Okay, it was a bad day at the office, but the warning signs were there.
There was a bad vibe from the very start, could be the early kick off, but the atmosphere in the ground was was so tense, it made the players nervous and you could see them shitting their pants on the ball. The back 4 were making loads of mistakes. I could tell Shaw was not right, he wasn't making runs and when he sat down I knew he was going off. Then Maguire did the same, he was having a shocker too. I don't recall McTominay having a touch in the first half. Didn't look fit, either. He was chasing shadows. So much for a week off, they all looked shattered.
Fred was actually okay. He was winning tackles, and making interceptions, but his passing was always backwards, and he never even looked up for a forward pass. Literally, the strongest quality of DVB is to take the ball a play it forward quickly, and he cannot even get on the pitch. This slow, laboured, predictable play is easy to defend against. This fundamentally needs to change.
AWB and Greenwood don't have any relationship together on the right. They can't link up and sometimes get in each others way. It was embarrassing at times. "Are you running there, no, oh I'll do it then, oops we've run into each other, here I'll pass it back...oh, it's gone out for a throw in." FECKIN HELL GUYS, DO YOU NEED AN INTRODUCTION?
Because of McFred and the dodgy back 4 having a mare, we couldn't get out our own half, but it wasn't entirely their fault. Greenwood and Pogba are not wingers, so those runs in behind weren't always available. We are missing Rashford and 73million pound Sancho sat on the bench. (That's another debate)
Still, when the ball did reach the forwards, there was no cohesion, and it was a case of everyman for himself. Mason had 8 shots, Bruno and Pogba has 6 shots each. We have the worlds greatest goal scorer on the pitch, and nobody is trying to find him, they are all going for glory themselves.
I have to say, this is all down to poor coaching and tactics. We have an amazing array of talent, but they are not playing for each other, as a team. We were literally screaming for them to pass it out wide where Ronaldo was stood in acres of space, but they were just trying to score for themselves.
How many times do you see City score them goals when someone gets the ball in to the box and squares it to the multiple players running in. Our players don't look to square it, they shoot from a tight angle and either hit a defender or miss completely. This selfishness needs to be addressed and team play need to be prioritised. You can't win every game with individual talent, and isolated moments of brilliance. When Mason picks the ball up in space, he needs to be looking up and thinking, right I'm going play someone in here, but every single time, he just ran at goal with his head down and shot at the legs of the 3 defenders who just waited for him to do the same thing every time. Bruno and Pogba were doing it too. We have all of these great players who can score worldies, but sometimes you've got to pass it to your mate.
Team work makes the dream work.