We’ve become a lazy team.
We no longer do the fundamentals of a Pep team.
We play out from the back and the midfield no longer shows for the defence, no longer gives them options.
Most of them are static.
Straight away we’re under pressure.
Khusanov is the prime example of that.
We hung him out to dry giving him no options.
If it wasn’t for Bernardo coming deep and taking the pressure off things could’ve gotten a lot worse for him.
We used to play out from the back with pace and purpose.
We’d have Fernandinho, Gundogan or Rodri who would drop deep to receive the ball, the fullbacks would go wide and the midfield would move to find space.
We don’t do that anymore.
It’s the same when we’re in possession in midfield, slow, next to no movement, static players that usually results in us making stupid passes trying to pick them out, either that or we play it sideways or backwards.
Without the ball we used press 3 or 4 players at a time, not just the player with the ball but close off their options too.
Our press and shape is lazy and half arsed.
Then there’s the stupid goals we concede.
We’ve always conceded stupid goals but in the past the first thing we’d do is grab the ball and go up the other end and do everything we could to get another goal, we’d apply pressure and force the mistake or force the goal.
The first thing we do now when the ball hits the net is drop our heads and feel sorry for ourselves.
There’s no fight and no pride.
There’s no fight to defend.
There’s no fight win the ball back.
There’s no fight to get the goals.
There’s no fight to support their teammates.
Haaland yesterday was getting mugged off by arsenal players and fans.
What did we do?
We did nothing, we just let it happen.
We have become soft and lazy.
We’ve been here before and thankfully the 115 seemed to galvanise the team and give them a much needed kick up the arse.
Sadly this season nothing is firing them up.
We’re getting teams embarrassing us and taking the piss and we’re just taking it.
We are also outworked by every team we face.
There’s no quick fix to this unfortunately, Pep’s tactics will stay the same, the same tactics that have won us everything in football.
Players need to leave cos they’re too old, too injury prone or just not good enough.
Who’s to blame?
Pep?
The players?
The board?
Maybe all 3 in some ways.
Honestly I don’t care who’s to blame but it needs sorting and quick cos what I’m seeing just isn’t acceptable.
Top 4 (5)?
We’ll be lucky, very lucky.
As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, without the start we had we’d seriously be in the shit.