Eric is spot on here. The tactical structure some of our key players are asked to play is causing them to play tentatively. Timid. ( scared- but i dont think thats the correct term because they arent scared in the literal sense ) .
on the back foot
We have defaulted back to the Bradley era theory of playing backwards to go forwards
We only go forward if we see an opening
And since we don’t ask questions the other D can maintain its shape easily enough
We receive the ball , turn, look for opening - and in that time the D is able to reshape
It also seems easy for D to fires us wide since that’s where we want to attack (I guess using sidelines to protect against anticipated mistakes)
We take Balo completely out of the game bc we refuse to attach centrally