We've been crap to watch for the majority of the season.
Look at November/December - Palace, Norwich, Burnley, Liverpool, City and Chelsea. Six games, two of them against teams anchored in the bottom three at the time, did we have 10 shots on target across them? Not sure we did.
Even some of the better performances like Everton, we've only really played for one half. A few wins where nearly or every shot on target we've had has gone in. Those first three games (all lost, 0 scored) have attained mythical proportions, yet we didn't work the keeper that much in any of them (De Gea was the busiest, but it's not like he pulled off a string of superb saves).
He's done OK but I've never bought this 'change of style'. We aren't anything like as good to watch as we were in 2018/19 or 2019/20.
It does feel a little odd the way the season has played out, despite the points haul.
I know you disagreed at the time but the first three games seemed like change was afoot. There was a renewed energy to the team, they were pushed a bit further up the pitch, they were engaging the opposition earlier when out of possession and the tempo had been cranked up a bit. It wasn't revolution by any means but it felt like the start of something different at least. Obviously the results didn't go to plan but there were hopeful signs in my eyes, the team weren't really finding themselves any more exposed than they had been previously in a more conservative setup and they were creating chances in ways we hadn't seen for a few years too. Whilst Traore, and others, ultimately wasted those chances it seems like the team created more of those clear cut opportunities in 3 games than they had in 3 years under Nuno.
After those losses it felt like there was a scaling back of new ideas, the higher line stayed but the press dropped off and use of the ball seemed to become much safer again, a reversion to type of sorts. Seemed like a sensible idea at the time, bring the players back to their comfort zone before confidence was completely eroded by trying and failing with something new over and over. Hard to really argue with the results and points accumulated in that period too, even if it wasn't the brave new world we'd seen flashes of it could at least be a solid base to build on. There were times in this period too where you could see Lage was unhappy on the sidelines, like he was asking for more but the players were sticking to what they were comfortable with.
Lately it feels a bit like he's come to accept it for what it is, it's not felt like they've really been pushed to do anything new for a while. The results have been ticking along nicely and the points total going up so everyone has just sort of let it lie and got on with it. I suppose for upper management that's a decent enough place to be, everyone getting along and hitting their targets, no need to step in and do anything.
The last few games have felt different again though, perhaps resting on their laurels a bit too much and come unstuck. It does feel like there's been a renewed emphasis on playing out short just lately though, maybe that's upset the applecart? Whatever the reason it's not been good and it feels downright weird for Lage to make sounds like he's perfectly happy with it when it seems so far from what he originally tried to do. Though I do wonder if there's a hint of something in one of the interviews he did this week. He mentioned about setting up in a way that suits the players you have, is this what he thinks he has to do to suit the players available? We know he's made plenty of noise about needing more players in so given that never happened has he resigned himself to playing this sort of game because he thinks it suits the players he has best?
Whilst there should be a better tune out of this squad I do feel it's a stretch to think they'll ever play real free flowing attacking football. I think that's part of the reason they did so well under Nuno, he was a fairly conservative manager and he was on the same wavelength with a bunch of mainly conservative players, it was a symbiotic relationship. I don't think they, collectively, display the requisite movement, comfort on and appetite for the ball, self belief and conviction to really play in an outwardly attacking fashion consistently. It just doesn't appear to be what they want to do. You get the odd one like Podence who seems happy to drop in for the ball and try to force the issue, I've judged him harshly plenty but at least he's willing to put his head above the parapet and have a go even with precious little support, which makes his task even harder and risk of failure far greater.
Ultimately I think it could be an unhappy ending for Lage somewhere along the line. Whilst this sort of disparity can be easily ignored whilst results go your way, it still can't be much fun for Lage coaching a team against what he really wants them to do, when the points dry up crack will soon start to appear. In those situations it's rarely the manager that wins, it's far easier to remove the one man in the dugout than the multiple out on the pitch who are on opposite sides of the fence. I think it's a situation perhaps made even worse for him by the relative success so far this season, he's proved he can achieve results with this group already so if he can't do it again it looks worse on him. I think it would make the board even more hesitant to back him with transfers that he's, to some degree at least, shown he doesn't need.
