Once again, we said exactly the same last season. Mahrez and Gundogan leaving apparently cost us 25-30 goals, Alvarez playing in midfield was costing us creativity and stopping him from scoring goals. I didn't notice those 30 goals missing when we lifted the title in May.
Look at this tweet from this exact day last season.
Haaland on 15 goals, Alvarez on 7, everyone else on 5 goals or fewer. 42 goals overall.
And here are our scorers this week.
Haaland on 15 again (after Brighton), everyone else on 3 goals or fewer. 35 goals overall.
It's easy to point at that second tweet and say Alvarez is obviously the missing piece, but bear in mind that Walker, Dias, Stones, Akanji, Bobb, Ake, Grealish, Doku, De Bruyne, and Rodri have all missed quite a few games already this season and would have made up the difference. The injuries have absolutely killed us in recent games.
Obviously there's nothing we can do about Rodri, but with De Bruyne, Doku, and eventually Bobb back in our attacking line-up (plus Echeverri) things will get better from January onwards. You imagine Savinho will pitch in more once he breaks his duck. And that's if we don't sign an attacker in January, which we might.
Not all is lost!
