macbeth
Dismembered
Our attack that is. I know the focus is on the defending and us scoring twice today and not missing any sitters must seem unbelievable. But the attacking was actually dreadful again today. One thing that struck me was the utterly appalling movement all day. It was like playing table football. Players making absolutely no effort to move for anything whatsoever.
There were many examples of this, but the one that stood out to me the most was about half an hour in, when march was set through by a brilliant pass from bissouma, and ends up having to take a speculative shot from a ridiculous angle, because nobody is in any sort of proximity to him. The replay cuts to maupay and welbeck about thirty paces behind, looking like they'd both just woken up from a nap, and making absolutely no effort to get involved. So many times today the midfield had the ball in the final third, and ended up having to pass it back as again, there was no movement from any of maupay, trossard or welbeck.
And the most annoying thing is that there was points in the game where movement was made, strikers did make runs, and that was when we looked our most dangerous. And it was that anticipation, being in the right areas, that have us our goal. But it didn't happen nearly enough.
Now, you have to ask why that is. Is it a confidence issue? We're 20th in the league for shooting accuracy, so I can understand why the players may feel a bit reluctant to try things, but without that anticipation you're never going to score goals in the PL. Or is it just a question of laziness? The amount of times I looked at maupay/trossard today and just thought "their heart's aren't in it" was honestly worrying. Goal aside, we looked absolutely toothless again today. EVERY break forward, people were just jogging, nobody busting a gut to get on the end of anything, everybody ball watching. The passing too, no precision with anything, utterly utterly sloppy. No urgency about anything. Are they out of confidence or just lazy?
There were many examples of this, but the one that stood out to me the most was about half an hour in, when march was set through by a brilliant pass from bissouma, and ends up having to take a speculative shot from a ridiculous angle, because nobody is in any sort of proximity to him. The replay cuts to maupay and welbeck about thirty paces behind, looking like they'd both just woken up from a nap, and making absolutely no effort to get involved. So many times today the midfield had the ball in the final third, and ended up having to pass it back as again, there was no movement from any of maupay, trossard or welbeck.
And the most annoying thing is that there was points in the game where movement was made, strikers did make runs, and that was when we looked our most dangerous. And it was that anticipation, being in the right areas, that have us our goal. But it didn't happen nearly enough.
Now, you have to ask why that is. Is it a confidence issue? We're 20th in the league for shooting accuracy, so I can understand why the players may feel a bit reluctant to try things, but without that anticipation you're never going to score goals in the PL. Or is it just a question of laziness? The amount of times I looked at maupay/trossard today and just thought "their heart's aren't in it" was honestly worrying. Goal aside, we looked absolutely toothless again today. EVERY break forward, people were just jogging, nobody busting a gut to get on the end of anything, everybody ball watching. The passing too, no precision with anything, utterly utterly sloppy. No urgency about anything. Are they out of confidence or just lazy?