When i watch us play, i am clueless about what is the team trying to achieve with the ball all the time, when its not even working for long periods of the game. We don't even fill the ample spaces we leave in attack and the distances between mid attack and defense are huge, pogba is so damn mediocre at basics of midfield play he has minimum control of the match , he just does not press or work hard enough to recover the ball in the middle, Matic has been on and off this season and we struggle without him as well while he is also declining. All our midfielders concede space to opposition players in the middle to pull the strings and create a decent attack and our defense is leaky as well. Need less back passes, slowing down the game when our style is counter attacking and directness, long balls after long balls, needless gifting off the ball to opposition , passing sideways and sideways, lack of attacking movement inside from wide players, fullbacks not overlapping at all, its so effing mediocre all around and then all response we get from Jose now is "players lack the mental attitude".
Baffled with the tactics now, he never solves the problem, and i doubt now he ever will, because he is at the centre of that problem. He is too a LVG disciple after all in a reverse direction.
Tactically the game to me at least in the PL has moved towards a team symmetry.
We can't have one fullback who stays back whilst the other one rarely goes forward. We can't have one winger providing width for the central target man whilst the other is cutting in to sometimes join the forwards or he attacking midfield. We can't play 3 midfielders who play in 3 different ways - as you said we have Pogba who doesn't break up the play, matic who does but doesn't have the passing of Pogba & likewise Fred who looks like a quick transition quick passer box to box midfielder. The central defence currently has one defender that can't seem to hold the ground & head the ball, another one that can't pass whilst also playing another CDM there.
Playing with such a wide variety of individuals who play the game a different way does not allow the team to play as a Unit.
They are all individuals with individual characteristics - made to puzzle together to create a very distinct & strict type of play.
I hate to mention other teams but I will -
Klopps forward are symmetrical planning to do the same thing - Mane & Salah on either side of a single central supplier false 9 in firminh0. His midfield is pure tenacity & all are capable to break up the opponent & to get the ball forward rather than focusing on long distance passes - the same after adding Nabi keita for example to widjnaldum, Milner & Henderson. Both fullbacks get forward regularly & their defense can both play the ball.
Pep's City - all the forwards have the same role - hardly any difference between sane & sterling; apart from quality not much different from aguero & Gabriel jesus the way they play - all forwards roles are to finish off moves by their possession based midfield of de bryune, silva & fernandinh0 or if they can create their own chances between them. Their fullbacks gets Hella forward too on both sides.
The opponents don't fear us anymore because we don't have a team ethic - a team plan. Forget the quality of the players - but would the opposition be more scared of facing the same attacking threat from the left and right like mane & Salah - or have to deal with one winger who cuts in & one winger who holds width to cross, with one striker playing centrally as a target man.
We have a group of 11 players who currently play football in different ways with individually different tactics whilst other teams have a group of 11 that play as a team playing one symmetrical style of football be that the attack, defense or midfield.
Playing against a team that play symmetrically is harder than against a team full of individuals where one player like Lukaku or Pogba is playing differently to Rashford, Martial or Fred.
The same thing happened when Liverpool out done PSG - pure individualism of different players rather than the team attempting to play a certain style of football. I doubt Jose is finished as a manager - but he is done in the PL; giving him the opportunity to buy his own world XI would still not be that good because they would play like individuals rather than an actual team. The PL has improved.
