Brighton (A) - Post Match Thread.

[SWP's back]

Not seen MOTD yet.
It looked a stone wall penalty to me though. Ball must have travelled at least 10 yards and was on target. Plenty of time to get arm out of the way.

This is the reason why VAR won't work.

Clattentwat said it wasn't a penalty.

 

[dajd1984]

Thought the match went to script and City walked away with an easy 2 nil victory. If City had failed to score it would have been down to a lack of risk taking. The first time through ball from Silva to Aguero was key to the win. There wasn't enough of that sort of approach.

And that quick pass from Dave into a space for Kun was only possible because they didn't have their defensive and midfield lines in place. And that was because KDB had closed them down early and won the ball back.

When a team sets up with two 'banks of four' or even a defensive line of six, it can be almost impossible, even against technically far-inferior teams.
We pose the biggest threat when we get behind the other teams defence so should always be trying to do that, whether through diagonal runs in the middle connecting with through balls, which is hard if they're compact, or down the wings. But if they've got players across from right to left and they're playing really deep, that can be hard also.
Other than that we can use Raheem, Jesus, Sane et al to run at their lines at speed, where they will get brought down and then have an opportunity from free kicks.
Beyond that, shots from distance, high pressing like KDB did for the first goal yesterday, and hitting teams on the break at speed when they occasionally attack us, it seems very very hard to break it down. Being dynamic and quick will always help when they aren't quite ready, but if they're set in a deep 6-3-1 formation, there aren't going to be many other options... that I can think of...

 

[dajd1984]

This is the reason why VAR won't work.

Clattentwat said it wasn't a penalty.

His arm was in a natural position, by the side of his body. It moved when the ball made impact with it, in a direction that's consistent with him trying to pull his arm away, and I think it'd be very hard to say there was any intent, by any definition.

 

[SWP's back]

His arm was in a natural position, by the side of his body. It moved when the ball made impact with it, in a direction that's consistent with him trying to pull his arm away, and I think it'd be very hard to say there was any intent, by any definition.

Thanks Mark. His arm was still in the fucking way of the ball going towards the goal and he was a long way from KDB.

It was a nailed on penalty.

 

[Manncity]

How many blues there yesterday,our vocal support was non existant,who got all the tickets,Tunnel club members??

 

[OB1]

The free header from point blank range, which far from being a decent save by the keeper was almost straight at him. But I wasn't talking just about yesterday. Whilst a clear asset to the club, he's missed a fair few gifts as well. Not as many as Aguero, but it's not hard to understand why Pep is after additional firepower IMO

I thought we were wasteful of chances yesterday; again sometimes it was about not making the correct final ball.

Sergio's stats show that he scored one goal from two shots, which would be a phenomenal strike rate if he kept it up. The stat's don't capture his swing and miss so in reality he got one from three, which would still be a big improvement... His two misses yesterday were horrid and I think exceptional: he's usually closer to the mark when he fails.

GJ managed one shot on target from four attempts, which is simply not good enough for what we need; although one goal from every four shots would be world class.

We have to improve our conversion of opportunities into goals; yesterday is just one game but it didn't provide any evidence that we do not need to add a top quality striker to the squad. It did give some hope that we will defend better, from front to back, and I'm a firm believer that improvements at both ends of the park will create a virtuous circle of improvement because, psychologically, doing better at one end relieves some pressure on the players at the other end and reduces the tension that can lead to mistakes. Pep made a point about our wonderful pre-season displays occurring when there was a lack of pressure on the team...free the mind, free the body.

 

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

Thanks Mark. His arm was still in the fucking way of the ball going towards the goal and he was a long way from KDB.

It was a nailed on penalty.

Compare that to Jesus when he got booked for handling the ball going into the net. A lot less thinking time for him and the ref puts him in the book, zero consistency as per usual.

 

[SamBlue]

Really! Sitting in front of my PC, I sang 'Guardiola' song at least twice with our boys, until my wife told me to shut the f..k up!

 

[St.Pauli support]

No other side has to face park the bus opponents like we do every week...
In part I think it's also because we keep the ball so much better than any other side. The longer we have the ball, the more our opponents retreat into a packed defence.

Agreed. We have seen it any many games since we have established our possession game.
And City haven't developed enough ideas to break up walls the and score the first, which it is all about.

So what could we do?

Just a brainstorm - to be completed and passed on to Pep: :)

1) stay deeper to pull the opponent out and then run and play into the space
2) pretend to play weak, lazy, slow maybe extra bad passes to invite the opponent and then pull the trigger and go
3) give the ball away from possession in an extra obvious way, stay back and let them come out
4) learn a variety of running patterns to confuse a packed defense by quick movements and open spaces for midfielders or full backs to rush in.
5) when 1-0 up and the bus is still being parked: keep the ball and play it back to our defense as long as possible until they come out, showing that WE want to play footie and the other team is refusing. The crowd supporting by "OLÈ" for every touch.

What I want to say is, we need to smarter playing to our strengths and stop acting in a contra productive way to compress the team even further in an area where we would like to have space.

At least we should invent a variety of alternatives to ask too much of a limited opponent.

 

[hihosilva]

How many blues there yesterday,our vocal support was non existant,who got all the tickets,Tunnel club members??

I think you're been disrespectful to our fans who travelled to support the team. You dont have to be vocal to do this.