Difficult to play when ya don't understand the tactics he wants you to play, or at least that's how it appears. Even he illuded to it in a recent interview !
I think in fairness he has had to chop and change the team because of injury. Tetteh and Oscar were really starting to gel, and that was disrupted by injury. It's noticeable since Tetteh has been out goals to a large degree have been hard to come by. Teams need to play regularly together to build and understanding, but also Shota has not helped himself by sticking with Figgy who has been woeful, and also needs more energy in midfield.
I think this is his biggest issue. He really isn't clear in what he says. We've seen this constantly in interviews, so I can't imagine he's different with the players. He's had a tough time with injuries too but we just don't look like scoring, we haven't all season and pre season. The build up is painfully slow and we've played largely with a back 5 without wing backs.
It's slow in a big part due to the fact we have literally zero pace in the team ATM!! Worryingly there's little pace to add from the squad in the foreseeable. Sinik maybe. Fleming a bit. Doc a little (but not with quality). Allayhar for sure, big miss, but out till January? Traore same. Losing Allayhar, Sinik, Fleming and Traore has really hurt us in this respect. One of the now glaring shortcomings. Edit. Maybe for this reason alone, Longman and Williams should be/ should have been starting.
I think the only reason is that he is right-footed whereas Greaves and McLoughlin are left. If Jones is fit I would sooner he plays though McLoughlin even being left-footed can't do worse than Figgy has been doing.