This weird, non press thing he seems to employ really perplexes me. They go in ones or at best two's whilst the rest of the team stay static to their position, sitting deep mostly. It's completely ineffectual and makes it so easy to play out under zero pressure for the opposition.
You only have to look at Southampton yesterday to see how impactive a proper press is, it totally nullified us in the first half. Indeed, most teams we have played have pressed and harried our side far, far more impressively than we have under any manager we have had since bobby's first season. It's embarrassing how poor we are at closing down the space, it's almost just paid lip service...
Carlo ain't exempt from critic because of his history, football has changed massively since his really successful days, he needs to adapt too or it will be a similar story to his time at Napoli, for whom he was bagged off for being so negative and employing weird defensive shapes for a team who were perhaps the best attacking unit in that league, he stiffifled them.
I accept we don't have the players to challenge, neither do Southampton, but what Southampton and other have which we don't, is a style of play, a style of press, an organised unit, a high press, players working for each other. Now it took Ralf at saints quite a while to impose that,which is now reaping rewards for them, but we don't even seem to be working towards a shape or a style of play, it's just a random formation change here and there, with players filling a position but with now idea how to play together in that formation. Now that is a concern.