The game was lost when we slowed our tempo down after going up 1-0. We were putting them under intense pressure by playing with more aggression, but after we scored, our passing became more passive, and the players dropped deeper off the ball. It would have been fine had we kept possession, but we kept giving it away with Young aimlessly playing it forward. We talk about players like Henderson and Milner being limited footballers, but at least they can pass the ball; Young struggles to do that on top of being a poor footballer. Lingard, once again, struggled against a deep defensive line; he made a good impact against Watford a few days back when they started to push up. Here, however, Wolves sat deep, and Lingard didn't know what to do. In fact, I could say that about the whole team.
At the moment, we aren't as aggressive on the attack as we used to be. Our passes are way too slow and easily read. We hesitate way more when playing passes to the attacking players. Both Watford and Wolves have easily read our passes, and for the most part, both were comfortable defending against us. Whilst we did have moments against both teams, we never had any of the sustained pressure that we used to see in the past. Our players are not as willing to get into attacking positions, instead dropping back to see more of the ball. Our players on the ball are more hesitant to play passes forward as a result. We seem to take a couple of touches more before kicking off our attacks. I think one of the reasons is that other teams have figured out how we attack. Wolves and Watford got back into shape quickly and coaxed our deeper players to either enter attacking areas or pass the ball into them. Before, our players entered the gaps and had quick passes played to them; now, with the ball being unable to enter these areas quickly enough, our players don't know where to be afterwards. Ole and the coaching staff seem to be trying to change things (like having a #10 with Pogba playing deeper or a back 3), but the players still lack the confidence in themselves. I can elaborate more on our problems and potential solutions, but that'd be for another thread.
I find it interesting that teams are also starting to press Pogba much quicker now, and he's unable to adapt to it. Before, Pogba's movement meant that teams were unsure about whether to press him; now that teams are dropping more players back, there's always one player sticking close to Pogba. That's preventing him from settling on the ball and really turning it on. When he does settle on the ball, the opposition have their shape set, and we have too few players up ahead to really stretch them. This isn't a defence on Pogba as he should be better at receiving the ball under pressure and playing it in tight spaces. However, the direct passes that he would play would always be intercepted as there would be barely any attacking threat to stretch the opposition.
Overall, we still have work to do to get back to the top, that much is clear. In order to make the top 4, however, the players need to regain belief in themselves. Ole keeps telling the players to play quicker; he also changes the shape to enable them to do that; Ole's doing what he can during the match when things aren't going well. The players now have to step up and believe in Ole's football again.
