The way I see it, Kane's "new role" is hurting the entire team. He's still a great forward, but the way he's played he's not a match winner anymore. He needs to stay more upfield, not only is he our best finisher and only "natural" striker, but he used to create space for others by dragging two and three defenders with him when he made both real and dummy runs. Very useful against teams parking the bus, and at a time you could believe we had the entire squad plus the tea lady on the scoresheet. Now it seems that Kane wants to be the creator as well, problem is that leaves us woefully thin in the box as we have no other with the "box-instinct" for lack of better words. He's also much, much easier to trap and contain when he drops so deep, being "just another player", and most teams looks like they figured this out. You'd also think that IF his physical abilities has diminished, it would be easier for him to stay up front, Cristiano-style, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Of course I love it when players like Moura comes on and scores a header in the box, but that shouldn't be his role. We used to have such a good spread and seemingly specific tasks, now we have 4-5 players trying to do and be the same thing, which regularly leads to the same outcomes - either said get it out wide for a (more often than not, bad) cross, dispossession after fancy schmancy YouTube flick-throughs, or endless sideways passing in front of two compact banks of four. And just because a thing worked one time, it doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing to go and aim for. I see no signs of plans or set plays in order to facilitate anymore, just more do-it-all-yourself and selfishness than when we were good. To me, it looks like our only weapon is long through-balls from deep, which is so far from how we were just 2-3 seasons ago it could as well be a different team entirely.
I don't buy the "head in another place" and other single-player excuses for our lack of team play (except the Kane one, because it was so important to how we set up). To me it looks like Poch have no clear plan anymore about - or can't convey well enough - what he wants his players to do. Because I simply cannot believe he actually wants us to play the way we do now. There are (very) brief stints of good, but most of the time I see a lot of players trying to do too much themselves and we move forward as a unit so slo-o-o-wly. And if we want to be a team of individuals, we need to upgrade averageness that could pass as useful when we were a machine. Take Winks for example, for all his heart and tidyness, is not good enough to be anything like a playmaker at present. Perhaps in the future. I for one can't see why anyone would want him to be the heart of our midfield. He has poor understanding of what's going on around him, and looks for possible solutions AFTER he receives the ball. I had to laugh a little today when he used 3 seconds on the ball (including a spin I think) with Aurier totally unmarked and wide open on the wing, played his usual 5 yard sideways safe pass and THEN pointed at Aurier for, I think it was Sissoko, to pass to like that was the plan all along while Leicester regrouped. Jesus Christ on a stick. He will most often look good when others are bad, because he is, you know, tidy. Players like Lamela and Sissoko hasn't suddenly exploded into fantastic-ness, it's the rest of the teamplay that has dropped so significantly that two well-put passes exceeding 10 yards, a good run and a ball-winning tackle will win you man of the match. Still, we have too much individual quality to not be a force to be reckoned with, but this setup will not win anything.
