Ali Moreno

There was no sense of control in terms of possession.

And when it came to creating opportunities, when you had to go chase a game, then they got completely disorganized.

And all the things that we have seen over the course of the last month and a half or so, they started to show back up.

Those things don't go away.

as a miracle.

They don't just disappear.

This team has issues.

They were going to show up again.

They showed up again today.

But the moment that they had Xaver Alonso walk out the door, they empowered the players.

Oh, big time.

They empowered Vinny Jr.

They empowered those that were pushing the other guy out.

They said, we're with you, not with him.

And at that point, you're making your bed.

So now you lie on it.

What we saw from this team at the turn of the year, and they got hot.

Part of getting hot was work rate.

Part of getting hot was pressing the ball together.

And at the front of all of that, and we would highlight it and talk about it and analyze it and say, look at Dembele leading the line for this team, pressing the ball, forcing turnovers, or at the very least making the play predictable so that then you could defend with a second line of pressure.