Feels that way.
In Buddhism they talk about us being like a cup, fundamentally clean, but prone to filling with impurity.
This may be seen in daily life, remember “The Generation Game”? In that it showed how difficult and stressful things become if you over burden the short term memory?
It feels like the players have too many thoughts in short term memory, when Conte is loading them with demands, tactics, positioning. That now they seem to close off mentally = cup full of dirt = too many things in short term memory which are not pertinent to the moment.
It felt like Stellini / backroom - Conte, unburdened them Vs City, but preserved crucial form.
Shame if this is so, but something has majorly gone wrong (Ventrone compounding it, but the slide had started before his sad passing).
The players autonomic nervous systems appear to be faulting out, from perhaps adrenal fatigue and excessive HPA demand Contes methodology has brought (though I still attribute this to environmental factors, making these things more likely to occur).
Sigh.