Let's be honest here as well - that fragile mentality has been there for years, and I mean years and years and years. Rafa almost cracked it in 08/09 but we still had a softness under pressure, it was never something Kenny would be able to solve in the time he's had. Funnily enough, for all that I am quite critical of him in places that is one area I'd back him to get it right given time - as an example it's impressive how well we've bounced back in terms of attitude and performance after the Spurs game, for example.
That said, there are some genuine, clear structural issues that I'm worried about. Some things were obvious fairly early into Roy's reign and there are some things that are fairly obvious now.
Firstly, it may not be a bad thing but I think we can give up on expecting a pressing game under this management. We haven't at any point set up to press systematically, our signings this summer have, if anything, reduced the number of 'pressers' in the squad so for whatever reason it just isn't the direction we're going to go in. It's also not a direction we need to go in, even though I personally would like us to. City, for example, don't really press much, and it's not exactly doing them to much harm.
The deep defensive line is more of an issue for me, and it remains a worry that Carra has been in some way involved in just about every goal we've conceded this season. More annoying still from my point of view is that yesterday's is the kind of game Coates should have started regardless, for similar reasons to why Bellamy should have (and of course did) start. These are games where we can and should rotate, as it stands if Coates isn't starting in games like yesterday's we can safely assume that we won't be seeing him it all unless it's the Carling Cup or there's an injury crisis. That lack of pro-activity in rotation is a problem and will be an issue in developing the young players we have if it continues. It's particularly odd because Kenny's shown himself to be very, and excellently at times, versatile in his selection policy.
I also thought we missed Lucas a bit yesterday - just noticable that they had time and space where Lucas usually patrols, and I was thinking that even in that dominant early spell where we could and should have blown them out of the water. That side of the performance definitely lends weight to those who have long advocated, if you like, 'taking the shackles off' and playing without a DM. It certainly can work, but we'd need to take our chances.
That was obviously our biggest problem yesterday, but to me that lack of composure in front of goal is at least partially rooted in our complete inability to keep clean sheets. The difference between conceding 0 regularly and conceding 1 regularly is absolutely massive. Put simply, a goal is the absolute minimum we need at the moment to even get a result, so all our attackers go onto the field under tremendous pressure to score twice.
Compare that to when you have a really solid back 4, you can pile on the pressure knowing that one goal will usually be enough, and after that first goal goes in a tremendous weight gets lifted off the shoulders. Under Rafa, for example, it was always that first goal that was so crucial - we often blew teams to pieces if we scored early because we knew that they were unlikely to come back from a goal down. As it stands we, instead, no that one goal is never going to be enough.
I think given time we are building a team that will have the potential to blow lesser sides out of the water, but to get there we're going to need real confidence in a settled back 4. We don't have that at the moment, though I personally believe we have the players to really build towards it, but they aren't being given a chance to show what they can do.
I also agree with DonkeyWan about the sense of disconnect in the team. It's a shame, to me, that we don't really to have attempted any kind of continuity back to our teams under Rafa at his best. Once again we've started a complete rebuild job and it will take time for that to work. I think that's a bit of a shame for the youth teams we've built - there was a project laid in place to integrate them into an approach that no longer exists, and that I don't expect us to re-implement.
However, some of the attacking dynamism on display is really mouth-watering, and for all that I think certain conclusions can be drawn at this early stage it is, of course, a really, really early stage still. That said I would have a lot more confidence that the bits I think of as teething problems would sort themselves out if we had a foundation of a reliable defence, but I don't see us having that at all this season, and it's asking a lot of the attackers to both gel together and overcome the short-comings at the back.
