It's Friday and I am still bewildered by what I saw on Wednesday evening. City were completely outclassed and outplayed in every department of the game by a team which was quicker in both thought and movement, and I have to give credit to a superb Monaco side on the night. They were simply too good for us. We were too strong for them at the Etihad but in Monaco they were far and away the better side. Obviously, I can't say they would have beaten anyone on the night but it would have taken an excellent team to hold them and on the night City were a long way short of excellence and I don't know why. It wasn't lack of effort, it wasn't lack of ability and it wasn't lack of planning. The papers have given it Pep in the neck for fielding an eleven which was too attacking, but who should have played who didn't? Ya Ya is mentioned but Ya Ya's weaknesses are defensive and I think he would have struggled with the pace of the Monaco team. We may well have been crucifying Ya Ya today for being played round too easily. The sad fact is that with the possible exception of Ya Ya no-one on our bench was anything other than a mile short of those already on the pitch, though personally I might except Zaba from that. That was - and it pains me to say it - as near as damn it to our best eleven and on the night Monaco made mincemeat of it. We had been warned. Pep had been telling all of us how we had to play and hammering the message home at every opportunity - and on the night we couldn't do it.
Partially this was an "on the night" matter - we had an awful night where none of our players were anything like their norm, let alone their best. Fernandinho was swamped because he couldn't make an accurate ten yard pass in the first half at least and Silva, KdB, Sterling and Sane seemed to be content to observe, rather than play in the match. Clichy and Sagna were played out of the game by forwards who were too good for them. We have to accept that many of our team were not good enough on the night and some are simply not good enough at all. Willy did OK but will never be a keeper in a team which wins the CL. The problem in our goal is not that Joe is now in Turin so much as that his replacement has had his worst season ever, a real nightmare. We know the full backs are not good enough and are too old. It seems unlikely that Vinnie will ever lead our team again. All I can say is that Pep did try to bring in Bellerin, Bonucci, Laporte, the two lads from Atletico to bolster the defence which shows he was aware of the problems, but they wouldn't come... He's sure to try again this summer. We couldn't adopt a more defensive approach on Wednesday because we haven't got the players. And we couldn't attack until Monaco showed signs of being unable to keep the level of intensity up in the second half.
So, at the moment I think promises of jam tomorrow will have to be our diet. I do believe that Pep has been aware of the problems since his earliest days at the club and he will bring us a very successful future but it certainly didn't begin on Wednesday night.
