Have replied to Lemon's mail but I think I should comment here also.
I think its clear that the problem is different to whatever Sharpling's was. And I believe his high DR and low IS was his main problem since LI is always the best offence and it wasn't Sharpling's. I agree Marichal is a much better player. I'm inclined to agree with Lemon that GS is the biggest factor but also as Bora pointed out, its the first game and first games are often weird, mainly because of the low enth and game shape.
I also wouldn't think push the ball was such a bad choice. We didn't stink offensively, they just ran an offence that matched up well against us this week.