Lyon (H) - Post Match Thread

We look physically and mentally fried. Walker and Fern in particular look well short of the extra gears.

The starting eleven always seemed to suggest we hoped to get away with a win, which has to be on Pep.

I keep thinking some of our early below-par displays will suddenly see us wake up but there is no discernible improvement towards our best level as yet.

Off the top of my head, though, there is a recurring theme in all the games we have got negative results in under Pep (thankfully, they are few and far between) but when Gundogan is starting on the pitch...

Leicester
Celtic (twice)
Burnley
Liverpool Champs League
Wolves
Lyon
United
Palace
Shakhtar

He's a defensive liability because he gravitates towards the number ten role and doesn't have the fitness or desire to get back in and help.
 
Lyon were bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic than us and we didn’t cope well with that.

We looked old and leggy and had no energy in midfield until Bernardo came inside in the second half.

Some really poor performances!

Leroy was a breath of fresh air when he came on.

Lyon were surprisingly a decent outfit though, I knew absolutely nothing about them before the game.
 
You could argue about the tactics and starting 11. Personally I would have started Leroy and played Bernardo in the middle. But individually the team just had a mare.

Sometimes you have matches where everything just clicks and nothing can stop us. We had plenty of those last season.

Sometimes you’ll have 2/3 players that aren’t quite at the races and the performance level will drop and you just have to hope that the other players will carry them through.

And sometimes (although incredibly rarely for us now) every player in the team will have an “off night” and it will lead to a diabolical decision. Last night was one of those nights.

Hopefully this is a wake up call to us that we cannot afford to be complacent. That applies to both pep and the players.
 
Win as a team, lose as a team, so there's little point picking out individuals, especially when so many played poorly. Credit to Lyon, but I'd like to see us start Foden and Sane, simply because those two have the energy and drive to take the ball into the opposition.
 
Tricky_Trev said:
People can bring out the fucking rag comments as per usual, but I comment on what I see and nothing more. No blue-tinted specs, just an assessment of the reality. This team is showing all the hallmarks of the last 2 title defences. It’s literally the same mental qualities on show, but a different way of playing. Ultimately however, the lack of the correct mental approach completely nullifies any tactical gains from having a better manager than the last two attempts to defend our title. People can refuse to acknowledge it, but without a dramatic shift in our players’ application, our outlook this season is the same. There’s no intensity, no tempo, our pressure is sporadic whereas it used to be relentless. Everyone sniggers at people that realise ‘do you know what, Liverpool look good for the title’. They refuse to accept it. But we’re not doing anything to show we want the title more than them. And we don’t look like we believe we can win the Champions League, so we won’t. I really don’t know what it is about these players following success. I feel like we’re in need of a rousing Vinnie speech at the training ground this week, he needs to crack some skulls and make everyone realise we have set ourselves standards that must be kept.
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I really thought we lacked any kind of leadership last night. Vinnie would of been Trying to gee us up and get us going, as would KDB, but other than those two we don’t really have many who will get into people who are having a shocker. Something was way off last night and like you say it is very much how we have started the season.
 
Glad when Peps back can't watch this shit served up by Arteta no motivation or belief given to the team last night should've started Aguero and Sane and ffs what does Foden need to do to get a game?

Delph looked like a Sunday league player with the attempted clearance for the goal...
 
They targeted Fernandinho they did their homework, Gundogan just doesn’t work in there, until KDB comes back for me Bernardo has to start in the middle, it’s one loss, we will still win the group, the lads just need to pick up the pace, we are only 6 weeks into the season and everyone looks tired, I do worry about matching Liverpool’s energy in a few weeks though.
 
Lazy performance, players had a day off while Pep was banned. With that attitude we win nowt this season. (aside from Sterling)
 
Tricky_Trev said:
People can bring out the fucking rag comments as per usual, but I comment on what I see and nothing more. No blue-tinted specs, just an assessment of the reality. This team is showing all the hallmarks of the last 2 title defences. It’s literally the same mental qualities on show, but a different way of playing. Ultimately however, the lack of the correct mental approach completely nullifies any tactical gains from having a better manager than the last two attempts to defend our title. People can refuse to acknowledge it, but without a dramatic shift in our players’ application, our outlook this season is the same. There’s no intensity, no tempo, our pressure is sporadic whereas it used to be relentless. Everyone sniggers at people that realise ‘do you know what, Liverpool look good for the title’. They refuse to accept it. But we’re not doing anything to show we want the title more than them. And we don’t look like we believe we can win the Champions League, so we won’t. I really don’t know what it is about these players following success. I feel like we’re in need of a rousing Vinnie speech at the training ground this week, he needs to crack some skulls and make everyone realise we have set ourselves standards that must be kept.
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I agree with much of that. Especially lack of intensity. A few lads look like they’re posing at the min especially Walker. Need to get that hunger back. That might come from giving the likes of Danilo and Zinchenko as well as Foden game time. The former two played big roles last year. We’ve not strengthened at all at CF or CM and that’s obvious. Mahrez looks poor at min. Quite a bit for Pep to work on. KDB missing is huge but if Leroy has shown anything in the last two games it’s that if he’s fit he has to start.
 
Absolutely imperative we win our next two games in this group, otherwise we could be staring a group stage exit in the face.
To not finish top of this group would be disappointing, an exit at this stage would be a disgrace.
 
This thing about Pep doing immense job at scouting opponents and tailoring tactics with small details vs them is a myth. Especially in the CL. If we did homework about them we should have prepared well where they have weaknesses where they have strengths. Their pacy forward line and wing was certainly one. Fekir probably their best player there were lot of talk about him joining Liverpool in the summer.

Somehow in the CL its happening for us since a long time that any decent team is possibly punishing our weaknesses (and even teams like Lyon, Liverpool, Napoli, Monaco not just those like Barca, Real etc.) but we dont do the same to them and even set up sometimes that just isnt giving us the best chance to win.

We have to stop doing this otherwise getting very far in CL wont happen.

Not winning the group would mean high chance of getting one of Barca, Real, Juventus, Bayern in the next round already. Last year we would have had a quite lucky draw until final (Basel, Pool, Roma) that aint happening every year.
 
blueincy said:
Glad when Peps back can't watch this shit served up by Arteta no motivation or belief given to the team last night should've started Aguero and Sane and ffs what does Foden need to do to get a game?

Delph looked like a Sunday league player with the attempted clearance for the goal...
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Surely it was Pep who picked the team

Pep would have been more of an influence on the sidelines though

It looked as though the players thought the boss is away we can stroll this, its like a normal work day when the gaffers not about and people take liberties

Hopefully Pep saw that both Fernandhino and Gundogan doesn't work in the middle from his seat in the stands and that Bernado is wasted out wide.

Bernardo MOTM Saturday playing middle and it's changed I just don't get it.
 
First half was awful. Delph must have some excuse for his efforts as I have never seen him make so many errors. I thought Lyon looked a poor side which makes losing even worse. On a positive note Sterling played well and didn’t let his standards drop as all around him had shockers.
 
GSW Blue said:
First half was awful. Delph must have some excuse for his efforts as I have never seen him make so many errors. I thought Lyon looked a poor side which makes losing even worse. On a positive note Sterling played well and didn’t let his standards drop as all around him had shockers.
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This loss also means 4 losses in the CL in a row right now. 3 of them at the Etihad.

Etihad should be a fortress in the CL when teams come here but with half empty stands, booing the anthem, mediocre atmosphere and some quite mediocre performances and questionable mentality from players on the pitch its something totally else not a fortress. We need to change that quickly.
 
Said it last night but still think the same, on recent games it looks like we've made the same mistake as the last 2 times we won the league and not strengthened and freshened the squad in the summer.

Not bringing in a DM was a major mistake.
 
Tricky_Trev said:
People can bring out the fucking rag comments as per usual, but I comment on what I see and nothing more. No blue-tinted specs, just an assessment of the reality. This team is showing all the hallmarks of the last 2 title defences. It’s literally the same mental qualities on show, but a different way of playing. Ultimately however, the lack of the correct mental approach completely nullifies any tactical gains from having a better manager than the last two attempts to defend our title. People can refuse to acknowledge it, but without a dramatic shift in our players’ application, our outlook this season is the same. There’s no intensity, no tempo, our pressure is sporadic whereas it used to be relentless. Everyone sniggers at people that realise ‘do you know what, Liverpool look good for the title’. They refuse to accept it. But we’re not doing anything to show we want the title more than them. And we don’t look like we believe we can win the Champions League, so we won’t. I really don’t know what it is about these players following success. I feel like we’re in need of a rousing Vinnie speech at the training ground this week, he needs to crack some skulls and make everyone realise we have set ourselves standards that must be kept.
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Absolutely bang on Sir.
After a successful season our club badge should be a bunch of laurel leaves with a fat ass sitting on them.
There's simply no impetus there. Our passing is laboured, too many touches and our ball recovery seems much less industrious.
We can argue the transfer window until the cows come home, but fresh faces and hunger added to an already successful team would have pushed us on.
However, hopefully some personal reflection and pride will emerge from this.
 
what a very disappointing performance, the first half should be a 45 min example the squad of what is not acceptable for league champions or aspiring European Champions.

bit of a shame some of the players look so off the pace still, and i refuse to accept that we 'miss' KdB, it's just most of the squad seem to have gone a bit flat.

c'mon Blues, i'm sure you know that was absolutely far from acceptable. Feels weird watching us play shit!
 
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