verlaine1979

We've looked utterly toothless from the start of the season. This isn't a Christmas slump, it's the continuation of a performance level that has persisted since August with only a few flattering scorelines decieving the optimists. Reminds me of after the boro game when the view that it was a rubbish performance papered over by a world class strike was widely derided. Can the truth of that verdict really be denied now with half the season played and the team averaging a goal from open play only once every other game?

Are you happy with the quality of football we're playing at the moment? If not, do you genuinely believe it is simply a case of the players all unanimously deciding not to put any effort in? Even if that improbable situation were true (rather than the more likely issue with formation & tactics) why would they all suddenly decide to down tools so (un)spectacularly?

It increasingly looks like we're just not good enough to play 4-3-3. We lack the players and the confidence for this formation, so it turns into a turgid 4-5-1 with heavily congested midfield, no options when pressed, and no creativity. There's clearly a reason almost all the mid-table teams in Europe settled on 4-2-3-1 a few years ago and have rarely deviated since... Koeman also turned in some rubbish performances last season, but he wasn't afraid to try different tactics when our standard set-up didnt' seem to be working - it's worrying that Puel doesn't seem to have the same willingness to adapt.

This captures the team's problems pretty well. We're a possession-based team who are scared of being pressed, and it shows in our absolute inability to create chances. When we have the ball, we tend to play it around at the back for fear of someone giving it away, and when we're pressed we just send it back to Forster, who is expected to give it away most of the time, so that's okay. Spurs put us under sustained pressure for periods of five or ten minutes at a time, and even Everton managed it once they improved the quality of balls into Lukaku. I know we've had a few games where we've torn out of the blocks early and put opponents under pressure, but when was the last time we really camped out on the edge of the area the way other teams are doing to us at the moment? We just don't seem to have the nerve or technique for it.

Their young midfielder Davies already looks a fair bit more influential than most of our CMs.

Can we maybe put our best attacker on now, please? It's okay if Boufal is a bit tired on his flight to the AFCON.

Rubbish, Davis was caught dallying in possession more than any other player. Not that JWP did much - midfield lacked strength, pace and drive all game.

Presumably you'd agree though that the margins of success are much wider and more secure with a 4-1 win than a 1-0 win, so it's better to aspire to the former rather than rely on the latter?

Like a lot of our players, he wants a look at every possible pass before committing, which more often than not leads to the easy backwards or sideways one being the only one left open.

Davis, Tadic & JRod all a bit hit and miss as finishers - I'd imagine VVD probably strikes a clean penalty, which is half the battle.

Clasie also put in another good performance, and Boufal once again did his best work centrally. With his close control, link-up play and ability to shoot, he needs to see as much of the ball as possible.

Always great to come from behind to win away from home, especially with JRod getting the deserved reward for his improved performances over the past couple of weeks. Davis put in a better performance than I've seen from him in two years, and if he played like that week in week out, I'd be happy to see his name on the team sheet. Oh, and a special mention for PEH, who was utterly abject in the first half and a powerhouse in the second - impressive to have the character and ability to turn it around like that.

Credit where it's due - lovely from Davis.

Peppering the opposition box with crosses seems to be more or less our only attacking tactic at the moment. It wasn't working particularly well before Austin got injured, and is working even less well now. We're boring because we've become predictable - you could argue that as ineffective as they usually were, Pelle's flicks from long balls at least occasionally carried the potential to wrong-foot the defence and create overlaps. Having Martina and Bertrand lob in hopeful balls from 25 yards out on the wing against a well-set defence is only ever going to lead to comfortable clearances, as we saw for 99% of the game on Wednesday night.

Our movement is pretty poor up front. It all seems very reactive rather than anticipatory - lots of standing still and waiting to see where a pass is going before making any sort of move.

Despite the fact that JWP's passing and movement have been far more incisive than Davis's?

Really enjoying all his driving runs tonight too.

Someone else was suggesting a similar formation (only their reference point was Barcelona rather than Liverpool). Think we have the front three to play this kind of formation, but not the midfield. You need at least one or preferably two in the midfield three who are comfortable bringing the ball to the edge of the box, otherwise the front three spend the game complete isolated, or end up falling back so deep that they have to beat several defenders to get back into goal scoring positions.

Did we really switch to 4-2-3-1 on Sunday? Mostly it looked like we were still trying to play 4-3-3, but whoever was meant to be playing as the right hand of the front three (Boufal while he was on, presumably) just decided to spend more time in the middle than out wide.

Neither of them make a lot of runs on the ball - according to WhoScored, Romeu makes twice as many dribbles as either Davis or JWP, and based on watching them all, I'm surprised the delta isn't higher. Davis will run into space on the break when it's clearly open ahead of him, but he rarely looks to take on opponents and surge past people into the space beyond them.

Boufal pinging in a world class strike and Boro missing an open goal don't really paper over the cracks in our attacking play that much. That said, when Boufal popped up in the middle second half, it was hard not to imagine how good we could look with a front four of Tadic, Boufal, Redmond - JRod playing in our old 4-2-3-1.

Wasn't Fischer regarded as the new Eriksen at one point? Presumably taking over as #10 from Gaston today.

4 for Morgan, 2 for Cork, 3 for Wanyama in the league in Koeman's first season. Our central midfielders haven't been especially prolific at any point since we've returned. Taking the position as a whole, it usually accounts for around 8 goals over the course of a season. This season, our central midfield has contributed a single league goal so far, suggesting that if we're lucky and round up, we might see a total of 3 by the end of the season.

I'm not talking about formations, but I'm pretty sure I've been complaining about our midfield playing high possession, low-threat football since Poch's last season in charge. We haven't really had any goals from the middle since Morgan left, while for better or worse, Davis is as central to the midfield as he's ever been, with all the hard work and caution that entails. Last night we created almost nothing until we started playing with both CBs joining in up front, and we've hardly been creating boatloads of gilt-edged chances over the course of the last ten games or so. I'm not sure I see a whole lot different between this season and last in terms of midfield play, but our play in the final third is very different without Mane's unpredictability and Pelle's physical presence (even though his flicks rarely came off).

Oh, please.