I know there are absentees, I know it'll take time to gel, but man alive that was tactically poor as well. Buendìa was poor, but thrust that close to Ings he was always receiving the ball with his back to goal - how is that any sort of good idea? And because of that gap between the deep two and the front two, McGinn was constantly having to play a three man midfield virtually by himself.
But the worst thing, the absolute worst thing, is that we look like we have no plans in attack. The best coaches at the best teams practice these movements, these patterns to pull apart massed defences, and even with Grealish last year we look like we have none of that. We look laboured, slow, ponderous, we spend so often with one guy on the ball just waiting in vain for a movement up front, or else trying to burst through himself because there's no structured way to do it. Our plan was always to counterattack or rely on moments of genius; well, the genius is gone, and you don't finish top 8 if all you do is counterattack.
Ramsey was bright enough when he came on and Ash looked very competent at left back, much more so than at left wing, but the damage was done. Tactically, a shocking day. And not for the first time.
