Completely anecdotal on my part, but it seems to me the center backs have not been as sharp.
Maybe a better approach is to look at the goals we've allowed of late. Not counting the kids' match vs. Arsenal (5-5), we have surrendered one goal in each of the last eight matches.
What do you all remember about each of those eight goals. What happened? Who was culpable (if anyone)? Is there a trend there or do we just happen to have conceded eight goals in eight different ways?
Tactically astute posters - enlighten us!
It's simply that teams have worked out ways to get at us.
Our right side is weak defensively.
Neither Gomez nor Lovren are as good as Matip has been (yet), TAA for all his brilliance going forwards is not a great defender.
When teams make the game scrappy, and combine it with a high press (like Palace did on saturday) we lose a bit of rythmn.
When we get pushed back, we are sometimes a bit too "loose" because we have half an eye on a fast counter.
Add in different formations, transitions to the defensive shapes of thse formations, and you get gaps.
They're only small gaps, but at this level that's all it takes.
On the plus side, we rarely get dominated and don't give away too many clear chances.
Teams are going to score against us, they will be more up for a match because of our status, and as we've seen, that means grinding them down.
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