I was always expecting a down turn. Everything has one. But what was real is that we have a team that can compete. When Mane is back they're all there, the same players and they haven't suddenly become shitte so we can get back to that.
Did you expect such a steep downturn? Slipping in the league and out of both domestic competitions before the end of Jan?
I don't blame the players and I agree they haven't suddenly become bad players. But there's something wrong somwehere which has resulted in us not being able to compete against lower league teams let alone premiership ones. I don't think that can be explained away as a downturn. the problems appear to be deeper... player metality, squad depth, gameplan, transfer policy.
It's no good simply having a great first eleven that always plays the same way and can't cope when opposing teams adopt tactics to thwart our strengths. We need players who can come into the first eleven without impacting quality, perhaps offer a different style, and a squad that produces results irrespective of which eleven are selected.
