Is Pep ever going to address the defensive side of our game?

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Marvin

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How can we dominate possession in most games and then get hit by sucker-punches every other game? We have conceded many more goals than is usual for a top 4 side, particularly a side that dominates possession to the extent that we do.

It's easy to say that our defenders are over the hill or that we have bought badly. I looked at the Chelsea defence and they have Marcos Alonsoo, Azpilcueta, Cahill, Luiz, Terry and Zouma. Are they really better than our defenders? No they are not, they just have N'Golo Kante and matic in midfield whereas we played Swansea with Fernandinho on the right side of the team and just Toure sitting deep.

I am hopeful that the attacking side of our game has improved with the arrival of Jesus and Sane, but we aren't going to win the league unless we can regularly keep clean sheets.

I can not fault the work-rate of the players. I don't think I have ever seen a more committed team than this City side. I've seen us tackle teams like Spurs and Arsenal off the pitch, and yet still against Everton, Spurs and Chelsea for example every single attack led to a goal, and likewise Swansea. Leicester. So many examples.

I thought maybe Kompany's return would help us better one on one, but that doesn't seem like it's going to be the answer. Kompany is back, but Guardiola wont play him. perhaps rightly so. He sees him in training. We don't.

We definitely have a problem with the age and speed of our fullbacks. We could buy a couple of full-backs, or maybe bring through players from the youth team, but is that going to be enough? I was a bit alarmed by Guardiola's decision to move Fernandinho to the right side of the team versus Swansea. We can't do that against stronger teams.

Perhaps we would be better off as a team playing Fernandinho and Fernando in the team at the expense of one our attacking players. I think Toure has to be a squad player, yet he still remains the centre-piece of our team. We aren't going to be successful until we can defend as a team, and I am not sure that the answer is just going to be to swap central defenders or buy new full backs.

I am sure that Guardiola is aware of the problem. It's obvious, but what do you think he is going to do about it? I would play Fernandinho and Fernando, and bring in full backs who can attack and defend. Clichy and Sagna can't. Kolarov can get forward, but he can't defend at full-back. One on one I think our defenders are OK but I think the balance in the team between attack and defence was wrong.

That was very worrying before Jesus and Sane, because we could flood the team with Silvas, De Bruynes and Agueros and still could not get more than 2 or 3 shots on target a game, but now the attacking side has improved. I think the answer is going to be to take a forward out of our starting 11. I would keep the 3 forwards. The other solution would be an Aguero, Jesus front two, but I really like Sane and Sterling. Sterling is actually a terrific defender too. Because of his low centre of gravity he is very effective at hustling and harrying defenders so I don't think we would gain that much defensively by dropping one of the wide players.
 
I assume the title is rhetorical, clearly defensive improvements will be the number 1 priority this summer and it would be a major shock if we didn't make improvements. In the meantime given our domination I personally would like to see Ferna and Delph occupying the "full back" positions as they are expected to play as supplementary midfield players anyway. I know Ferna wasn't at his best on Sunday but I would put that down to rustiness.
 
I read the title but don't have the afternoon spare to read the text.

I'm gonna go with "buy better defenders" as the answer.
 
I think it is a combination of needing a better back 5 and we need them to be primarily concerned with defending.

There is no reason imo for CBs to move into midfield with the ball. If they can pass properly then the ball would do the work instead of them getting out of position. It they were to stay in position they'd also be more likely to stay switched on to what's happening ahead of them, communicate and together snuff out dangerous situations before the develop too far.

I don't mind a full back getting far forward but not both at the same time and only once they are making decent passes (not Kolorov just getting forward to pass back - it's a waste of time). And their top priority should be to stop crosses or running into the box so they need to be monsters.

Imagine the fearlessness of Jesus as a fullback or CB for example. We have people with the mindset of Dzeko in defense as it is. We need physical and mental toughness. We need more Kompanies and Zabbas in their prime.

IMO the tougher our defenders the more attacking we can be. Stones for example is better if he can defend like a lion and make a decent pass rather than him trying to add to the attack by moving into midfield.

And the goalkeeper needs to be physically up to the challenge and again completely switched on. Surely there's someone out there who suits.
 
Don't even know where to begin with the rubbish i've just read. How can you say our defenders are as good as Chelsea's when they clearly are not?

Pep tried to sign Laporte and/or Bonucci, so he clearly knew there was a problem in the summer, I'm 100% sure he will address it this summer.

We need 2 full backs, a centre half and a defensive minded midfielder who can play (like a Dahoud or a Weigl).

It really is as simple as our defenders not being good enough, only Kompany, Stones and Otamendi should be here in the summer but we need another centre half as good as Kompany, all 4 full backs need to go.
 
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Probably not, well not to the level that we would all like. Heres the thing, Pep likes his teams to dominate possesion for 90 minutes and work hard to get the ball back at all times. If you can do that and score goals then you don't really need a good defence as such because your entire team is both your defence and attack. If you look at how high our defensive line is when we have the ball its clear to see that as far as Pep is concerned you have a team of 11 players who have 100% responsibility to cover all aspects of the game not just their specific role. It is an interesting concept and one that is new to many but in theory it should work. When we were losing Pep never put the blame on his defensive line and instead pointed the finger at the attackers inability to put the ball in the net and make that possession count. In Spain and Germany there were lots of easy games where you could get away with defensive mistakes, in the PL you get punished and I think Pep has learned that now. Interesting though isn't it that since Bravo has been dropped we are winning again lol

Pep will buy some defenders in the summer but he certainly won't be looking at them just for their defensive ability so I wouldn't be surprised to see some interesting buys.
 
I thought the defence were pretty good against Swansea and it was a good strike from a top player that beat us. Can't complain about that. If we'd scored more in the half that we absolutely dominated, it wouldn't have been an issue.
 
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