Another drab one, and it’s starting to feel like a theme rather than a one-off. When you’ve done a massive round trip for a home game, you want something to take home with you other than a sore head and the sense we’ve just passed the ball in nice shapes for 90 minutes.

For me, the big issue is how easily teams have “sussed” us when they settle into a low block. Not with some clever trick either. They simply back off, hold their line, and watch us take an age to do anything threatening.

The low block isn’t beating us, our tempo is

This is the part that does my head in: we play walking football. Side to side. Back to the centre-backs. Out again. A little feint of urgency, then another recycle. You can almost hear the opposition sigh with relief every time we choose the safe pass instead of the one that actually risks creating something.

And the trade-off is brutal. When we eventually lose it, we don’t just lose possession, we lose the moment. The other side spring out quickly, and suddenly we’re the ones scrambling, getting overrun in transition because we’ve moved the ball so slowly that we’re stretched without ever really pinning them in.

We help them reset, then wonder why it’s crowded

Even when the opponent’s attack breaks down, we often take the sting out of the situation ourselves. We come away with it, slow it down, knock it around… and in that time the whole defensive block drops back into place. Then we’re staring at a wall again, looking for a perfect opening that never arrives.

There’s a simple fix at times: take a shot. Not every move needs to be walked into the net. If you don’t test the keeper or force a deflection, you’re basically letting the low block stay comfortable all afternoon.

Between the lines runs need rewarding

One thing that stands out is how often Wirtz (in particular) shows between the lines and doesn’t get picked out. That’s where you hurt deep defences: find a player on the half-turn, make the back line step, then the gaps appear elsewhere.

And even when he does receive it, there has to be movement around him. If nobody offers a quick bounce pass, a run beyond, or an option either side, he ends up trying to do it on his own. That’s when you see forced dribbles and cheap turnovers, and suddenly you’re defending counters again.

Shape matters, and so does consistency

There’s also the messiness of constant chopping and changing, especially at right-back. Finishing games with three different right-backs, and altering the dynamics each time, is asking for the team to look disjointed. Bradley, Frimpong, then Dominic in the same match? That’s not stability, that’s trying to solve problems on the fly.

Arne needs to settle on solutions that give us rhythm, because right now we’re making it too easy for opponents: sit in, stay patient, wait for us to stumble, then break.

Written by patemondo: 10 January 2026

Tags: tactics efl transfers