We are an awfully coached team

[JohnnyKills]

You're acting like you're a board member it doesn't matter what route you wanted to go down.

???

 

[JohnnyKills]

What a bizarre post. Nothing we say on here actually matters babe, we all know that.

Speak for yourself pal

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Nobody is close to Pep in my opinion. But it's stupid to say things like we would have definitely won with him in charge.

Think it we had Pep we would win, because him and his staff would have brought in the right players and to keep Pep you have to spend. Not sure even Ed would want to pick a fight with as talented a coach as Pep. Ole is the perfect manager for him, will try to do his best with what he has. I just wish we had got him before Jose. He would have brought Dias in.

 

[Leftback99]

Think it we had Pep we would win, because him and his staff would have brought in the right players and to keep Pep you have to spend. Not sure even Ed would want to pick a fight with as talented a coach as Pep. Ole is the perfect manager for him, will try to do his best with what he has. I just wish we had got him before Jose. He would have brought Dias in.

I was talking about this game and people talking in certainties.

We'd win the league with Pep but we're unlikely to challenge City while he's there with an unlimited cheque book.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I was talking about this game and people talking in certainties.

We'd win the league with Pep but we're unlikely to challenge City while he's there with an unlimited cheque book.

See what you mean. No chance while Pep is at City.

 

[Forevergiggs1]

Nobody is close to Pep in my opinion. But it's stupid to say things like we would have definitely won with him in charge.

Pep is probably in the top 5 of greatest managers of all time. Ole, well isn't. I don't think it would be too much of an exaggeration to think if Pep was managing us we'd be playing well on a much more consistent basis due to the difference in coaching. Every City player knows their role in the team, how to triangulate, how to make space for themselves, how to attack/defend as a team, when to press, when to let the opponent have the ball while we're still too dependent on individual players pulling us out of the fire. When Ole/the team get it right we can be a joy to watch but finding that level of consistency is the difference between good managers and great ones.

Don’t people compare Ole with those guys all the time? It’s fine to compare him with them to put him down but not to defend him. Is how it looks to me.

Which for me is a big mistake. Ole is one of our own but comparing him to managers such as Pep, Klopp or SAF is setting him up to fail.

 

[United in sin]

This game has summed up all my issues with the coaching team. No clear pattern of play, odd team selections, subs being made far too late into the game.

Also, we have been far too patchy under Ole, it's rather worrying.

I'd question the timing but I think it would be a step in the right direction overall

 

[stw2022]

Slow starters, sluggish, lack of creativity. Anything else has become he exception that proves the rule.

Thinking a bit out of left field here but what if the best people to coach players at the top level isn’t the people already in the managers address book who are former team mates?

It’s like a shit Bullingdon club

 

[90 + 5min]

Why next season and not the 2.5 years that has gone? What do you expect him to do differently that he has not done for the past two years? So going by your standards we should have given the likes of Moyes 4 years as well before we can start expecting something?

Because you need time. As a manger you need time. People in here love to put Klopp to the clouds but don't mention that he needed 4-5 (!) years to bring some trophy to Liverpool. Managers need time. 2 season making a team in ManUtd and 3rd season showing full capacity.

I would have let Moyes have time IF he hadn't changed whole backroom staff. He did the worst thing he could do and that is changing a title winning staff for Everton people. That alone should have been sackable offence.

Title? Feck, I am talking about top 4.

Then you don't need to worry yet. We are 2nd and we will be top 4. I predicted top 3.

We are showing progress and if we can manage to be 2nd we would have come 3rd, 2nd with Solskjaer. Next stop? You know what it is.

 

[Roboc7]

I’d still say the coaching is just wrong rather than bad, other than counter attacking I don’t think we do anything really well.

We’re a pragmatic team so coaching probably reflects that and isn’t consistent.

 

[wolvored]

I've said this before, we are a one man team. Take Bruno out of the team and we are a top half of the table team, not top 4. Without him we dont tick. If he plays well we play well. When he is not at the top of his game, like today and the few before it, we labour to win a game. I hope he never has to miss 3-4 games through injury as we would be really fecked. I cant see any real improvement coaching wise with any of the other players since last season. In fact some have got worse. We cant win against the big teams, now we cant beat the bottom whipping boys Sheffield and WBA. Ole cant decide if were in a title race (we aint) or not. He flip flops from one week to the next. City will stroll to the title at this rate.

 

[Adnan]

We aren’t an awfully coached team at all. The team on the pitch is the result of our awful recruitment and contracts. Why are we stuck playing 3 strikers as an attack? Why don’t we even have one creative player in the front line, Why are we relying on Cavani when we already had 4/500k a week worth of supposed top quality strikers at our disposal? Why was martial made untouchable when Jose wanted him gone? It’s the owners leaving a weird squad and never fully following through to fix our glaring weaknesses. They’ll stop martial from being sold but they won’t sign a right winger or a proper young striker. What even is that? It’ll no doubt be more of the same this summer.

This

We don't have a single winger in the team and play with 3 strikers. We need players with craft and guile in the team and that includes the midfield where we're seeing Fred and McTominay playing games and both are average on the ball. Our CB pairing is also a issue.

For our team to function consistently, we need players like Grealish in the team to add to the likes of Fernandes and Pogba who are both our best players imo. Goals and assists will come as long as the build up phase is of a high level. But sadly our transitions are not of the requisite level and some players are performing very poorly but get credited due to getting a number of G/A's but those same players are contributing very poorly in the build up phase hence we look clueless against teams who defend in numbers. How can we play attacking football consistently when some of our players regularly fail in the build up phase. I'll be honest, the only player I enjoy watching play at the club is Hannibal Mejbri and that's in the 23s.

Solskjaer's doing fine right now and is on course to finish in the top 4, which is what I expected at the start of the season.

 

[wolvored]

You see players making the same moves, passes and mistakes in every game, this has to be down to coaching levels or the players are either not capable of understanding what is required or do not have the required skill level to execute what the coaches expect of them.
Looking at the squad I would say it is clearly down to the coaching staff, as I have said before our coaches do not have the level of experience to develop a team or playing systems to take us to the next level.
At this level you cannot have coaches learning on the job as we have in Carrick and Fletcher, plus I believe that we have a manager who has taken the team as far as he can, however, I cannot see him leaving anytime soon and if that is the case then we need to improve the quality of our coaching staff to work with him.

That sums it up in a nutshell. What other big team would do this? A novice manager at the top level could survive with proper experienced coaches around him. An experienced manager at the top level could survive blooding in inexperienced coaches, but a novice manager and novice coaches are bound to fail at the top level, admittedly we do have Phelan. We already tried going down this route after Fergie and we all know how that ended.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

This

We don't have a single winger in the team and play with 3 strikers. We need players with craft and guile in the team and that includes the midfield where we're seeing Fred and McTominay playing games and both are average on the ball. Our CB pairing is also a issue.

For our team to function consistently, we need players like Grealish in the team to add to the likes of Fernandes and Pogba who are both our best players imo. Goals and assists will come as long as the build up phase is of a high level. But sadly our transitions are not of the requisite level and some players are performing very poorly but get credited due to getting a number of G/A's but those same players are contributing very poorly in the build up phase hence we look clueless against teams who defend in numbers. How can we play attacking football consistently when some of our players regularly fail in the build up phase. I'll be honest, the only player I enjoy watching play at the club is Hannibal Mejbri and that's in the 23s.

Solskjaer's doing fine right now and is on course to finish in the top 4, which is what I expected at the start of the season.

As I said Fred and Scottie are the proverbial water carriers, hard working and lots of energy, who should be doing the donkey work for a magician in midfield. Trouble with that is you really only need one of them along with that magician and a quality DM. Ole is convinced he can turn them into the ultimate DM's.

 

[::sonny::]

Absolutely terrible, unreal to pay them

 

[PoTMS]

So how does one apply to be a first team coach for Manchester United? You obviously don't need any coaching qualifications or experience.

 

[berbatrick]

It’s weird how everyone universally acknowledges that 2 or 3 real quality signings is what got Liverpool over the line from challenging to dominating. Our recruitment has been way off for years and Ole has us close(ish) while going into the season with Rashford Martial Greenwood and Cavani as our strikers/wingers. Not an ounce of creativity there and it should have been addressed last summer but it never is

The most prolific front 3 in the league last season? With an additional world-class striker? Do you think all 4 have collectively decided to be shit this season, just for the heck of it?

 

[Ali Dia]

This

We don't have a single winger in the team and play with 3 strikers. We need players with craft and guile in the team and that includes the midfield where we're seeing Fred and McTominay playing games and both are average on the ball. Our CB pairing is also a issue.

For our team to function consistently, we need players like Grealish in the team to add to the likes of Fernandes and Pogba who are both our best players imo. Goals and assists will come as long as the build up phase is of a high level. But sadly our transitions are not of the requisite level and some players are performing very poorly but get credited due to getting a number of G/A's but those same players are contributing very poorly in the build up phase hence we look clueless against teams who defend in numbers. How can we play attacking football consistently when some of our players regularly fail in the build up phase. I'll be honest, the only player I enjoy watching play at the club is Hannibal Mejbri and that's in the 23s.

Solskjaer's doing fine right now and is on course to finish in the top 4, which is what I expected at the start of the season.

Crowd Bruno out and sit deep and it makes our team look like Fergie’s teams of old when we were desperately chasing at the end of games.we just keep pumping it direct and throw on as many attackers as possible to try and knick it but we are almost doing this from the start of games now and taking creativity from the midfield to compensate. endlessly going through the motions with 3 strikers and Bruno all cancelling each other out, standing around waiting for Bruno to bail us out. We created the worse chances of the 2 teams today despite all our pressure. We don’t really have gears to go up or you would have seen them today. We had them penned back for the whole game and then nothing...

unless the other team just plays into our hands and has a go at us on the ground we look very reluctant to get any way physical or creative beyond running straight into them, playing right through the middle trying to score the perfect goal or simply leaving it to Bruno. Ole obviously knows this as he was willing to spend 120 on Sancho and went for haaland a year ago. we’ve already got some good players on the books and if any of them have a strong game that’s enough to beat quite a lot of the teams in this league but looking at our current players strengths and weaknesses it’s never going to gel and give you a CL or PL winning formula. It’s on the owners that our roster is lacking in that bit of creative magic and cohesion but I genuinely feel we are only 2/3 signings away from having an excellent team with a much more likeable, young and hardworking core than when Ole came in.

Rashford needs major competition next season. Martial sadly needs moving on. I’d say they know that themselves. They can’t be watching these games back thinking they are doing well but why is Rashford still being so selfish then? Frustration? Poor game intelligence? He’s one of the most frustrating and wasteful players of the lot. He has good numbers but he would want to as he is our most wasteful player by far. Each one of them is earning more than the West Brom back 5 combined for context... crazy enough.

the biggest plus for me, as gutted as this team has made me at times this season, is before Ole and Bruno came along we were absolutely miles off. Now it’s all there within touching distance again. if our owners don’t self sabotage and actually leave managing the squad up to the people who work with these players every day then we can absolutely challenge at the highest level with 2/3 proper signings. I finally trust in the process with Ole and I can see now more clearly than ever that the ownership has been holding us back over the years. It’s easy blame a manager or 2 for not getting us back while we are spending so much but anything beyond that is basic organisational failure. It’s on the owners and it always has been.

 

[tomaldinho1]

I was talking about this game and people talking in certainties.

We'd win the league with Pep but we're unlikely to challenge City while he's there with an unlimited cheque book.

The guys had the perfect managerial seat and he’s five seasons in, has 2 PL and an FA cup plus some Coca Cola cups. He’s hardly dominated the league. Pep is clearly a top manager but Conte and Klopp have both shown two very different styles which were good enough to win the league.

Pep will always have a competitive advantage but talented coaches will be able to compete. We’ve just hired awfully from a managerial perspective and a personnel perspective. Our issue is not Peps brilliance it is our own repeated mistakes.

 

[Ali Dia]

The most prolific front 3 in the league last season? With an additional world-class striker? Do you think all 4 have collectively decided to be shit this season, just for the heck of it?

honestly I feel like that end to the season was an anomaly. Who did we play that was a tricky opponent? Spurs- draw. Leicester, scrappy game with Kasper mistake sealing it. We choked and played well within ourselves through out most of the run in and if we were actually that good we should have beat Sevilla and destroyed Copenhagen. I’d say they couldn’t believe their luck at what showed up. They were way overhyped on the back of that scrappy run. Where would Ole, Rashford or Martial be if Bruno hadn’t come in or Greenwood hadn’t stepped up. Fine fine margins. The sloppy play at the end of the season just continued into this season and we haven’t been able to kick on and Cavani was never going to enough. We are lucky he’s even done as well as he has. Seems like the owners thought we were good enough to rest on our laurels anyway...

 

[DomesticTadpole]

honestly I feel like that end to the season was an anomaly. Who did we play that was a tricky opponent? Spurs- draw. Leicester, scrappy game with Kasper mistake sealing it. Where would Ole, Rashford or Martial be if Bruno hadn’t come in or Greenwood hadn’t stepped up. Fine fine margins.

If Bruno has come in we wouldn't have been anywhere near Top 4.

 

[Cheimoon]

I was curious about attacking patterns, and I suppose this is the right thread for that. I don't watch the games, but I see the goals on here. Like these from the last few weeks:

Man Utd 1:0 Everton - Cavani (24')

Man Utd 2:0 Everton - Bruno (45')

West Brom 1:1 Man Utd - Bruno (44')

Like in these videos, what often strikes me is that United's possession play seems pretty passive. (NB: I am talking about regular possession, not the initial counter attack or free kicks.) People pass a ball and stand still, waiting to see what happens next. There isn't much interchange happening elsewhere either - until someone decides to make a move and play takes off again. That doesn't seem very strong to me. Is this just a very poor sample that happens to lead to goals, or is this common? Cause yeah, this sort of passivity would make it difficult to break down defensive teams.

 

[Leftback99]

The guys had the perfect managerial seat and he’s five seasons in, has 2 PL and an FA cup plus some Coca Cola cups. He’s hardly dominated the league. Pep is clearly a top manager but Conte and Klopp have both shown two very different styles which were good enough to win the league.

Pep will always have a competitive advantage but talented coaches will be able to compete. We’ve just hired awfully from a managerial perspective and a personnel perspective. Our issue is not Peps brilliance it is our own repeated mistakes.

This is his 5th season, about to win his 3rd PL, didn't win it in his first and took a freak season from Liverpool to beat them last.

They will start next season as odds on favourites, probably with a new striker. Any manager we employ will do well to even get close to them.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I was curious about attacking patterns, and I suppose this is the right thread for that. I don't watch the games, but I see the goals on here. Like these from the last few weeks:

Man Utd 1:0 Everton - Cavani (24')

Man Utd 2:0 Everton - Bruno (45')

West Brom 1:1 Man Utd - Bruno (44')

Like in these videos, what often strikes me is that United's possession play seems pretty passive. (NB: I am talking about regular possession, not the initial counter attack or free kicks.) People pass a ball and stand still, waiting to see what happens next. There isn't much interchange happening elsewhere either - until someone decides to make a move and play takes off again. That doesn't seem very strong to me. Is this just a very poor sample that happens to lead to goals, or is this common? Cause yeah, this sort of passivity would make it difficult to break down defensive teams.

Agree we are too slow moving the ball, so defensive sides can easily get back into shape.

 

[Ali Dia]

I was curious about attacking patterns, and I suppose this is the right thread for that. I don't watch the games, but I see the goals on here. Like these from the last few weeks:

Man Utd 1:0 Everton - Cavani (24')

Man Utd 2:0 Everton - Bruno (45')

West Brom 1:1 Man Utd - Bruno (44')

Like in these videos, what often strikes me is that United's possession play seems pretty passive. (NB: I am talking about regular possession, not the initial counter attack or free kicks.) People pass a ball and stand still, waiting to see what happens next. There isn't much interchange happening elsewhere either - until someone decides to make a move and play takes off again. That doesn't seem very strong to me. Is this just a very poor sample that happens to lead to goals, or is this common? Cause yeah, this sort of passivity would make it difficult to break down defensive teams.

I sound like a broken record but apart from Fred the scapegoat we have absolutely zero tempo in the middle. It becomes pedestrian and overly direct at the same time. We still have too many players trying to be the hero and playing for themselves.

 

[TheMagicFoolBus]

I sound like a broken record but apart from Fred the scapegoat we have absolutely zero tempo in the middle. It becomes pedestrian and overly direct at the same time. We still have too many players trying to be the hero and playing for themselves.

No one in your midfield can actually progress the ball when Pogba is out. All game you were relying on Maguire to lumber forward down the left channel so he could draw a defender towards him before playing a 5 yard sideways layoff pass. When's the last time anyone who wasn't Bruno even attempted a penetrative pass?

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I sound like a broken record but apart from Fred the scapegoat we have absolutely zero tempo in the middle. It becomes pedestrian and overly direct at the same time. We still have too many players trying to be the hero and playing for themselves.

Definitely agree with that. Too many want to score The Goal of the Season. Too many don't bother looking up to see if there is anybody in a better position.

 

[tomaldinho1]

This is his 5th season, about to win his 3rd PL, didn't win it in his first and took a freak season from Liverpool to beat them last.

They will start next season as odds on favourites, probably with a new striker. Any manager we employ will do well to even get close to them.

Of course - he will always have a competitive advantage because he doesn't really have to care if his transfers work out or not but why should any manager do well to get close to him? Klopp spent less and won a PL and a CL all in the time he's been here. Conte won a PL and FA cup. Very different styles of football. The league is as weak as I can remember it right now, this is when longer term planning and having the right coach in place is key. We have a really good squad, some genuinely class players but we are severely behind tactically - that's on United as a football club.

Is he a great manager? Without doubt. Is there only one great manager in the world? No.

 

[Foxbatt]

I really don't know what they are doing? Even teams like Brighton play better football.
It's time Lindelof and Maguire gets dumped.
Then we should get better players than Fred and McTominay. None of them can pass.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I was curious about attacking patterns, and I suppose this is the right thread for that. I don't watch the games, but I see the goals on here. Like these from the last few weeks:

Man Utd 1:0 Everton - Cavani (24')

Man Utd 2:0 Everton - Bruno (45')

West Brom 1:1 Man Utd - Bruno (44')

Like in these videos, what often strikes me is that United's possession play seems pretty passive. (NB: I am talking about regular possession, not the initial counter attack or free kicks.) People pass a ball and stand still, waiting to see what happens next. There isn't much interchange happening elsewhere either - until someone decides to make a move and play takes off again. That doesn't seem very strong to me. Is this just a very poor sample that happens to lead to goals, or is this common? Cause yeah, this sort of passivity would make it difficult to break down defensive teams.

When we played Red Bull, i was really impressed with how they (Red Bull) moved. It is subtle, like the difference between a good lager and an average one.

If you go back and watch the first half of that match and see the way they move to create opportunities, that is really what we should be liked. We ended up beating them well due to the counter attack. Then we somehow ended up not going through.

With us under Ole it is good individual play. We are not creating opportunities because of collective play.

 

[Hugh Jass]

With Bayern, Red Bull, City, Liverpool last year, Ajax, maybe there is more, it is all methodical in how they create chances. There is method to it.

With us, it is down to individual brilliance. Either through the assister or the scorer himself.

 

[Isotope]

See what you mean. No chance while Pep is at City.

Hmm.. City is not the current league holder. Liverpool and Leicester have proved that you don't need to overspend others to win.

Also United under SAF wasn't the biggest spender every season.

 

[arnie_ni]

With Bayern, Red Bull, City, Liverpool last year, Ajax, maybe there is more, it is all methodical in how they create chances. There is method to it.

With us, it is down to individual brilliance. Either through the assister or the scorer himself.

This right here..to often we rely on a moment of brilliance, mainly from Bruno

 

[Hugh Jass]

This right here..to often we rely on a moment of brilliance, mainly from Bruno

And going by his celebration i think he is getting fed up with having to bail us out all the time.

 

[arnie_ni]

And going by his celebration i think he is getting fed up with having to bail us out all the time.

He was definitely very frustrated all game. Seen on twitter he was meant to have had a blowout with ole as well

 

[dave1956]

In one section of our play to day De Gea feeds Maguire, there are then a series of 6 passes in which the ball does not travel forward and ends back with Maguire who has not moved since having started the passing move.

 

[Odin]

I was curious about attacking patterns, and I suppose this is the right thread for that. I don't watch the games, but I see the goals on here. Like these from the last few weeks:

Man Utd 1:0 Everton - Cavani (24')

Man Utd 2:0 Everton - Bruno (45')

West Brom 1:1 Man Utd - Bruno (44')

Like in these videos, what often strikes me is that United's possession play seems pretty passive. (NB: I am talking about regular possession, not the initial counter attack or free kicks.) People pass a ball and stand still, waiting to see what happens next. There isn't much interchange happening elsewhere either - until someone decides to make a move and play takes off again. That doesn't seem very strong to me. Is this just a very poor sample that happens to lead to goals, or is this common? Cause yeah, this sort of passivity would make it difficult to break down defensive teams.

This is my main gripe with our play as well. I don't know if it is tactical (sudden speed change?) or lackadaisical, but I believe our players should be more on the front foot, making themselves useful and tearing defenses apart by diagonal, curved or even lateral runs between opponents lines. I get a sense it is something which is being worked on without bearing full fruits so far.

It requires a huge mental shift going from being a low block, defensive, ball hugging team to actually dominating others through inventive, yet effective attacking play. Maybe some of our players are still getting there, some never will, and the management is still working on getting this through to the entire squad?

When I and other forum members so easily can identify this issue, I struggle to think our management doesn't see it. If they do work on this, and have the skills and means to succeed, I believe we may come good with a little more time and preferably 3-4 key signings (starting RW, DM and CB, rotational RB). Whether we do, I guess we'll see in season 21/22.

To be realistic, rebuilding our team after our previous managers was always going to be a project running over a couple of seasons. Still seeing an upward trajectory, still not content. Onwards and upwards!

 

[croadyman]

Because you need time. As a manger you need time. People in here love to put Klopp to the clouds but don't mention that he needed 4-5 (!) years to bring some trophy to Liverpool. Managers need time. 2 season making a team in ManUtd and 3rd season showing full capacity.

I would have let Moyes have time IF he hadn't changed whole backroom staff. He did the worst thing he could do and that is changing a title winning staff for Everton people. That alone should have been sackable offence.


Then you don't need to worry yet. We are 2nd and we will be top 4. I predicted top 3.

We are showing progress and if we can manage to be 2nd we would have come 3rd, 2nd with Solskjaer. Next stop? You know what it is.

Ole is not in the same league as Klopp and never will be and this comparison of their respective times at Utd & Liverpool really needs to stop before gullible people start actually believing it

 

[Ali Dia]

With Bayern, Red Bull, City, Liverpool last year, Ajax, maybe there is more, it is all methodical in how they create chances. There is method to it.

With us, it is down to individual brilliance. Either through the assister or the scorer himself.

I was saying this in another thread a while back. We have been set up like Real Madrid lite over the last few years. We assumed because we are paying world class wages we’d get a world class return. Whether we take the next step is purely based on what we go and do in the market. If are decisive then I think the team is very close to being a top team again. I have the worst feeling our owners will just continue to play it safe while we are qualifying for the CL. They love monitoring a situation to be fair!

The team has too many holes, anyone can see it, to get those consistent attacking performances. We need competition, creativity and dynamics in the wide forward positions and a proper long term striker to plan our game around. At the end of the day if they can’t make enough quality chances for each other to beat West Brom and Sheffield Utd then we are on a hiding to nothing with the current blend of personnel. Cavani is a total hero but he shouldn’t be having to carry us. Once again will the owners act? I don’t think so. It’s always grand plans every summer and then the slog The covid excuse is perfect for them to keep paying themselves the exact same but blatantly cut corners with the squad, so that’s what they’ll probably do. They’ll half arse it and end up overpaying for RIce or someone like that and our play won’t improve. If Ole got his way we’d be watching haaland and sancho twice a week. That would be sweet as.

the one major major plus here though is the youth setup. It’s a seriously exciting bunch. I’d love to see a few of them get a real shot from next season. If they are ready Ole will but I’d like to see him take a few more risks. They can’t come on and do much worse than this lot anyway!

 

[berbatrick]

honestly I feel like that end to the season was an anomaly. Who did we play that was a tricky opponent? Spurs- draw. Leicester, scrappy game with Kasper mistake sealing it. We choked and played well within ourselves through out most of the run in and if we were actually that good we should have beat Sevilla and destroyed Copenhagen. I’d say they couldn’t believe their luck at what showed up. They were way overhyped on the back of that scrappy run. Where would Ole, Rashford or Martial be if Bruno hadn’t come in or Greenwood hadn’t stepped up. Fine fine margins. The sloppy play at the end of the season just continued into this season and we haven’t been able to kick on and Cavani was never going to enough. We are lucky he’s even done as well as he has. Seems like the owners thought we were good enough to rest on our laurels anyway...

It wasn't just the results, it was the football too. The goals were being scored by forwards who aren't scoring now, but they were at the end of moves and passes and movement which are also missing. For me that shows the difference is more than poor form for the forwards.
Yes, Bruno was a big part, and Pogba was orchestrating from deep, but many of the front 3 were assisting each other too, and even before Bruno came it was true*. Hardly ever happened this season, they all try to go on their own, and the combinations rarely come off. No idea how they "choked" given the points tally and finishing 3rd. The only really bad performances were the 1st half vs Spurs (before Pogba came on) and the FA Cup vs Chelsea. 2 of ~15 games.

The Copenhagen game was indeed poor, and vs Sevilla the attack was poor, but it was a dominant midfield performance for most of the match against a very good team. That's also been missing from most big games this season (the exception being parts of the FA Cup game vs Liverpool).

I thought some of the issues at the end of the season were to do with fatigue, and a break would improve that, but neither the goalscoring form nor the attacking combinations have returned.

*Tons of examples here, also a nice watch compared to the matches now: