The base of the midfield isn't functioning optimally. Rice has a bias towards the left channel but as he's right footed, he's unable to hit vertical passes into Havertz into the half space. Instead, he's playing right footed passes to Martinelli in deep positions who then has the option to pass the ball up to Havertz who has underlapped him, but passing is not something he's particularly good at. Contrast that to last season, where Zinchenko would be the LDM playing vertical passes into Xhaka who would then release Martinelli in a one-on-one situation much higher up the pitch. The sequence down the left has changed. It was Zinchenko > Xhaka > Martinelli. Now it's Rice > Martinelli > Havertz and Martinelli hasn't been connecting with Havertz as passing is not his strength.
Similarly, the right-side of the base also has issues, oddly enough Zinchenko is inverting much further than last season and is finding himself on the right hand side of Rice, again because of Rice's left-side bias (perhaps even instruction), meaning he is the one who is responsible for finding Odegaard in the half space. He's much better at playing vertical passes through the lines, but hasn't yet developed the same relationship with Odegaard that Partey had. So as a result, neither Rice nor Zinchenko are effectively finding Odegaard or Havertz so our play through the centre has deteriorated. The ramifications of that is we're passing the ball much earlier to Saka and Martinelli in the sequence.
Also, worth noting that Saka abandoned his right flank a few times yesterday and came searching for the ball on the left, something I don't believe I've seen before, which culminated in his missed chance.
