I'm likely to be completely wrong here, but seeing klopp's post match got me thinking. Klopp mentioned that he went crazy on the touchline because his back 4 dropped deep, causing a lot of space in the hole which lead to an attack and subsequent panic in his defence. This is essentially our most glaring problem throughout the season in that our front 5 almost ALWAYS press high all game and our back 5 ALWAYS drop. It's the same issue described by klopp but we see it for majority of games.
This lack of compactness between front and back is the root cause of all our problems; the non-existent midfield, the high number of shots conceded, the high number of cutback goals conceded, the high number of corners conceded as our back 4 is isolated in a deep block, causing many one on ones which lead to corners, even the high number of injuries due to recovery runs. I would even argue its the reason why casimero and bruno lose the ball so much because when we do recover the ball we are in our final third making the ball over the top harder to execute.
Pretty much all our regular cbs this year prefer the deep/mid block and are not front foot defenders. This includes varane, maguire, evans, and lindelof. Even if instructed to play a high starting position they'll revert to type as the game progresses. At the same time Ten Hag has clearly doubled down with a high block front 5 instead of compromising like last year because he knows this is how we should play long term and recognises that the players need to learn how to play this way and to get used to the intensity. Combine both these issues and we get this disjointed version that executes a simultaneous low block back 5 and a high block front 5. Add to that how utterly average our defenders are at passing from the back and how lacking in athleticism our midfielders and all the above issues are compounded.
What does all this mean? Well maybe, just maybe, the growing pains this team is going through (VERY Painful ones I might add) will have a positive impact long term? I mean we've played a low to mid block for the longest of times so could we really expect the way our players have been conditioned to play to change overnight? CLEARLY not. This would explain why players like rashford are struggling so badly; he lacks the intensity and intelligence to press and is lazy off the ball, but has importantly always played a different way and can't handle this year's transition.
What if, instead of getting rid of ten hag at the end of the season and start yet another 3 year project, we instead keep him, and supplement the squad with players suitable for this way of playing. I have no doubt ten hag would play the exact same system next year. If, say, we bring in two athletic cms ( as pool did with macallister and zsabozlai), a front foot cb to play along matrinez as rcb, and we get shaw back (or even malacia) and a forward in the mould of tony who can harry and press well, I think the system would come together much better and we would see far more cohesion in how we play. I look back at how badly arteta's arsenal played when the players he had didn't suit the high intensity football they now play and think maybe this applies to our situation too,
This clearly goes against conventional cafe wisdom and could all be wishful thinking but food for thought I guess.
