Pep's Press Conferences - Watford (A) Post Match (Page 129)

[inchy14]

He's got the same problems that Mancini had and Pellegrini had before him, no backbone, fight or stomach in a group of players who are fine when they're allowed to play but who go hiding when the going gets tough.

People can point the finger at Bravo all they want, yes he's not going to be good enough, doesn't fill the goal etc.. but when he's left out to dry on a regular basis by the garbage performances in front of him i'm not surprised he's struggling. Hart isn't coming back so we either play Willy or Gunn, but whoever gets the nod has got to hope the clowns in front of him start performing otherwise we'll be having the same discussion but with a different scapegoat.

Far too many players know their time is almost up and aren't prepared to bust a gut and stand and fight when their needed. None of them should play again, Yaya, Clichy, Kolarov, Zab (yes even Zab) it's time too ditch them, they've all been part of a squad that's now let 3 managers down. Garcia and some of the other kids should be getting a run out from now on, unlikely to happen but it's what i'd prefer.
But, when you add those above to lacklustre displays from Aguero, KDB, Silva isn't there always only going to be one outcome?
(Was Mourinho right about KDB, seems to lose confidence far too easily for a world class player and then goes into hiding.)

Pep's certainly got his work cut out, as have those in recruiting new players, got to get a couple of fresh faces in at the back this month or we'll miss out on top 4 for certain, but he also needs to start being ruthless with those who aren't performing.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Thing is, it's totally normal to concede the amount of shots on goal in a match that we do. Actually, we don't concede many shots at all. Problem is that every single one of them goes in because we're playing without a goalkeeper.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Im sorry but Pep is wrong here even at the start.

he says we created good chances.....but we didnt....sterling had one which should have led to a penalty (ill give him that one) but the silva chance wasn't clear at all...not when you compare it to Lukakus chance or any of their other chances. We didnt create a lot at all...nothing clear cut.......ALL the chances for everton were clear cut cause we are defending in such few numbers whereas opponents are defending in huge numbers......and we are seeing the same result EVERY week

he also recognises that teams are defending with 8-9 men (as he says) and then hitting us on the counter attack......so why not do something to stop that.....stop asking all your players to push so high up the pitch....you are playing right into the opponents hands doing exactly what they want us to do.

He is right when he says the opponents aren't much better......their TACTICS however are much better......we are playing in a suicidal way with the players we have and against the way other teams will clearly set up against us....virtually every team will carry on doing the same thing and results will be similar

I partially agree. Its telling that our best results are against teams that are more open and play us at our own game, and when we get turned over its generally a counter attacking team. Its not like he didn't see this at Barca and Munich though so in the past he has been able to tactically deal with counters. So it has to be the players that are not executing his methods, and he hasn't flexed his tactics to accommodate players of limited quality.

 

[slicky202]

I'm going to take a shot at why we lose. We base our whole game around being able to score more than the opposition and today we conceded in the first half and scored no goals. We're not good enough attackers to play without a defence. We don't have a messi who can win a game out of nothing and do it nearly every game

 

[slicky202]

I'm going to take a shot at why we lose. We base our whole game around being able to score more than the opposition and today we conceded in the first half and scored no goals. We're not good enough attackers to play without a defence. We don't have a messi who can win a game out of nothing and do it nearly every game

I agree with a lot of your points, I mean changing positions of players like kolarov and zab at this stage in their career seems pretty pointless.although we love him Zab was never a world class player at his natural position so why he'd be a great midfielder in his 3o's I'll never know.

 

[CC1]

Well i hope he does cause the average fan on the terraces can see it.

And if he can see it why isn't he doing anything about it....the exact same thing happened against the exact same team at our place.....one chance, one goal....how many times have we heard Pep himself say this...so if he can see it why hasn't he stopped it cause the solution isn't that hard either

What's the solution then?

 

[KnaresboroughBlue]

Bravo is obviously a good keeper or he wouldn't have had the career that he has had. He isn't playing well right now which is obvious but then again who is? We usually have more shots than the opposition but not many of them are really clear cut chances rather than half chances, while our opponents shots are more often than not gilt edged opportunities. Bravo (and the rest of the defence) is often left totally exposed and confidence seems low.

We need to start defending more as a team. We'll not a very physically imposing team and a high defensive line with slowish defenders and no pressing is never going to end well.

 

[Mike N]

Regardless of whether Bravo will make it or not, I wouldn't like to be in goal behind that rabble of a defence.

 

[Blue Pete]

Fine margins, had we scored with any of the chances in first half and gone 1-0 up we could have won comfortably.

Our team, and this has been the case for years, is great when confidence is flowing and poor when it's not. West Ham we looked unplayable only after taking the lead, the same can be said in most games. Yes generally we are better than the opposition, yes we do tend to keep the ball more, yes we do move it forward too slowly, yes some of these current players are past it or just not good enough. But that was all the case last year as well.

Pep has not had chance to sort his team out, we are not playing well etc etc but we are 3pts off Second - think about that, we are playing poorly and after half a season we are 3 points of second.

We will get better, We will improve. I get the media etc having a go and being stupid but anyone with a brain can see we are not far. Yep Pep will make mistakes,every manager does, but when the margins are that fine. Let's not go mental when we lose.

Support your team, support your players (even if you think they are not good enough), support Pep.

 

[@BluePhil8]

I'm going to take a shot at why we lose. We base our whole game around being able to score more than the opposition and today we conceded in the first half and scored no goals. We're not good enough attackers to play without a defence. We don't have a messi who can win a game out of nothing and do it nearly every game

Think it was Thierry Henry who said Pep has a very rigid set of instructions for the defence and midfield however in the final third he wants players to innovate and entertain.

That's fine when you have front 3s like Messi, Eto'o, Pedro / Messi, Ibrahimovic, Villa / Messi, Villa, Sanchez / Ribery, Lewendowski, Robben.

Doesn't work so well with a front 3 of Navas, Aguero, Sterling or whoever else we put out.