Logged off after the match and thought I would sleep on it before commenting in here.
Yesterday's performance doesn't get much better this morning with a clear head, I'm afraid!
I think it's ok to be slightly concerned at the 'goals for' column, because we haven't really had a glimpse of what the long term plan is to get more goals from this side. We all acknowledge that we have talented footballers (we do), but yesterday, not for the first time this season, the front three looked like they were playing together for the first time. Raul & Podence were utterly appalling, and Neto was the only one who gave us some sort of spark, but again, found himself trying to do too much and running in to blind alleyways or off the pitch completely. As has been noted by others, Neto's set pieces were rubbish too.
If you go and watch the match again, just have a look at the movement from the three of them off the ball when someone like Neves, or Donk, or Boly, or Kilman has it. Those players are desperately looking for someone to pass the ball to, but Neto, Raul & Podence just stand still. It's not good enough. What ultimately ends up happening is, because they have no movement from the three advanced players, they have to play it safe - sideways or backwards. It's so bloody predictable. Del summed it up perfectly yesterday -
"We're so bloody easy to defend against. Watch the back five ponderously pass it between them. If the move crosses the half way line, fast press and we'll shit ourselves. Repeat, until the ball finds one of the quick lads, hope he can beat 3 three men and find Raul in between 6 or 7 Leicester players".
If we can all see it - and we can - why can't Nuno? And if he can, why aren't we doing something about it? It's not the first time it's happened this season - arguably bar a couple of games where the opposition has been quite open, it's happened every game.
This whole idea of keeping it tight and aiming for a clean sheet over anything else needs to be binned off ASAP. Of course, it's important to be solid at the back - but the way football is in it's present state - with dodgy VAR decisions in practically every game, we just need to let the handbreak off and try to actually attack teams and score goals because otherwise something like yesterday happens and we have no control over it. Even Liverpool/Klopp have acknowledged that - I think they've kept one clean sheet all season, but score 2/3 goals a game and that gives them more chance of winning games. I know it's unfair of me to compare us with Liverpool, but it's more that other sides/managers realise VAR is having a huge impact on games that's out of their control, so they're just having a bloody go. No wonder we are being called "boring" by some.
Couldn't believe it when I saw the table this morning and Palace are above us. They were absolutely terrible. Looking at how kind our run of fixtures were at the start of the season, against how difficult our upcoming run looks, I can only see things getting worse before they get better - although I do hope I am proved wrong.
