I'm not really sure that it's the players' fault, but the way they're being instructed to play the postition...if that makes sense. Gylfi and Dempsey were both superb last season, isn't it strange that both of them suddenly drop form, waaaay below standards at the same time? And against Chelsea, you could see the "central effect", because Dempsey was good early on, playing on the left instead of Bale and Gylfi invisible in the central role, but when they switched positions, so did their involvement in the game. Gylfi probably had his best performance of the season out left, whilst Dempsey got lost in the middle.
But what's the problem? One thing I've noticed is the majority of our attacks are focused down the flanks, which is natural with our wingers. But very often you can see that Gylfi or Dempsey are in yards of space just outside the penalty area, but simply don't get the football. Another one is the fact we don't get enough passes on the floor, straight from our defenders or deep-lying midfielders, to the player in the hole. The way we operate is to often have Defoe come a little deeper to get the ball, and have the CF/attacking midfielder staying higher up the pitch instead. This would work much better with Adebayor and another striker, like the first 15 minutes at arsenal showed, but when we're playing with Defoe alone up top, this should be the other way around. With our VERY slow build up play at times, a good incisive pass that exploits the space between the oppositions defense and midfield, and gets Gylfi and/or Dempsey involved in play more, would really open things up IMO.
Or maybe they've jut been playing like brick and I refuse to see it!
Agree/Disagree?