Over a season you finish where you deserve to. New coach comes in, players work harder to impress = honeymoon period. No team finishes in a false position. They finished 7th in a mediocre league. All teams have injuries.
No I’m not watching it again. Once was enough. In fact I’m not watching one second of football until we play our first match of the season.. I need a break from it
Not gonna argue the toss with you, I see it differently to you, that’s fine
I’ll save my energy for haunting rags if they lose later as they have made my life hell since about 10pm last night
Yes, Pep's best move now would be to take responsibility for the tactics. This would help him also with the players and the fans. Tactics was bad enough but the changes weren't fast and radical enough. Why keep both Foden and Bernardo on the bench when we don't look particularly energetic on the pitch? Why wait 80 minutes to sub one from Rodri and Gundy? Not only tactics was bad, but subs were bad too. We used too little Foden and Bernardo this season and relied too much on Gundy and Dave. Pep seems to value experience a bit too much, at the expense of energy and pace. A recurrent problem throughout the season.
I personally felt last year was our year.
We were robbed by corrupt VAR officials of what should have been ours.
Still it dosent excuse that shit show last night.
What happened to Pep" I will will never change the way i play mentality".The naivety that has cost us so dearly in away Legs of Champions League games at Liverpool,Monaco,in the past.
If ever a game where attack really was our best form of defense. Last night was it.
The only way i saw them winning last night even before the Team sheet was read our.
was by us setting up in one of Pep brain fart Alien formations causing even more calamitous defending than usual for them to benefit from.So we go and do just that.
We dont need any in depth analysis of where it all went wrong.
All we had to do was play to our own attacking strengths.Knowing full well we would likely make a mistake, or two,as we usually do these days.But would have too much for them over 90 minutes..
Whatever we think about team selection, at 1-1 VAR had a major impact on the game. How an "offside" player allowing the ball to go through his legs and then subsequently score is totally beyond me. UEFA only needed one opportunity to make sure we didn't progress and they got it. I'm not denying we weren't good but there's plenty on here who should look at themselves and their comments.
Lewandowski will be playing left back and Gnabry center back to cover BoatengThey fear them.
That setup was so badly wrong last night that it's hard to even know where to begin.
I dont actually mind the back three and I had a feeling Pep would utilise it to match up with Lyon. The problem is his XI was so badly wrong that it afforded us no pace or legs.
If you're worried about the pace of Lyon, then you play Walker as the RCB, Cancelo RWB and Mendy on the left. You don't play Garcia and Ferna, both of whom are slow. You don't play Garcia full stop with the news that he wants out.
Rodri and Gundo were both passengers in the midfield. No legs to get up and down and support both ends.
We lacked any width too as Cancelo can't use his left, so it enabled Lyon to defend more on the inside which blocked off the space for KDB.
All in all, that from Pep was utter garbage. Serious questions need to be asked. The whole season since the restart has been geared towards the cups. In both cups we've gone out with insipid performances.
You are 100% right but pep is a genius I believe.
He's right though. We're no where near the elite in the champions league.Please tell me he didn't actually say that?
I still cannot believe how Raheem missed that chance.
I can't comprehend how bad it was.
In all the years I played has a centre forward I missed a few sitters but not that bad.
Some very spoilt fans on here today - understandably- but Pep & the team only last year, won every domestic trophy. The year before that reached 100 points.
they got it wrong yesterday but the level of criticism is uncalled for. Pep must stay & oversee a slight rebuild & (we go again) we’ll be even stronger next year
He's right though. We're no where near the elite in the champions league.
But what I will say is we've only been in it for 10 years, teams in it longer than us haven't won it so I think time is on our side, kind of.
The fact that we've spent big somehow gives authority to the media to say we should have won it already which is bollocks in my eyes.
As soon as I saw the team sheet, that was my impression. Realistically only 1 of the 3 should have been needed as a starter.3 defensive minded midfielders against the 7th best team in France?
I would find this much easier to deal with if we had set up in our normal way, did everything we normally do with the attacking brilliance at our disposal, creativity, pace, drawing Lyon out of their shape, Kevin in the middle, pinpoint balls for Raheem and Gab to run onto. If we lost (fairly) doing that, knowing we'd done everything in our power to win, I could deal with it.
Oh rubbish, there was nothing meek about the way we lost to Spurs last season - were you there? Utte tripe.
With Sergio, he either scores or the GK makes a wonder save - but like you say, he scores that chance a thousand times out of a thousand. He is every bit as scary to opposing teams as Lewandowski is for Bayern.Sterling has that in him. He’s missed 4 or 5 very similar chances in his city career
Sadly Sergio would have tucked that away a thousand times out of a thousand. If only
There has been a consistent theme of the type of goal we have conceded ever since Garcia became a starter.
They have been lost in foot races or Ederson caught in no man's land as a result.
Out backline is painfully high and slow, further exposing the various levels of pace amongst individual defenders.
You have Garcia and Laporte always trying to play offside and Walker hanging back closer to goal (even though it's his raw pace we rely on to get us off the hook)
Last night is the first time I felt the fans and players weren't bought into what Pep was trying to achieve.
It's a worrying period with little turnaround time until the new season and continued fault lines throughout the defensive midfield and entire back line.
Going out with a whimper really makes it hard to takeI would find this much easier to deal with if we had set up in our normal way, did everything we normally do with the attacking brilliance at our disposal, creativity, pace, drawing Lyon out of their shape, Kevin in the middle, pinpoint balls for Raheem and Gab to run onto. If we lost (fairly) doing that, knowing we'd done everything in our power to win, I could deal with it.