Why did we fall apart after the 80th minute in so many games this season?

Gandalf Greyhame

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All teams lose some games late, and win some late (we won with Hojlund at Villa, Amad vs Liverpool, McT's double against Brentford, Mainoo against Wolves), but the former has been truly alarming this season. I tried to go through our fixtures and make a list.

1. Premier League
We dropped 13 points to goals conceded after the 80th minute.

- Arsenal A (lost 3-1, conceded at '90+5, '90+10) -1pt
- Forest A (lost 2-1, conceded at '82) -1pt
- Fulham H (lost 1-2, conceded at '90+6) -1pt
- City A (lost 3-1, conceded at '81, '91) -1pt
- Chelsea A (lost 4-3, conceded at '90+9, '90+10) -3pts
- Brentford A (drew 1-1, conceded at '90+8) -2pts
- Liverpool H (drew 2-2, conceded at '84) -2pts
- Burnley H (drew 1-1, conceded at '88) -2pts

2. Champions League
Conceding late goals cost us 4 points.

- Galatasaray H (lost 2-3, conceded at '81) -1pt
- FC Copenhagen A (lost 4-3, conceded at '83, '87) -3pts

3. FA Cup
We got through, but had conceded our 3rd in our draw away at Coventry at '90+4 leading to penalties.

(Besides this list, I remember watching wins which we were lucky to get away with as well with late misses from the opposition.)

So why did this happen?
 
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How many games were won by a single goal last year? A big reason is the loss of a decent keeper.
 
Thanks for presenting the stats. Felt like we preferred to retreat rather than stay on the front foot, not that we were particularly good at maintaining composed possession late in games. Fitness, a lack of defensive leadership, and Onana Moments(TM) all played a part.

We’ve had a knack in recent seasons of conceding soon after scoring too.
 
It doesn't help that we bought the Paul Pogba of goalkeepers.

Some elite characteristics for sure, but absolutely none of the basic fundamentals needed in his position.
 
I dont think were very good at sitting back and defending? We dont do it unless were ahead coming towards the end of the game.
I wonder if theres any pattern with the kind of substitutions were making in them games.
 
Simply because we don’t know how to control games. Where as city and Arsenal will just pass it around and keep the ball. We still play to open rather than being compact and controlling the games. Also a lack of concentration.
 
If you look at a lot of our games this season, we've been under so much pressure, facing so many shots, eventually, it's likely to result in conceding.
 
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Our manager is not good enough. His in-game changes and management is not up to the mark. And we tended fall further and further back to protect leads like a small club, which inevitably led to some disasters.
 
Juicy Juiced said:
We chase ghost's most of the the matches which lead to tirednes and that lead to concentration lapses.
Click to expand...

Yep, the style of play didn't help, the ground some of the team were expected to cover every game lead to fatigue late in games.
 
It’s probably a combination of the most obvious, fitness concentration and fear. We had a lot injuries and probably players playing unfit so fitness would be an issue.

As a team we are used to the panic i our play so that even if we’re are playing we get sloppy and put ourselves under pressure. We were looking for players to improve the mentality of the team in this respect and in players like Martinez we did to a degree.

Also when the environment, for so many reasons, was poor players lack confidence and play with fear rather than confidence. Mistakes then become normal and progressive play difficult. All these issues can be improved with a settled first team and a run of wins.

To me these stats can be seen as we aren’t to far away, just lack the structure that can provide consistency.
 
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