Dublin have become too predictable according to RTÉ GAA analyst Ciarán Whelan.
The Boys in Blue, All-Ireland champions for the sixth consecutive year 14 months ago this weekend, have made their worst start to an Allianz League campaign since 2001.
Three defeats from three have left them in the middle of a relegation battle, with three away games to come before the end of next month. Realistically manager Dessie Farrell will know they need to win a minimum of two of those games to have any chance of avoiding the drop.
In the last decade Donegal (2013), Tyrone (2015), Cork (2016) and Mayo have gone down with more than four points.
Of the senior players left to return for Dessie Farrell, the standout ones are James McCarthy and Con O'Callaghan, after Mick Fitzsimons and Johnny Cooper made their first league appearances of 2022 in Saturday's loss to Mayo.
"It's hard to look for positives," conceded Whelan on RTÉ's Allianz League Sunday.
"The positive is that they've a few key players left to come back, but their stock is rising and they're not even playing. On top of that Dessie is blooding new players.
"The concern for me is that they're lacking a bit of structure, defensively and going forward. It's beginning to affect the confidence and the flow of the team.
"Ciarán Kilkenny and Brian Fenton were brilliant last night in terms of their leadership, but they're struggling to have a plan in their movement up front. There are no options in terms of the variety that they're trying to play.
"They're very slow and ponderous and teams have sussed that out."
Speaking on the same programme, Pat Spillane, who played for Kerry in an era when they managed to win eight All-Irelands in 12 seasons between 1975 and 1986, said that there are similarities between the end of that great side from the Kingdom, and the current Dublin slump.
"I see a team that's mentally not sharp, physically tired, their decision-making is poor, their skill execution is poor," said Spillane.
"I was that soldier. You have your All-Ireland medals in your pocket so what more have you to achieve? It's just another medal. In professional sport the incentive is the more you win, the more you get paid. In amateur sport, like the GAA, it's just another medal.
"You know what's ahead of you for the year, you know about the sacrifices, you know about parking your life, but unfortunately the longer you're at it you're taking shortcuts.
"You're not giving 100% - you might give 99.5%. That's not good enough and that's what's happening.
"Wearing my teacher's cap you'd say a bad mock result can be sorted out for the leaving cert, but it never happens. There's a danger here that they might disregard league performances and say that everything will be alright for the championship.
"I see a team that's been on the road a long time and they're similar to us in 1986 in that there's no new talent coming in to replace the fella that's left."
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