for months during this current season, i had a feeling that this team only needs one little spark and consistency to be very, very good. it's obvious that we're hard to beat, even with gatti and kalulu, neither of them at the level of bremer, let alone barza or chiellini, or savona, who played in serie c last season. we've been having multiple absences every single game, especially in attack: either chico or nico or both were injured, vlahovic scores less than expected and has no legit backup, mbamgula is like savona in terms of experience, even our 10 is a relative rookie so i thought we just needed some time and a good run of 4-5 games to get going
but it looks like it won't happen anytime soon. even though we made visible progress in multiple areas compared to last season: we're not afraid of having the ball (huge change!), we can pass the ball around very accurately, we can usually defend without our back in our own goal, and we can defend instead of just defending a lot and getting away with it
and it also turns out we're simply shit in the attacking 3rd and lack any kind of urgency to win. we massively underperform when it comes to winning the games we're expected to win, and not only based on useless fan expectations, but also measurable performance. despite being better in key stats against lesser opponents, we simply concede more than we should, and can't finish our chances. that's on experience and coaching (tactical and mental). with allegri, we were able to win matches despite being outplayed. with motta, we're almost never outplayed (only stuttgart comes to mind, bloody stuttgart lol), but we can't win despite being the better side. and we have games like yesterday when we don't even try to win, which was unacceptable with macs already. we looked like a team settled for draws against napoli, roma and brugge at least, and there might be other games i can't remember now
obviously we need to grow, this is a young team with a young coach and all that. but learning to win without knowing how to win could be a painfully long process. it might even never happen. even though motta gets it right in some elements of the game, the idea of how to win against low, organized blocks is completely lacking
i'd also bring a more experienced coach for this squad. and at least 2-3 older players. not washed out, not 35 who won everything and not hungry anymore, but more experienced. i wish kroos never retired or we could sign someone like salah (i don't give a shit about his wages), son if not fully finished, or even that prick kimmich. just add some experience because the learning curve for motta and such a young team is way too steep now
