I think it is just form. Apart from Haaland and Gvardiol no one is playing in their best form. Foden, Gundo, nowhere near as effective and in killer form yet as we see them before. KDB out. Rodri out. this gives huge responsibilty to Kovacic wh is doing good filling in albeit now imo he will be tested a lot more in games vs Spurs, Brighton, Bournemouth, Sporting etc.
my big worry is wingers, its ages between they score goals in PL. Doku scored one 2-3 weeks ago now next time one of Grealish, Savio, Nunes scores one it will be end of December. and then Doku again in March. its almost criminal we cannot rely on wingers hitting the back of the net regularly. surely its partially tactical as they are told to give width and pass it back to the fullback a lot. watch when Grealish or even Nunes defaulted back to it yesterday after his assist, 90% of his passes were back to Gvardiol. which slows us down even more as then Gvardiol passes inside to Kova maybe Gundo or Foden, who passes back to Gvardiol then out to left and repeat back to Gvardiol.
after 9 rounds total number of goals from players in wide positions in PL, including Bernardo who plays in multiple positions but sometimes on the right:
Grealish, Nunes, Doku, Savio, Bernardo: 1 goal
I know they are not Saka, Salah type of wingers, and dont get into shooting chances that often due to our tactics and the pared buses, but even when they do its way to often a mediocre shot.
Savio did score abut 9-10 in La Liga in a much lesser team. would be happy with 6-7 goals from him in PL in debut season as he seemingly getting fair amount of game time. Grealish, I give up on his end product really, maybe 5 goals in PL, is that too much to ask? Doku should be good for 7-8 goals imo. Nunes wont have much gametime but 3-4 goals is doable. Bernardo 7-8 is doable he deffo have the gametime.
given so far they only scored total of 1 goal between them, above numbers look quite optimistic now.
our PL goals so far:
Haaland 11
Kovacic 3
Gvardiol 2
Stones 2
Doku 1
KDB 1
we need lot more from Gundo, Foden and wingers thats clear plus whatever KDB adds. if Haaland gets injured then all of a sudden our winger will get goals? doubt it.
Rodri and Alvarez had lot of goals last season, others should start picking those up.