There‘s maybe a couple of problems we have, one of which is just a by-product of the way we play. That one is about us not really knowing how to ‘chase‘ a game, as it’s something we very, very rarely have to do. It was noticeable that we didn’t lay a glove on Madrid after their penalty and it’s something we’re just not built to do which, given the amount of control we usually have, is perhaps understandable.
More worrying though is a tendency to concede more than one goal fairly rapidly and, even though I accept it doesn’t happen often, lose games that we have been winning.
In recent times we’ve lost the following games from leading 2-0.
Brighton, who scored 3 in 26 minutes and 2 in 4 minutes.
Wolves, who scored 3 in 35 minutes and 2 in 7 minutes.
Rags, who scored 3 in 16 minutes and 2 in 2 minutes.
Last night, obviously.
In the CL, we’ve conceded 2 in 3 minutes against Spuds and 2 in 8 against Monaco and 2 in 2 minutes last night.
Against Liverpool, we’ve conceded 2 in 15 minutes in the 2-2, two in 8 minutes in the FA Cup semi final, 2 in 7 minutes in 2019 (lost 3-1) and, in the CL 3-0, we conceded goals 1 and 2 in 9 minutes, goals 2 and 3 in 10 minutes and all 3 in 19 minutes.
It does suggest that, when we lose control, we’re somewhat all over the place and very open to conceding.