with lost points?
The fact Philips, Kovacic & Nunes don't even make our strongest 11 speaks volumes. I wasn't concerned about our squad quality diminishing, but that's because I didn't legislate for us losing Mahrez, & Kev being out for half a season.
Baldy & Txiki know what they have to do. At times like these, we need to return to the raw basics & rebuild our rhythm from scratch. Perhaps the World Club Cup is an opportunity to get away, clear our heads, & arrive back refocused on the task in hand, which we're making more difficult for ourselves by the week.
We just need 3/4 in & out adjustments to our squad & for Guardiola to formulate the next iteration of Pep-Ball, by increasing the midfield quality of our squad's gene pool.
It's worrying that we didn't have the game-changers we're used to on the bench as we've usually always had. Over to Pep & Txiki. I know they'll be pissed about this season so far & will have a plan.
