Maybe we should slow down a bit here? Look at things in perspective? There's been so many phases now it's dizzying.
First, we have the good parts of the OGS era, which is important because it shows the peak of how this squad have proven able to perform. I'm thinking about the post-Bruno third of the 2019-20 season, and maybe the first half of our 28-game unbeaten run in the middle part of last season. This was marked by very good results and no defeats. We quite often won by blowaway scores against inferior teams, but we did not look quite the finished article in the way we played, and we frequently fell behind in games.
Second, we have the last part of last season and up to and including the West Ham game this season. Here, results were more spotty, although we mostly managed to get wins. Disconcertingly often however, results went against the run of the game, wins were usually narrow and we were looking increasingly vulnerable and dysfunctional.
Third, we have the period from the Aston Villa defeat through Ole's last game, against Watford.
We generally lost (or at best, drew), and were a complete disaster on the pitch. This was collapse - and as such also not really a measure of what to expect from this squad.
Fourth, we have Carricks interim caretaker period, two PL games.
Here we started getting the results again, and we dragged ourselves out of dark place we were in during phase 3, but this was achieved through an increased emphasis on defensive solidity and we were not by any stretch dominating games. We were, perhaps, a more defenisvely stable version of phase 2, but a long way off where we were in phase 1. We were still looking a long way off the finished article on the pitch.
Fifth and finally, we have the two games under Rangnick.
Again, the results have been there and again we're a long way off the top level we've had during the past couple of years. If Palace looked like a promising start, Norwich was regression from that. But, we are transitioning to a new manager and a new system, it's to be expected.
It's interesting to note the see-saw between defensive and offensive issues. What sparked the "Golden Bruno period" , to use that phrase, was that our offensive game suddenly clicked. Not through a change of style, but because Bruno delivered exactly what we were missing to make the style of play we already had work. But then came the disastrous start to the 20/21 season, which clearly triggered a defensive rebalancing, with the McFred midfield becoming our mainstay.
That worked very well for a while in terms of results, but I think it also increasingly started to show up the limitations of the team, and arrested the upwards trend in our offensive game. Blowaway wins became rarer, and we visibly were not dominating games, including against weaker opponents.
I think the trajectory that put us on played itself out late last season, and early this season. Results, though still pretty good, declined and we were looking more and more vulnerable on the pitch. The solution this time however was - nothing. No major adjustement was made. We just carried on.
That is, until Ronaldo arrived. It seems apparent that we then attempted to go back to a more offensive approach. Which I suppose was logical considering the additions to the squad, but which obviously backfired spectacularly. We just did not have the structure and stability in place to cope with the defensive fallout, or for that matter to implement a functioning offensive game. It all came apart.
Then with Carrick, we once more move back in a more defensive direction. Keep it tight, take it from there. Which we were able to, but we were still not really working very well offensively.
And now with Rangnick, the primary emphasis remains explicitly on the defensive side of things.
If you look at all of that together, it seems clear to me that
1. We're not currently the finished article either defensively or offensively
2. Our recent history shows that we can't sustain a successful attacking style without having a stronger structural and defensive foundation.
3. Building that foundation is going to be points A, B and C on the list of priorities.
4. Only then are we going to see the development of a more consistently dynamic offensive game. And that game is going to have to grow out of the conditions created by our defensive game and our pressing. Until then, we're going to get by on setpieces and moments of individual brilliance, save for the occasional golden evening where everything clicks.