Our Improved Defence

[City_Sean]

Stones has certainly improved a lot. He's definitely filled out a bit but he's showing far more leadership. I also think the fullbacks are having a huge impact. Walkers speed is vital and KDB and Silva are also putting serious work in a defensive capacity.

 

[Sky Blue]

Howdy.....

 

[MarsLlama]

The team defends better this year, they have a better understanding of how all eleven players can contribute to keeping the ball out of our net.

New fullbacks and goalkeeper help too of course.

 

[spiny]

Watching MotD, the way City play is different gravy to other teams. We are playing a different game at a different level and deserve the plaudits. Fantastic to watch. The best I have seen and so far with all round play on a par with anything including Barca a few years ago.

But Stones, Sterling and Delph are deemed only marginal for England and Walker ok only because he played for Spurs.

Spurs superman Kane has only scored the same as your "the woman" in the league with 2 less assists and 200 minutes more playing time. Media darling Pele Rashford has scored 2 with 3 assists.

Lets hope we avoid major injury. Shame about Mendy. We are witnessing something special. Peter Swales, John Benson, Frank Clark, Alan Ball et al, are you watching? Especially Stuart Pearce whose City teams could not score and who backed the rags to be champions because they can defend as Jose showed at Anfield by parking the bus for a 0-0 bore whilst City score 7. Donkey!!!


Asked why his side have made such an impressive start to the 2017/18 season, manager Pep Guardiola said they've simply learned from their mistakes.

"With almost the same players, what changed?" Guardiola said. "Basically we know each other more, I know my players much more. I know the competition more and I know even more how to damage opposition teams. That's the way we want to play. We play like this and score a lot of goals."

 

[Love_Each_Day]

Our central defence was never the problem for me, ancient fullbacks and our goalie having a nightmare were. Otamendi has always been good and Stones has improved but still does a lot of good things and some bad things in games, a lot more still to come from him. Their partnership is understandably better after having played together for a bit. We pass the ball faster and more accurately and don't give it away in dangerous areas as often. Maybe most importantly Fernandinho has been immense in protecting the defence as a whole, the best spell of form he's had for us in my opinion.

 

[Nelly's Left Foot]

Mixture of everything isn't it. Prpoer keeper brings some extra confidence. Pep will have worked individually with the defenders to improve them. Better,quicker full backs. Understanding how to be organised to deal with potential breakaways when we lose the ball. Winning the ball back as quickly as possible when we lose it. Better ball retention throughout the team to minimise breakaway potential.

It's just improvement in all aspects as you would hope for with arguably the best coach in the world

 

[Gordyola]

The team defends better this year, they have a better understanding of how all eleven players can contribute to keeping the ball out of our net.

New fullbacks and goalkeeper help too of course.

Is the correct answer it's what Pep kept telling everyone last season, of course if it goes wrong we now have a keeper

 

[Trautmann's Chiropractor]

Mixture of everything isn't it. Prpoer keeper brings some extra confidence. Pep will have worked individually with the defenders to improve them. Better,quicker full backs. Understanding how to be organised to deal with potential breakaways when we lose the ball. Winning the ball back as quickly as possible when we lose it. Better ball retention throughout the team to minimise breakaway potential.

It's just improvement in all aspects as you would hope for with arguably the best coach in the world

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. Everything has finally clicked and the penny seems to have dropped for those underperforming last year.

Also seen an article last night about how the defense are communicating in Spanish as well as English to help the South American players settle in. So communication appears to have improved too. Long may it continue!

 

[CityInWashingtonState]

Sorry if similar thread has been created, couldn't find one and thought it's an interesting topic so merge if necessary.

Does anyone know what Pep has done to improve our centre halves this much compared to last season? It's crazy! Stones and Otamendi look solid together all of a sudden and both of them are on the front foot in an attacking sense too. When those two were our pairing last season they were all over the place. Obviously having a confident and reliable keeper behind them gives them the platform to give these performances, and the full back problem has been solved too. If it was as simple as that why didn't we address it sooner?

Stones has beefed up a bit and Otamendi's passing has improved a lot since last season. But what is his magic formula for making these two into brick walls? Has he started training with defense in mind too? Even Delph has been incredible at LB.

Our defense has improved because we're finally playing the way Pep wants us to play.

We immediately press thoughout the game whenever the ball turns over; we have pacy fullbacks who can at least get back into position when far upfield following a turn over (and Walker/Danilo are good at defense, and Delph is OK while still learning the position). Finally, our keeper is a gifted shot stopper - last year we struggled with a very out-of-form Bravo who just couldn't seem to stop shots he should have.

Basically we now have the players in our squad capable of implementing Pep's system and thus we're not conceding nearly as often - last year, we had a slow, aging squad, unable to press for the full 90, thus putting huge pressure on our back line - and our out-of-form keeper exacerbated problems.

 

[BlueAnorak]

Having the worst goalkeeper in living memory doesn't exactly give your defence confidence. Nor does having fullbacks with a serious lack of pace that were totally unsuited to Peps defensive schemes. Also we didn't press well enough last season though that gradually improved as the season progressed.