What is our biggest problem?

[RomanReigns]

There is no leader on the pitch

Players seem to be clueless on the pitch and don’t know their roles

There is no ambition to defend or get forward in transition periods

The expectation is to give the ball to richarlison all the time and let him create attacks which causes him to get fouled all the time and get knackered making numerous sprints every game to get us further forward up the pitch

 

[Hendi]

Other; pace, intensity, when we get this, most of the other problems...but not formation, and maybe game management, which might get better with more to work with

Yeah you never feel our players actually put a decent shift in - it's almost as if they're afraid to trh and out pace or out muscle their opponents. We clearly don't have pace and we're back with the same situation with too much immobile players being in the first team. The game is massively centred on hard running, pace, aggression and athleticism now. Richarlison is our key man for this. Why do we always have this issue?

Our recruitment policy has to be insanely strict now. We've started the better better trend with getting in Allan but anyone any other recruit coming in has to both be technical and pacey - we're playing catch up on a lot of teams regarding these aspects now. Baffling.

 

[Lanolin]

Could the problems we have in defense potentially come down to a communication issue above all else?

New players/returning bodies coupled with chopping and changing of starting lineups/systems and various different language barriers I can see being considerable factors in it all..

Nah, we defended poorly early in the season and last season with a back 5 that have been playing together for 2 years+. It's partly poor individual players and partly poor tactical set up. One can overcome the other, but both of them together is a recipe for disaster.

 

[jamieni]

There is no leader on the pitch

Players seem to be clueless on the pitch and don’t know their roles

There is no ambition to defend or get forward in transition periods

The expectation is to give the ball to richarlison all the time and let him create attacks which causes him to get fouled all the time and get knackered making numerous sprints every game to get us further forward up the pitch

Surely it’s not too much to ask players to understand the role they’re being asked to play without someone on the pitch cajoling them?

There does certainly seem to be a bit of fight lacking at times.

 

[Lanolin]

Surely it’s not too much to ask players to understand the role they’re being asked to play without someone on the pitch cajoling them?

There does certainly seem to be a bit of fight lacking at times.

It depends I suppose. We have played people out of position and in formations that they may not be used to recently, it wouldn't be that surprising if some of them were struggling to understand exactly what they were being asked to do.

 

[davids]

Fitness.

Lack of,plus intensity.

 

[carolinablue232]

Injuries exploit our lack of depth. We’re playing funky formations and lineups because we’re weak in most areas after our first 11.

 

[BlueDraka]

Lack of,plus intensity.

Total agree. Think if we high Fitness level you get the intensity. The team's that play with high intensity i.e Leeds, Soton, RS all have high Fitness levels

 

[BarryThompson1]

The manager , the players , the owners , the team , to many to name .

 

[Seathestars]

Strength in depth but throw in the poor mentality of the club as a whole and hey presto.

 

[Brendan Janus]

Erm, I think we have shoite players, easy really !!!!

 

[chippy1722]

Considering we have a very defensive midfield, I can’t believe how much space there is in the middle against other teams.
It doesn’t seem to matter who plays or who is manager we are so slow in the middle.
We need someone in midfield who looks forward first.
Watching Leeds highlighted it more, almost every one of there midfielders looked and played forward every time. It’s almost as if Bielsa fines them for going backwards.

 

[Big Sams Undies]

The leader argument is crap.

Not long ago we had the Wales, Ireland and (former) England captain on the pitch at the same time and guess what... Still shoyte

 

[MACCA75]

Consistently signing cast off players from the top clubs assuming they are good enough.
And signing players clearly ill suited to the Prem.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Strength in depth and deadwood clearly out in front at the moment. Thinking back to the Leeds game though, he didn’t play konkers and he moved yer man across from right wing back when he had a decent game against Fulham. Maybe we’re not utilizing the squad to the best.