The way our defence (fullbacks in particular) are performing at the moment I think 4-4-2 has to be the option. Costa and Cuads on the wing.
It really is a miracle we’re 2nd in the league and qualified for the CL last 16. There’s not credit there for Sarri at all, he’s contributed nothing but removing all cohesion from this team.
You look at Atalanta, Inter and Lazio.
They look like teams, they know what they are doing, they have a plan. You look at us, we are completely aimless and rudderless.
I think a lot of emotion is clouding judgement here
We recently changed coaches and are moving to a completely different philosophy
Inter changed to Conte but his system is far easier to get down, he is great at motivating which really works better early on.
We have as multiple players have said completely changed the way we defend which will take time as will new defensive pairings and overall playing with a different back 4.
When we look good we look great, we move the ball well, play a lot more through the centre of the pitch than we did last year with a lot more one twos, better counters Etc.
We concede more because we take more risk, while this isn't paying off always at the moment it is something that we will (should) improve on with time as well as what was mentioned above. This time last year a majority agreed that we need to accept the risk of conceding more in order to play a style of football that is more successful in Europe.
Right now we are first in the league (head to head) and we topped our champions league group. Of course it could all go to shit just like it could for any team but at the same time, maybe, just maybe, as we recover players from injury the systems in place might click.
There are certainly things we need to improve but the positive is that we have a lot of room for improvement, let's see if we do. Right now all the major trophies are in play let's see how we progress.
It's too easy to say no credit can be given to the coach if we win, just as it's too easy to say it's all the coaches fault that we lost (barring horrific player selection, tactics and substitutions). I didn't see either today, I saw a team that was off the pace and not concentrated which is on both the players and coach. However, it's not the end of the world.