But yeah, in Martinez's first season we defended better but if you go back to look at my posts and others from that time period you would see that already there were some worries being brought up. The defeat at home to palace in particular
They were kind of buried at the time as we were winning and killing awful sides near the bottom of the table. We were also playing some lovely stuff as well. It's only when you analyse it more in retrospect that they become clear
Just saying "39 goals" doesn't tell the whole story
For instance, we got a clean sheet at Spurs this season but that was entirely down to both luck and Howard having an unusually excellent game
And criticising even after wins is what you're supposed to do. Just because you win doesn't all of a sudden make critical points evaporate
If you get an A on an exam, a good teacher will still tell you why it wasn't an A*
Some games are so good that criticism isn't required (like the 3-0 win over arsenal for instance)
However, the game with Sunderland did deserve criticism on the defensive end because they could easily have scored 4-5 goals against us as opposed to the 2 they managed, and against a team playing that poorly that just isn't good enough