I think the headline is a bit more sarcastic than serious tbh, Liu’s articles are often smattered with tongue in cheek comments. I doubt he’s genuinely presenting dribbling as a new tactic or what have you.

It was clear when the fixation on possession started (about ten years ago) that some teams were passing for the sake of passing.

Playing in “U” shape without ever penetrating, having 65% of the ball but losing 3-0. United under Van Gaal springs to mind…

Dribblers were almost a dying breed but people realised you needed them to take a player out of the game and another would have to engage with you, freeing up space elsewhere. This has been known for decades.

I think both clubs have priced a potential relegation into their thinking before the season kicked off. It isn’t a surprise to see them both down there, probably where you’d expect them to be.

Both managers also got their current teams promoted in the first place, if they go down then they’ve got managers with experience of getting out of the Championship.

Burnley have done this before with Sean Dyche, he got Burnley promoted in 2013/14, relegated in 2014/15, then promoted again in 2015/16 and kept them in the PL for five years.

I think it’s injuries, lack of quality squad depth, a more taxing schedule and combining those issues with the intensity of the league and their CL group.

Newcastle are still quite early in their building process, most match days they still have 5-6 starters who were there under Steve Bruce and today they had to bring in a few teenagers.

Their CL group is great for neutrals but a long slog for Newcastle, and these recent games against Dortmund have been sandwiched between tricky domestic games.

Wolves away (saw how well they did today against Spurs), another away game in the cup, a tough, and intense home game v Arsenal, another tough away game in the CL, then yet another away game the length of the country away with loads of injuries.

I don’t think they’ve fallen off due to lack of quality, just a lot coming at them thick and fast at the moment and squad is being stretched thin.