At the moment our play is sloppy, disjointed and painfully slow. We have no rhythm, no fluency in our game and our passing accuracy stats must be at all time recent low.
I've pointed out many times here that we have structural problems.
One of them is
passing accuracy. We can't have either rhytm or fluency in our game as long as our passing accuracy is criminally low compared to ol' good Swanselona's.
I was so disappointed with our passing in the first half against Forest that I said I'd rather watch MLS. I couldn't believe my eyes how poor we were.
Another problem is that
we don't have a proper nr. 10. We had Morgan Gibbs-White, but he played only a couple of games for us. We really need a physically strong and creative ATM. Someone who can provide through balls and attack through the middle.
Dhanda is neither physical nor creative enough. He tends to drift towards the right wing and feed Roberts who then puts crosses into opposition box. He often slows down our transitions and passes the ball backwards whenever there is a slight obstacle in front of him.
@KVetch mentioned Ayew as a possible solution, and I agree. He could play there slightly behind Morris/Whittaker and Lowe/Whittaker.
Hourihane, Fulton and Smith have always been either defensive or central midfielders. Ayew has physicality, his hold-up play is excellent, he can jump and win aerial duels, he can tackle, he can provide killer through balls, and he can score. He is a complete player, and we need a complete player in that position. Without a proper ATM we are one-dimensional. We attack mostly down the wings, and more than a half of our assists comes from our full-backs.
Third,
our pressing game is not good enough. We rarely press as a team. The consequence is two tired forwards who run and run and run, without being able to disposses opposition. Here is an example of excellent pressing:
The problem is we don't do this as often as we should. We were brave against Manchester City. If Dhanda (and some other players) had been more creative, had we not made personal mistakes, and had Woody been better at narrowing the angles, we could've beaten them.
Fourth,
we still don't know how to punish teams who press us high. I think we had more than ten opportunities to punish Manchester City, and we failed to do that. We rarely pass us out of high pressing, but being able to pass us out of high pressing should be a norm, not an exception. We panic, and we either hoof the ball or make sloppy passes. With other words, we lose possession, and invite unnecessary pressure.
