This week in particular the finger points to the team more than the manager as they have to now find it within themselves the thing which made each and everyone of them great players. Although people will never agree on team selection and formations etc we put out a side against Wolves which should be able to live with mid-table opposition no problem and with some serious games already played the team should be gelling.
Before peering deeply into the individual performances and lack of cohesion let us look at this from Manuel Pellegrini’s perspective. He arrived and instantly lost Lanzini who is a key key player, someone who carries the ball into the box and makes things happen. He then lost Carroll who is a game changing substitute and dogged defender in times of peril. His apparent idea to have a storming left-hand side has been shot by the fact that Masuaku really cannot defend and Cresswell’s form has been so bad I don’t think any of us realised things had got that bad until the Wolves game. This means Anderson has nobody to link with, the sale of Kouyate means nobody can bring the ball from deep and pass; Obiang might be able to do that now but he also appears to have suffered from a peculiar dip in form in training. The right-hand side see’s Fredericks looking a bit raw and Zabaletta looking a tiny bit past it, no in-between, and the centre backs which looked strong as a squad are now depleted as Reid got injured and Ogbonna has strangely suffered some kind of crisis of confidence after being ever-present. It can’t be easy being a football manager and the facial expressions of recent shots of MP show that he is acutely aware that we are in an uncontrolled spin and he is the pilot who must stabilise the craft, only problem is the altitude meter is now saying Avram Grant and the time is a ticking. Of course two wins and we could go tenth so this is not about panicking it is about going forward constructively.
The key issue arising from the Wolves game was the inability of the players to move and pass and generally understand what one-another were doing. This led to a lack of possession and a breakdown of all key attacking moves. In the first half it gradually got worse and at times felt like Wolves had more players, both keepers were good but although Wolves had much more of the ball our defence looked ok most of the time but we just didn’t convince on the front foot. Sanchez looked happier when passing from deep and Wilshere looked continuously for short passes and triangles but ended up with very little opportunity for an outlet. On the right Fredericks was berated by the crowd frequently for not moving or passing quick enough with the ball and did look dodgy defensively when challenged. On the left mostly saw an off-form Antonio and Cresswell running into brick walls.
Isn’t Shearer an arse.
The MOTD Shearer analysis really caught Cresswell out this time, don’t get me wrong the two Trev’s aside I dislike MOTD pundits as much as the next man but unfortunately Shearer was correct with that particular conclusion. However the decision to try and make Arnie look lazy when he was trying to remain open to receive the ball was typical predictable lazy (not Alan Shearer but number 9) criticism, completely at a whim as there is no way Shearer watched the game properly as a neutral and if he did I don’t care as he is an arse anyway. I didn’t like the way the team were made out to be lazy, after a 100mill overhaul, a new manager and the pressure on the squad there is no way there is a dressing room attitude of being idol. Some of the players just really don’t seem to be cognitively tuned to the frequency of the team harmonic and this was solved under Moyes to a certain limitation but is now back even worse. Pellegrini has won titles but this could be the Ivan Drago of all challenges for the Chilean, we got him in to surpass the supposed perceived limitation of domestic managers such as Moyes and Sam; I back him but he needs to use the international break wisely.
What didn’t go so well.
Antonio’s particular contribution to the game Saturday was extra-ordinary, for a player of his suggested quality I have very rarely seen someone underperform so completely while remaining on the pitch well into the second half. I have never been too critical of Antonio in the past as he is the one player who has fringed on the England squad and scored some memorable goals for us when it most mattered, there has to be something going on here and I worry his confidence on the ball has never recovered from some traumatic outings as right back under Bilic. Not only was his touch to beat players simply not there he was running head down into simple block tackles seemingly void of the nouse we have all seen with our own eyes in past albeit limited occasions.
The other thing which got me with Antonio was how he was used when we were attacking, there were times in the second half where he was running sideways across the pitch back and forth parallel with the penalty area in what seemed like an attempt to secure later phase possession but actually resulted in him looking like a dog chasing sticks which have not actually been thrown. It brought back memories of players who actually did that very effectively and with consummate ease, legends such as Martin Allen, Scott Parker and Valon Behrami would sometimes do this in their own unique ways winning and mopping up possession while quickly reigniting an attacking move. Antonio shouldn’t be doing this and until he can find the skill and belief which made him a first-team player originally and go back to creating and finishing chances he is of little use to anyone it saddens me to say.
On the plus side.
On the plus side and just to make us all feel a bit better about ourselves Yarmolenko continues to show promising touches and I’ve had a look at the sort of player Yarmolenko is by searching a few old stories. It’s nothing we don’t already know but I thought I would just say that this player is of premier pedigree football-wise. He has countless caps for Ukraine and scored goals against Germany and Switzerland in friendlies and against France in a world cup qualifier. He also has another 32 international goals and numerous domestic honours. Yarmolenko was most famous for a fierce and bitter rivalry with another player which was seemingly resolved with a handshake and shirt swap but Yarmolenko famously threw the shirt on the floor and turned his back choosing to applaud his own supporters which sent a fair bit of stick his way in the local press. This shows a player who is motivated by the levels of desire and belief which is needed to succeed and win.
There are BBC news articles from 2017 suggesting Everton and Liverpool wanting to pay big money for him and Dortmund themselves are no small outfit. This is the sort of player who can be a legend and a hero for the next five years if used correctly and is someone who wants to win and wants to succeed in the Premier League, let us pray we don’t mess up this chance to get a properly decent player firing on all 12 cylinders.
The other clearly talented player who didn’t quite progress as much as hoped this week was Anderson. Now Anderson is clearly quality and there are some questions regarding his best position but I think we possibly learned something else Saturday and that is Anderson is not comfortable unless team mates make themselves open to passes, I’m convinced this results from playing in Italy where the emphasis is a lot more on pass and go rather than run and find a pass. Stats on whoscored.com already show a slight improvement when Anderson is played centrally instead of on the left. It is only four games in so not too statistically significant at the moment but they also indicate his overall performance for Lazio in the last three seasons averaged above 7.5 by their indicators where he played as a number 10 while this season it is currently at 6.99 so plenty of improvement can be expected as he adjusts further to the Premier League.
Who will feel the icy chop of the balsa wood axe of indecision?
So who’s turn is it to be blamed and axed for the next game, only to be reselected the following week when the other bloke does no better? Well it could be a return of the Zab and Masuaku, I hope Sanchez avoids the chop on the basis he understands that nothing like this absolutely must never ever happen again armen but I think we will benefit from Rice returning and can see maybe Snodgrass and Antonio missing out. Who knows but one thing’s for sure we have to start improving soon, I thought we were going to hang on against the odds Saturday but it didn’t happen; the lack of wi-fi in the stadium at least on my network has cost me a fortune in unplaced in-play bets. The minute Traore came on I knew he would score, the last time I had such a premonition it was to put a quid on Sakho’s agent’s horse at Chelmsford and that came home at 9/2! It could only happen at West Ham.