Posted this in the matchday thread, but probably more relevant here -
I posted yesterday saying the problem was a dip in form from key attacking players and wasn't down to our CB situation but, thinking about the game again, I've changed my mind. What made me realise was the first 10 or 15 minutes of the 2nd half, when we came out like our old selves and had a go at them - Trent pushed up the right, we got players in the box, and for a brief period looked like we would score pretty quickly. Southampton then had one good counter-attack, and we went right back in our shell. Why?
Myself, and a lot of us, have been underestimating how much nerve it takes to play our high press. It leaves us at serious risk of counter-attacks if we don't get it right (as we saw against Villa). Right now, with no CBs on the pitch and lacking the recovery pace of Virgil and Gomez (and even Matip), our players are feeling they can't risk all out attack. Trent in particular is staying back (maybe under Jürgen's instructions) to try and cover. So we are losing our right flank of attack, and Mo is getting completely isolated. This is what is killing us offensively. It is absolutely no coincidence that the sudden drop in our form has followed us losing Matip. Our lack of a CB is not costing us so much defensively, but it is taking away a huge part of our attack, and our high press in general.
So we absolutely need a CB in this window - one with good recovery pace. (In the meantime, I would say that of the last 3 games, the one where we were least bad going forward was against Newcastle. It's far from conclusive, but at least suggests that Phillips may be the best of our existing options in terms of making the players feel they can press high.)
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