New season and nothing new.
Only one new player VDB = a breath of fresh air... two if you want to insist on including Dean. New players usually brought in the energy and competitiveness so the squad tend to be better. Last season, all our transfers hit top form immediately after joining, only dwindled down in later months. Not a coincidence we only had one new player... and he's the only one that play well in general.
The recent match performance is just an extension of last season.
- Rely on individuals.
- Need some players to hit top form/purple patch so they can carry the team... none at the moment.
- Shape/structure still neglected.
- Fitness is still shockingly poor standard in comparison to other teams.
- questionable decisions makings by manager.
- late substitutions.
- players motivations remain questionable.
- coaching still no improvements.
- attacking is still haphazard... a mess. And predictable vs low blocks.
- players chemistry doesn't look improving... as if they never play with each other before.
- still don't know how to deal with high press comfortably.
- still clueless in how to break low blocks with good stability and composure, no Matic = no party.
- players (the usual suspects) still perform like how they normally perform.
- also the same stubborn 4231 system.
Same ole same ole.
So I'm seeing the excuses cards have been dished out already.
1. We lack fitness... meaning our fitness coaching is poor.
2. Players we played lack fitness... then why the heck Ole pick unfit players.
3. We don't have quality in depth... that's rubbish. The quality players were benched (Greenwood, AWB) or left out (Matic).
Tough to trust a manager nor coaches that doesn't seem to be improving or learning their own mistakes/weaknesses.