It wasn't purely reactive though. Particularly in the first half, when we got the ball we actually played it well amongst our players. There was an intent to go forward, we didn't just boot it over the top and hope that Rashford was fast enough to beat Kyle Walker. There was clearly a method to it and the way we worked the ball on one side, then used switches of play was well executed and effective. It was good football and football we could replicate against others, especially as no teams in the Premier League fear us and are happy to leave us opportunities to transition against us.
As far as I can tell, since the FA Cup final our game out of possession has become much worse. For some reason, rather than the quite patient mid-block we used at Wembley, Ten Hag started the season with a really aggressive press, which did not work against anyone with even a shred of quality on the ball in deeper positions. Fulham and Palace are probably the only times you can say we looked really dominant using that approach. Teams like Liverpool and Spurs just beat the first line press and ran right through us like a week old curry.
In posession, there has been a clear effort to move towards more positional play, with players working in threes across the left and right sides of the pitch. But its all been so much slower than anything we played at Wembley. Potentially because its so much more rigid and there is clearly more emphasis being played on slowing things down and trying to work through the opposition. At Wembley it felt like there was a general idea and the players had more freedom to improvise. Now, even in defence, you see players taking a touch and trying to do what they think they should. We've been caught in posession several times by players doing this e.g. Eriksen vs Twente. Nobody seems to be playing anything close to intuitive football.
Its all gone to crap.
