mosssideblue
Well-Known Member
It's been said by many, and I agree, that whilst Joe might develop more confidence on the ball his speed of thought might never get to where he needs to be to implement the style of play Pep wants to see. We will be able to see very quickly what happens in that regard. I noticed Pep clapping when Caballero tried to pass out under pressure, though it was an abysmal attempt. Clearly he's happier seeing the team play to his requirements even when everything in my head is screaming if in doubt kick it out!
That's the main reason I'm very nervous going into this season. I've not seen any improvement from Caballero in terms of ability to pass out under pressure. I've seen numerous mistakes from our defenders, though Otamendi and Stones should be more assured. I'd like to have seen more from Hart but trust that in training they'll be doing it day in day out under intense pressing from the players on the other team in the training scenario.
It's obvious to most of us that we need a keeper comfortable on the ball to give Hart real pressure to improve in that area and retain the no.1 spot. The club have known Pep was to arrive for a while but we've not done a huge amount for the right now in terms of keeper and defence. I get reasoning behind holding fire on midfield targets because waiting in the hope we can pursuade Kroos/Alcantara to sign will transform us significantly in comparison to buying what we can now and we'll still see a huge improvement in our midfield simply with the addition of Gundogan and Pep's tactics.
Defensively though, you can either play his system or you can't and at the moment I'm nervous about it going into our first game. If any other side watched the Arsenal game they'll see that it remains very easy to get at our defence and that through pressing us they'll create chances with ease. It might be a case that until we nail that we'll just have to score more than we concede which Pep has alluded to when talking about Stones (to some degree) - when he said he might make a mistake that leads to a couple of goals a season but through playing out from the back can start a move that leads to 8 or 9 goals...
Take onboard most of your post. I would argue though that our defence for the Arsenal game would not be a good measure to our capability in that area.