Lyon CL QF Post-Match Thread

[SidJames]

Could take losing to Bayern but to fucking Lyon??

Our squad isnt that good. Ageing and too fucking slow.

Koulibally will be an enormous mistake. Mangala 0.2

Got to say i have not really followed him.So didn't get the fuss.

I made a point of watching him the other night.He had similarities to both Mangala,and Otamaendi lunging in.

was not impressed.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

it is the one criticism you can aim at Pep, which is that he has a very poor record of recovering from a losing position. He stubbornly sticks to plan A until far too late in the game.
Right from the off it was clear that Lyon were pumping long balls with pinpoint accuracy, whereas we were just going from side to side like a metronome. It was all to pedestrian and predictable, whereas Lyon looked dangerous every time they got forward. The house of cards that is our defence, lived up to its usual standard.
Wonder how Barnardo Silva is feeling / thinking right now!?

Walker and Laporte are up there. The rest of our defenders won't suddenly become the solution next season.

 

[LongsightM13]

You can guarantee that Bayern wont be changing their entire set up to play a cowardly, reactive, spineless, passive system against Lyon.
Did we even press them once tonight? The chasm between the Madrid game and tonight remains inexplicable

 

[john blue]

No doubt Pep got it wrong today but that does not excuse player errors. One of the reasons Pep tries different things like today is because the players can't always be relied on to go out and deliver in this competition. He's tried to compensate for their weaknesses rather than just playing to their strengths. The fact is he has come a cropper with both approaches. We need some new players to help Pep elevate us again.

I've not read this thread but if comments are anything like those on Twitter, it'll just have me shaking my head at the state of some of our supporters. Pep is not perfect but Pep is not the problem.
[/QUOTEHe was tonight, he picked the team, and watched , and watched and watched !

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

Post of the night.

If that was post of the day then we should all be happy to stay exactly where we are. Not for me.

 

[john blue]

We've bought shit like Rodri last summer and are lining up an 80m Mangala impersonator.

Do u have confidence the club will get the right players?

I mean we're keeping Gundogan for a start though even if we tried to sell him he'd go missing so we couldn't.

He got a new contract .

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Got to say i have not really followed him.So didn't get the fuss.

I made a point of watching him the other night.He had similarities to both Mangala,and Otamaendi lunging in.

was not impressed.

Christ almighty, a cross between Mangala and Otamendi! That is going to be one hell of a shit defender :-)

 

[Bluemoonie92]

This has happened way too many times. We called it with the line-up and nothing changed pretty worrying tbh

 

[samarasra]

An unnecessarily defense oriented starting 11, 2 "sitters" missed, 3 defensive "howlers" = Kaboom. Now Pep only Sergio remains from the "greats" time to sign an extension, some hungry young talents and build a new team to play the best football possible.

 

[Beanhead]

If you read what I said earlier I blame pep 100 percent for going out but I also know we are getting no favours either . That foul was at a most crucial stage of the game when we where on top and looking to score again so yes it didn’t help either but the game could have been won n the first half. Very concerned with Rodri going into next season if I’m honest as I think he’s a fucking cart horse .

Rodri is not a cart horse, nor is Ilkay or even a 35 year old Fern.. however playing the 3 together against a team that like to park the bus and break at pace is.. err.. not the best.

Rodri sat at the base of a 3 man midfield with a playmaker either side and a front 3 in front and regular back 4 would have blown that Lyon side away.

We had lost that game at kick off.

 

[Scooby Blue]

Champs league: read the books about Pep + his sabbatical hanging out with chess grandmasters in New York.
Having won loads of league titles with all his clubs - he wants to go down in history as the first guy to do something funky en-route to a CL final: the football equivalent of a queen sacrifice to win a game.
(think gundogan out on the wing vs Liverpool at Anfield)
Problem: he has failed numerous times to pull it off - but this bizarrely seems to make him even more stubborn in feeling he has to do something different in key games

Broader football point: it evolves - it moves on
Think how outdated Mourinho's tactics look now.
There is a combination of physical energy alongside technique that is emerging as the current winning formula.
e.g. Liverpool / Davies at LB for Bayern / Wolves via Traore doing the double over us this season.
Pep is stubborn in prioritising technique (Rodri / Gundo) when what we really need is energy + drive to complement our best players

 

[wythenshaweblue£££]

Just got in had a few beers I’ve calmed down now I think, one thing I don’t get it every time we get to a quarter final in the champions league we seem to pick the wrong team or manage to mess it up. Wrong team selection tonight to defensive.

 

[Neville Kneville]

You can guarantee that Bayern wont be changing their entire set up to play a cowardly, reactive, spineless, passive system against Lyon.
Did we even press them once tonight? The chasm between the Madrid game and tonight remains inexplicable

Imo, even allowing for the misses & fuckups, we should have won 1-0.

But ( and I'm not blaming him, even though I'm not a fan) what was Gundogan's role ?

I figured, Garcia, Rodri, Fern, Gundogan, was to keep the ball when Lyon pressed, but it was almost as if Rodri & Gundogan were decoys, to draw their midfield away, to allow Garcia time to move forward & pass it through to the front.

But why Gundogan ?

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Champions League quarter finals against inferior opposition and we walked out with our tails between our legs with five defenders and two holding midfielders.

Pellegrini got slaughtered (unfairly in my view) when we set up cautiously against Real Madrid in the 2016 Semi. But that was when Real were at their peak (arguably their greatest ever team) and we ran them closer than we did Lyon. I love Pep but he definitely bottled it tonight.

 

[john blue]

We created enough to win the game.

It's not Pep's fault we missed a number of really good chances.

It's not Pep's fault Walker played them onside for their 1st.

It's not his fault their 2and goal was incorrectly given.

It's also not Pep's fault that Ederson turned into a sunday league goalie at the most inopportune moment for their 3rd.

The players didn't do their jobs mate.

Do you know you can swop players during a match, called ,subs, if its not going well you can take a player off , and put a SUB on, it can change the game.

 

[bestia_negra]

New here, hope I dont trigger you lads but I am here to have a neutral conversation.

It is a disgrace how UEFA is treating you in my opinion, I was sure that you will get ****ed by VAR because of the recent history of you lads vs UEFA. Bayern and City were robbed of a great semi-final to be honest, that would have been a clash of the top3 powerhouses in europe (this season).

I am not sure about Peps tactics to be honest, he did the same thing in Munich for 3 CL campains straight. I love him as a manager and I still rank him highly but I can not understand why he is so stubborn when it comes to "new" lineups in important cup matches. Never change a running system.

I am seriously gutted that Bayern have to face Lyon now, it has such a bittersweet feeling...

Anyways, I really hope that Pep finally understand that he should just play his normal IX in cup matches, it is really important for his legacy, still, Bayern was never the same after him (in the League at least). Hopefully you can shit on Uefa next year, dont be bitter much lads, next season you will hopefully f*** the scousers and maybe Uefa.

Today was just a chain of bad luck in my opinion, Lyon scoring 3 goals out of 3 chances, Sterling missing a 1000% chance, can happen, I know it feels like shit but don't be too hard on yourselves.

Hope you dont hate me for pity you, I love city in the prem and I am a bit mad about the result as well.

 

[smallsteve]

I cant blame Pep for this loss.

We had several good chances to score throughout the game but only took one of them.

The Jesus and Sterling misses in particular were absolutely mind boggling.

To miss one, let alone two, chances of that calibre is sickening.

But lets be honest blues, Bayern would've absolutely bummed us in the next round anyway.

That’s always been the problem with Jesus i.e. not that he doesn’t score goals or put the effort in, but his conversion rate Is way down on where it should be for a player of his standing.

 

[colinbellsballboy]

Because he picked the wholly wrong team and past successes are exactly that. This was the most negative side he could have picked. All the talk of tournament football and every game a final, and he picked a team to play the first leg of a semi final away to Wigan

Was gonna go into how he picked Ferny, and Gundogan, and Walker, and no Silvas, and no Foden, but CBA, it was that obvious....that is why I said why, why why........I dunno, maybe he just overthought it, maybe he is that intense, he just thinks he is right....I dunno.....he obs got it wrong tonight.....and I imagine he will say as much in the next few days.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Walker and Laporte are up there. The rest of our defenders won't suddenly become the solution next season.

Bernardo's form dropped off a cliff at the point the media mauled him.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Champs league: read the books about Pep + his sabbatical hanging out with chess grandmasters in New York.
Having won loads of league titles with all his clubs - he wants to go down in history as the first guy to do something funky en-route to a CL final: the football equivalent of a queen sacrifice to win a game.
(think gundogan out on the wing vs Liverpool at Anfield)
Problem: he has failed numerous times to pull it off - but this bizarrely seems to make him even more stubborn in feeling he has to do something different in key games

Broader football point: it evolves - it moves on
Think how outdated Mourinho's tactics look now.
There is a combination of physical energy alongside technique that is emerging as the current winning formula.
e.g. Liverpool / Davies at LB for Bayern / Wolves via Traore doing the double over us this season.
Pep is stubborn in prioritising technique (Rodri / Gundo) when what we really need is energy + drive to complement our best players

I agree with the last bit & have been saying it for years.

Pep will win everything if he combines the physical side (& good basics) with his game. Nobody can do what Pep does, to his level. But sloths, weaklings & midgets & midfielders at cb, is not the way to evolve it.