The problem is that Mandzukic isn't really an ideal forward for counters... Dybala-Morata or even Dybala-Zaza would have been better if the idea was to counter. But Mandzu is our best CF to partner with Dybala right now, so we ended up sitting deep in the first half + and looked totally inept on the counter. And we didn't at all make use of Mandzu's ability to hold up the ball and win aerial battles against their defenders by sending long balls out from the back to limit their pressing... Instead we tried to pass our way through their pressing and failed miserably at it. Very weird tactics in the first half.
