City v Arsenal friendly post match thread

[Project]

I wasn't ridiculing anyone in particular. I was being topical, like Ben Elton.

Fair enough.

Just feels to me like some people (and trust me there are plenty worse than you for this) seem more intent on either being a bit controversial, or ridiculing other City fans.

Not sure why people feel the need to do so, but each to their own. Why not discuss specifics like adults?!

For instance, what are your thoughts on the high line/pressing game employed by Pellegrini so far?

I've watched all the pre-season games and haven't seen any sign of us pressing for the ball! Certainly not for sustained periods anyway, It's quite clear without Aguero we'll struggle to score goals. Playing a high line means the defenders have to communicate very well, that's a big fat fail so far.

You don't generally employ your full pressing game out of season. no gain for a lot of effort.

 

[waspish]

Find it pretty funny that some pull outs in the papers today have Walcott in the front as if winning a Friendly is that important

 

[blue12]

My main concern from yesterday is that we seem susceptible to long balls over our high-line defence; and it was also a problem against Milan. This may improve as the defence gets a better understanding but to me it looks like a major weakness unless all four defenders have the pace of Keith Curle. If an opponent gets ahead of his marker and is free on goal then it's down to Joe or taking a red card. And it's OK saying Nasty and Clichy aren't slow, but that's not good enough. All defenders have to be fast when there's that much space behind the defence. All the training together over the next few weeks won't turbocharge the players.
My other concern is failing to score in spite of having so much possession. Last season we scored 27 league goals fewer than in the previous season. That's a hell of a drop off and while the Milan game gave us some confidence in that area the Bayern and Arsenal games didn't.
But it was only a friendly and while the internationals will disrupt players working together, they won't stop Pellers being able to review the problems with his coaching team.
The excuses stop here though. Newcastle had a poor end to the season and haven't strengthened to the same degree as we have; anything other than three points will justify the wrist-slitting that will inevitably follow.

To be honest the long ball caused us a few problems last season to ,the FA cup semi final against Chelsea being the perfect example,they resorted to it in the second half and caused us no end of problems .

 

[OB1]

My main concern from yesterday is that we seem susceptible to long balls over our high-line defence; and it was also a problem against Milan. This may improve as the defence gets a better understanding but to me it looks like a major weakness unless all four defenders have the pace of Keith Curle. If an opponent gets ahead of his marker and is free on goal then it's down to Joe or taking a red card. And it's OK saying Nasty and Clichy aren't slow, but that's not good enough. All defenders have to be fast when there's that much space behind the defence. All the training together over the next few weeks won't turbocharge the players.
My other concern is failing to score in spite of having so much possession. Last season we scored 27 league goals fewer than in the previous season. That's a hell of a drop off and while the Milan game gave us some confidence in that area the Bayern and Arsenal games didn't.
But it was only a friendly and while the internationals will disrupt players working together, they won't stop Pellers being able to review the problems with his coaching team.
The excuses stop here though. Newcastle had a poor end to the season and haven't strengthened to the same degree as we have; anything other than three points will justify the wrist-slitting that will inevitably follow.

Those are valid points and if the high line start costing us (too many) points, I would hope that Pellegrini is not too stubborn to make some adjustments. He is looking to make changes in the way the team plays and it won't happen overnight. This team has had three years of inculcation in the Mancini way of playing. However, I don't think Pellegrini's way of playing will be radically different: it will still be a high possession passing game so it's not like trying to transition Stoke.

The high line is a visible difference and I do think that there has been evidence of more pressing from the front. I hope that we will see more and more pressing from City: it's a long standing obsession of mine. I do wonder if Pellegrini did not think City were fit enough under his predecessor and that has shaped a lot of the pre-season work and, therefore, performances?

We will concede goals and we will lose some games next season and, when we do, it's quite possible that the crucial goals will be scored on the counter attack by City and that City will lose a game that they dominated. The key thing is to do it less often than we did last season.

My bigger concern than how we will cope defensively is scoring goals. I like the look of all our new players but I still think that we need one more "creative" attacking option.

 

[SuperSilva]

High pressing seems to be some thing the players are trying to grasp and I am sure we will do soon... watched this game with no commentary on steam and I could clearly hear Joe Hart screaming for the full 90 mins to all his players, by name, to "stay out of the box" when we were defending against Arsenal...

we never defended and pressed hard last 2-3 seasons than we have now... combine that with the fact they have been told (Vinny believes in his post match interview on OS) this game was more physical training than winning, the build up was tough (flights) and last game of the pre-season... not worried at all!

 

[waspish]

Premiership football is totally different to Spanish football Spanish league teams are more open and its about pass and move the premier every team we play will have 2 banks of 4 and the pace will not matter and teams with pace will get some joy against us

 

[LHarper]

If we lose possession we'll try and press for 3-5 seconds and if we don't get it back we'll get 10 men behind the ball and become as compact as possible.

When an opposition player has the ball we should always have one man near him, looking to challenge, with 2 men behind him as cover.

The players will still be getting used to new tactics/a new system and we won't see it in every game.

The best 'front' 5 pressing after losing possession in the opposition half with Yaya sweeping behind them would be Aguero, Jovetic, Silva/Milner, Navas and Fernandinho/Rodwell.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

United won the league at a canter with a defence which leaked for fun last season.

That was down to Van Persie's own strike rate and our own wastefulness in front of goal.

However, I don't see any real problems for us scoring goals from all areas of the pitch this season. That will certainly help on the road, where the margins for error were so fine under a Mancini set-up.

I do sense a real weakness from the diagonal ball played over our centre-backs and towards Clichy's side, though.

Can see us picking up a few red cards as a result.

Perhaps 4-5-1 away from home?

 

[Marvin]

United won the league at a canter with a defence which leaked for fun last season.

That was down to Van Persie's own strike rate and our own wastefulness in front of goal.

However, I don't see any real problems for us scoring goals from all areas of the pitch this season. That will certainly help on the road, where the margins for error were so fine under a Mancini set-up.

I do sense a real weakness from the diagonal ball played over our centre-backs and towards Clichy's side, though.

Can see us picking up a few red cards as a result.

Perhaps 4-5-1 away from home?

Is that down to personnel, or the high line we're now playing.

Hopefully we'll get used to the new system quickly

Will not be good if we can dominate a game for 20 mins, and then one ball in behind leads to a one on one with our keeper.

Getting the balance right is key

I'd prefer to stick with Mancini's system and just a change in personnel.

 

[OB1]

United won the league at a canter with a defence which leaked for fun last season.

That was down to Van Persie's own strike rate and our own wastefulness in front of goal.

However, I don't see any real problems for us scoring goals from all areas of the pitch this season. That will certainly help on the road, where the margins for error were so fine under a Mancini set-up.

I do sense a real weakness from the diagonal ball played over our centre-backs and towards Clichy's side, though.

Can see us picking up a few red cards as a result.

Perhaps 4-5-1 away from home?

Bayern obviously thought we were susceptible to the diagonal ball.

I can see MP using 4-5-1 in some away games.