I need to hear from those supporters that were absolutely convinced of ETH, because as much as it genuinely pains me to say it, I am a bit worried.
I was at the game this weekend and left shell shocked. I think my exact words when Brighton scored the second and we looked abysmal were "this cannot be happening". I've not posted a lot about ETH since then whilst I try to figure out what I'm thinking about this whole thing. But there's a lot on my mind that I'd like to discuss (may have been discussed 1000 times already this week so far).
1) Those tactics. Going with the false 9. Fred deepest midfielder and Mctominay advanced. Honestly, what was he thinking? I genuinely believe he has massively underestimated the PL. He's tried to come off as a genius, tried to do what others failed at. In my opinion, you can't play with a false 9 with this squad until we have absolutely mastered the possession side at least. We lost an outlet, a focal point, and were aimless. A false 9 is not a player of Eriksen or Bruno's mould. Next, it was proven a long time ago that Fred cannot play that role. There are actual quotes from players to say that Fred is the trigger to press us, it is common knowledge that this is his weakness. We actually played to his weakness!! He can only function further up the pitch, pressing and linking. That is it. And Mctominay offers nothing further up the pitch. In fact, he's such a liability for defensive positioning and recovery that he's useless at the strongest aspect of his game if he's too far forward.
So, has ETH watched us play in depth? He's supposed to be a man of detail yet missed very glaring issues. Which leads me to my next question, does nobody at the club, Fletcher for example, point all this out to him when discussing tactics? He's been there to witness this with his own eyes.
2) Our shape. On the ball we had 2 CBs with Fred in front of them. Our fullbacks right up the pitch practically marking themselves out of the game. The rest of our players (this probably wasn't noticeable on TV for those not there) were literally in a line across the pitch about 35 yards ahead. When our CBs had the ball they looked up and saw a sea of Brighton players. Nobody ahead dropping back to offer an angle past Fred. No movement. Is this by design? Because I was at there thinking that I can see how this will look like LVG football very quickly, chaining the ball across defence very slowly to find an opening. I thought he's all about possession? Where's the triangles? The numerous passing options? Watch analysis of Peps football and you'll see that City and Barca create diamond shapes around players in possession so they always have plenty of options. Movement to create opening, 3rd man running. We saw none of that and not even an attempt at that. What we actually ended up with was a lot of long balls to nowhere because we had no passing options.
3) the subs. I know this has been discussed but it felt like we killed the game for them from the 80th minute onwards. Just as we had a head of steam. It was clear from early on that Rashford wasn't offering a thing. There was no risk in throwing Garnacho on earlier, for example. Then the fact that he took Sancho off instead. He looked a bit tired, but I would have liked to have seen him on the left instead of Rashford as he has proven to be a goal threat from there.
4) We did better in the second half up to a point. I said at half time that Eriksen needs to play deeper as he's our only hope of progressing play forward. We did that and it worked, though I think more because Brighton closed out the game instead and changed their shape. But, what I saw in the second half was a bit worrying again. No route through the middle but instead trying to whip crosses in. Moyes Vs Fulham anyone? But what was happening a lot was that line of 6 or 7 players up the pitch just wasn't making enough effort to get into the box. In preseason we overloaded the box well. Against Brighton our wide players were having to delay too many times to wait for the runs. Why did this happen? Are we going to become a long ball/crossing team against well organised teams?
5) Shaw coming straight back in. It's been discussed. But what a lazy, reactive player he is. Zero intensity, half asleep on the pitch. Stops to watch his man receive the ball before he realises he needs to close them down. It is time to integrate Malacia.
6) No Iqbal on the bench. I know people will say it was only preseason and he's just a kid, but due to point number 2, we were crying out for a player that can beat the press by carrying the ball. Only because we'd backed ourselves into such a corner with our shape, but surely he would have been a good option in this sense. Not only that but he deserved it. He was better than most of these lot. I seriously hope ETH isn't going to be that manager that puts players unworthy ahead in the pecking order just because of their name or their age. Iqbal should have been on the bench and Savage looked far better than Garner and he's disappeared.
7) Unrelated to the game but another thing that is bothering me. Thinking back to Rangnick being let go and ETH not wanting to talk to him. Plus the stories about demands from ETH to get the job, I'm starting to wonder if ETH wanted full control over transfers. And if he did, this summer brings me nothing but fear if so. Are these his targets? Are we genuinely going to go along with this? Is the FDJ debacle down to him? Honestly he's treating us like we play in Eredivise with some of these names we're being linked with. I'm hoping he's not going to prove to be an arrogant manager that doesn't believe the hype about the PL, only to be eaten alive by it. I've seen it with LVG, another Dutch manager that felt his very particular ideas were the only way to play football.
I wanted to get all this off my chest because I'm desperate for him to be a success and I'm a bit worried right now.
