We can obviously upgrade on some positions , where it's clearly the lack of the players ability. But we do have enough talent to string together more passes in the final third and try to create more chances.
Most of our chances seem to come from counters or individual brilliance, so coaching can definitely be improved upon.
We do create chances, though. Too often we don’t take them, which is why we are ranked 16th when it comes to the percentage of shots we have that result in a goal. We are ranked fifth in total shots on goal, so this is an issue.
We are also ranked fifth in terms of overall possession, behind City, Chelsea, Liverpool and an anomalous Leeds team. We are ranked fourth when it comes to accurate passes in the opposition half, behind City, Liverpool and Chelsea.
I’d say all of this is about right given the quality and profile of players we have available. It also meets my eye test.
Now my eyes tell me that we lack a proper goalscorer up top and a winger who can score and create from the right flank. The numbers would back me up. I also think we have some very good midfielders who are also, sadly, very sloppy. McTominay and Fred are not good enough to dictate the tempo of a game and Bruno and Pogba, for all of their positives, are sloppy as hell.
Chelsea, Liverpool and City, who are ahead of us in all of these metrics, all have midfielders who are significantly more
tidy than ours, even if not as capable of producing moments of the ‘individual brilliance’ I hear so much about (De Bruyne aside).
Plenty of folk don’t want to hear it but Ole has this team exactly where it should be. It isn’t capable of too much more given the glaring issues at striker, right wing, midfield and centre half.
I’m not saying it’s all perfect, mind you. We need to get better at breaking teams down and I’d like to see the team build from the back more cohesively. But let’s get real: that isn’t happening with the likes of Wan-Bissaka (who I like), McTominay and James running the right flank. Or with Fred and Pogba losing the ball in midfield every ten minutes.