I think there are three concerns that work together to exacerbate our problems, and have led to a team that is right now lesser than the sum of its parts:
1) Our weaknesses are not evenly spread on the pitch. Instead they are concentrated on the back half, across our back line and at #6, leading to too many weak goals, too many leads conceded, and this leads to an overall lack of confidence in the club.
2) We consistently run out three players who are somewhere between deficient and dumb: Aurier, Lucas, and Sissoko. Aurier is a physical specimen with great speed and a great first touch, but he is brain-dead on the pitch: he commits defensive lapse after defensive lapse, and his crosses are sprayed without forethought or precision. Trippier was slow defensively, but at least his crosses were good. Lucas I will always love for Ajax, but he runs with his head down, he too frequently costs us width and runs into blind alleys, and he ends up costing Kane space to operate. He should be used strictly off the bench. And Sissoko clearly has no idea what that round thing is at his feet, especially in the final third where something like a blind panic sets in. I appreciate his motor and the desperate coverage he provides for the idiot Aurier, but he is far below the level we should aspire to.
3) I do not know how much this is related to 1 and 2, but there is something clearly wrong with the mentality of this club as constructed. Colchester, Brighton, Sheffield, so many examples of a team that seems to lack fight. I am not fully ready to let Poch and Mou off the hook, but at some point, we should admit that there is a lack of leadership and determination on this roster. Perhaps this is one more way in which the stagnation and lack of turnover from windows past have created a problem.
1) Our weaknesses are not evenly spread on the pitch. Instead they are concentrated on the back half, across our back line and at #6, leading to too many weak goals, too many leads conceded, and this leads to an overall lack of confidence in the club.
2) We consistently run out three players who are somewhere between deficient and dumb: Aurier, Lucas, and Sissoko. Aurier is a physical specimen with great speed and a great first touch, but he is brain-dead on the pitch: he commits defensive lapse after defensive lapse, and his crosses are sprayed without forethought or precision. Trippier was slow defensively, but at least his crosses were good. Lucas I will always love for Ajax, but he runs with his head down, he too frequently costs us width and runs into blind alleys, and he ends up costing Kane space to operate. He should be used strictly off the bench. And Sissoko clearly has no idea what that round thing is at his feet, especially in the final third where something like a blind panic sets in. I appreciate his motor and the desperate coverage he provides for the idiot Aurier, but he is far below the level we should aspire to.
3) I do not know how much this is related to 1 and 2, but there is something clearly wrong with the mentality of this club as constructed. Colchester, Brighton, Sheffield, so many examples of a team that seems to lack fight. I am not fully ready to let Poch and Mou off the hook, but at some point, we should admit that there is a lack of leadership and determination on this roster. Perhaps this is one more way in which the stagnation and lack of turnover from windows past have created a problem.