I think you totally nailed the problem we have. The one consistent pattern I've noticed over the last few games is that almost every player on a pitch will, at least once in the game, show clear signs that he has no idea what to do. All of the players. I think this is down to a lack of philosophy as opposed to the way Pep and Sarri have their teams playing.
Montella was attractive during his Fiorentina days because you could see that his team had an attractive philosophy about their game. Now he's different.
He started the season trying to incorporate the players at his disposal into a system that he's been using for a while with us, and one that he likes. (This is where the management critics come in and say that the team wasn't built for it -- I don't disagree entirely, just think that they did the best they could).
It worked during preseason but then we got to the serious games against better teams and it became clear that it won't work with our players, so he went with a new system and the team is now basically going through the experimentations that a team usually goes through during preseason (this is where the Montella critics come in and say that he should've at least had the vision to do this experimentations earlier).
Montella is coaching a team that's starting a new cycle with a new management and 11 new players. There isn't a user's manual for something like this. He's human and he's made mistakes. I wish he didn't and I think some of them could have be avoidable, but keeping him on the bench will be better than going back to the drawing board with a new coach. I can't handle more preseason-like experiences during the season
.
We showed some moments of class during the derby, although incomplete and lacking in several way. I don't know, maybe with a little bit of luck and time Montella would get that philosophy that we want.
