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

[Rolee]

Bringing in The Jesus has already improved us defensively.

 

[Dax777]

Well they look better but that's because they have Kante in front of them, and matic. Look at Huth and Morgan now that Kante is not there.

I don't think Alonso or Cahill are that good. Zouma could become very good and Azpilcueta is quality, but I think if you put the Chelsea defenders in City shirts we'd have the same problem. This is just subjective opinion. All this season the defensive weakness has been pinned on on individual defenders not doing their job. I think there must be a part due to a new keeper and new central defender settling in, but last season I spent most of it complaining about Toure, and we haven't addressed that. He's much fitter, and really committed, but his strengths are his distribution. We have Silva, De bruyne and Toure in our midfield. All outstanding on the ball. What we don't have in our midfield is a Kante like player. If we did, I think our defenders would look a lot better.

All this philosophizing is all well and good. But here are some facts:

City concedes fewer shots per game than Chelsea.

Man City: 8.0
Chelsea: 8.5

So it's not really Kante or their defense being so great. As it is perhaps our luck, and there luck. And perhaps our keeper vs their keeper.

Frankly City and Liverpool should be conceding the least because they give the opposition the fewest amount of opportunities per game. Chelsea might simply have a better keeper.

I think where we've been weak and this is supported by both fans and the stats. City fullbacks block the fewest # of crosses per game in the league. Granted we alao concede the fewest # to start with. But unlike the other top clubs our ℅ of blocks to conceded are midtablish. If we up our block rate by 10℅ and our save rate by 10℅ we will in fact become the stingiest team in the league. A combination of better players (particularly at fullback and probably goalie), regression to the norm (our rate of conceding will eventually match our stingy shots allowed eventually), and some luck. Is what's going to help our defense. The system is actually pretty good.

full backs and a keeper are the priority for me. two fast young full backs who can attack and defend. not sure who though. in terms of a keeper and a centre back id go for laporte to play next to stones and pickford at sunderland.

Yup.
Semedo or Heinrich or Perreirra RB.

Bernat, or Grimaldo or Sinkgraven LB

Goalie, I don't know. Moraes Seem the new flavor. I like the kid in Italy personally. But I'm terrible at evaluating goalies.

 

[Chippy_boy]

All this philosophizing is all well and good. But here are some facts:

City concedes fewer shots per game than Chelsea.

Man City: 8.0
Chelsea: 8.5

So it's not really Kante or their defense being so great. As it is perhaps our luck, and there luck. And perhaps our keeper vs their keeper.

Frankly City and Liverpool should be conceding the least because they give the opposition the fewest amount of opportunities per game. Chelsea might simply have a better keeper.

Interesting stats, but that stats hide the fact that many of our chances conceded are full-on, through-on-goal chances; whereas the Chelsea ones typically are not. That's a very big factor in why we conceded much more. And our keeper has been crap too!

 

[blueparrot]

Surely this is the same as the are City on the fullback situation thread. Its the same answer 3 of our 4 fullbacks are out of contract this summer and will be replaced, that will go a long ay to sorting out our defensive problems.

 

[Marvin]

He is working on it daily imo. His teams rely on the team working as a unit and all being comfortable on the ball. At the moment the biggest hinderence to this are the full backs, hence trying Fern at right back at the weekend. Once we get that sorted, the balance will be better and we will have a better defence.
Just look at Barca and Bayern, once he got the system right, players who would not work in a traditional defence looked excellent - Mascherano, Dante, Boetang etc.. i think it's too simplistic to say buy a centre back, buy a defensive mid, I don't think they are the areas that are weak at the moment

Player for player I think our defenders are as good as Chelsea. They however have two midfield players whose main job is to protect their defence. We have Toure who is outstanding on the ball, but lets players run off him. Fernandinho can do the job too, but this aspect to our play is what I think is behind a lot of the cheap goals against us. We don't concede that many chances as we monopolise the ball, but when we do concede chances it can be straightforward chances as we have no cover. That's why I think we are getting these stats where Bravo makes no saves but concedes goal after goal and City can have 4 x attempt on goal as opponents and still lose or draw. At times we are wide open in defence. teams can come and park the bus, and even if they go 1-0 down it makes no odds as they know that sooner or later they will get a good chance in the game.

I thought we'd try and plug the gap with Kompany who I thought was our best defender but it seems Guardiola doesn't think that's the answer, or is maybe protecting him for the long term.

 

[Marvin]

Surely this is the same as the are City on the fullback situation thread. Its the same answer 3 of our 4 fullbacks are out of contract this summer and will be replaced, that will go a long ay to sorting out our defensive problems.

If you think the problem is only down to personnel then yes it would be. As I pointed out though the other way of looking at it is to consider whether the way City are set up leads our defenders exposed to counter-attacks more than teams like Chelsea who employ two defensive midfielders in Matic and Kante.

I'm not saying we should adopt Chelsea's style of play, just pointing out that just replacing defenders might not be the answer, or the whole answer. We have been trying for some time, so perhaps it's not the defenders that are the problem, but the defensive strength of the play in front of them.

 

[Dax777]

Interesting stats, but that stats hide the fact that many of our chances conceded are full-on, through-on-goal chances; whereas the Chelsea ones typically are not. That's a very big factor in why we conceded much more. And our keeper has been crap too!

There is a bit of that. And a bit of luck. We've had 9. Defensive errors to their 8 for the season. Yet almost half of ours '4' resulted in goals. While only 1/4 of theirs did. Just 2. Arsenal on the other hand have made 11 errors, 2 more than we have and yet conceded only 2 goals from them.

I think we've been a little unlucky and a little poor. Either one changing, will make us look a lot better perception wise.

 

[The Riot Club]

If we scored even 1 more goal a game from all of the chances we keep creating, defence wouldn't even be an issue.

 

[blueparrot]

If you think the problem is only down to personnel then yes it would be. As I pointed out though the other way of looking at it is to consider whether the way City are set up leads our defenders exposed to counter-attacks more than teams like Chelsea who employ two defensive midfielders in Matic and Kante.

I'm not saying we should adopt Chelsea's style of play, just pointing out that just replacing defenders might not be the answer, or the whole answer. We have been trying for some time, so perhaps it's not the defenders that are the problem, but the defensive strength of the play in front of them.

I see, in that case then I suppose we could set up tighter with the players we have but would probably have less possesion. But in my opinion we will set up the sameway next season but with fullbacks that are much quicker and will cut out a lot of chances before they get into our box. That and a more mobile pivot will see us with one of the best defeces next year. More Spurs type defending than Chelsea if you want to compare this seasons best defences.

 

[Marvin]

I see, in that case then I suppose we could set up tighter with the players we have but would probably have less possesion. But in my opinion we will set up the sameway next season but with fullbacks that are much quicker and will cut out a lot of chances before they get into our box. That and a more mobile pivot will see us with one of the best defeces next year. More Spurs type defending than Chelsea if you want to compare this seasons best defences.

I might be wrong about this but Spurs play with two deep midfielders as well: wanyama, Dembele or Sissoko. They have 3 players Son, Eriksen and Ali in behind Kane, and support those 4 with with the raiding full backs but always have the two defensive midfielders covering their defence.

We've got Fernandinho, Toure, Silva, KDB, Sterling, Sane and jesus/Aguero: 7 attack-minded players. I know Toure and Fernandinho are doing the defensive roles but they are not out and out defensive midfielders, and that for me is a problem. Agree we could do better with quicker full backs. Last season we had the same issue with Toure only it was more pronounced then as he was carrying a lot of weight. Still a bit of a problem though. Perhaps Guardiola doesn't think he has the players on the books to address this, although I think Fernando is the best defensive midfielder we have.

Perhaps Guardiola felt that he couldn't bolster the defensive side whilst we were struggling to create chances, and he might look to strengthen that side of the team now that we look better going forward?