Lyon CL QF Post-Match Thread

I think sometimes fans believe the shite that SKY peddle about the Premier League being the best & strongest league in the world, just because of the money.
Results this year have shown that not to be the case & maybe we ought to remember that when playing the better sides late in European competitions
 
A long time since I've felt this level of frustration at the end of a season.

Certainly we've been on the end of poor luck and the wrong side of fine margins, but the frustration is mostly due to the individual errors and weak play that was summed up on Saturday.

A common theme throughout games we dropped points in was missing key chances - the underlying stats (XG in particular) show that. Look at Saturday - two minutes in and Sterling fails to complete a simple cut back for a tap in. The subsequent misses from Jesus at 1-1 and Sterling at 2-1 down are just further proof of this.

But weak play and errors at key moments has been as bad. Going back as far as Norwich - Otamendi short back pass to give them the third after we got back into the game. Wolves away - Sterling presenting the ball back to them after we've gone 2-0 up with ten men & Mendy with an inexplicable decision at 2-1. Palace at home, where Zaha is allowed to run into the penalty area - he should have been absolutely clobbered as soon as he got on the ball. Saturday, the first goal contains errors - KDB & Rodri allowing the centre back to waltz forward and play the pass unchallenged and then Walker not tracking Cornet's run. Laporte forcing a ball into midfield prior to the second isn't great either.

We've got a group of players who lost their leader & had two serious injuries at the very start of the season, after accumulating 198 points in the previous two. Did they have the energy and drive this season to keep breaking down the deep block we faced nearly every week? I don't think it's solely up to Pep to motivate them to do this - it has to come from within.

I don't think the system on Saturday was a total disaster. Given how often we had faced a 3-5-2/5-3-2 and struggled to generate chances, but had long balls thrown into the channels either side of the centre back and deep runs causing issues, it likely made sense to the management. Lyon created very little - last season they caused us awful problems.

I'm concerned, but not overly worried yet. Provided we can make a strong start to next season and move on some obvious deadwood from the squad (Otamendi & Zinchenko minimum) then I'm confident we'll be back challenging. Ake & Torres are definitely the right signings, both versatile, young & hopefully hungry to win. I'd suggest we need another centre back if Garcia is definitely out and possibly an older 'emergency' striker with height & power - these mega bus parks call for extraordinary measures.
 
Somewhat recovered after drinking myself under a table and being out for most of Sunday.

I’ve typed so many things but yet can’t be concise. El Mago, thanks for the memories. Shame you couldn’t fight for the chance to lift the cup.

Bad game from manager to some players. It really did end the way It did. Some rest and reflection needed for next season to try again.
 
Sadly after 10 years at european level it's a damning indictment that our best result is our appeal to CAS.
Very sad.
 
qshot989 said:
Rodri and Gundogan does not work, every game they have started together has been a problem.
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They started both games against Real, Liverpool at home and Manure away in the cup: probably our best 4 games all season.

The problem wasn't the Rodri and Gundy pairing per se but playing them with 3 CBs against Lyon. That killed our natural game.

A combo of Rodri/Gundy and Silva was worse than a combo of Gundy and Rodri but people have a natural soft spot for Silva and tend to blame other players when we lose with Silva in the team.
 
Another thought I've had about the strangeness of Saturday night's performance, is that how much Pep wanted us to go through worrying about the lack of preparation time we'd have for the new season. He always bangs on about how important rest time is and we'd have virtually two weeks before the new season starts if we'd have gone on to the semis/final where we'd have had two more high intensity games . Just seemed so odd as when chasing the game he was very reluctant to bring on any attacking subs, Mahrez was too late and the substitution bringing Merlin on well he may as well not have bothered. Don't think it will be hurting Pep, like it is us.
 
blue oli said:
It’s not the best result but FFS that’s the quarter finals of the champions league in a one off game.

Many have said you need to be the best team AND be lucky, we were not lucky in any way starting with no Kun and all the way the sterling getting a tiny bobble before he hit that ball, and the offensive VAR decision.

We have had worse games, worse results, a lot worse seasons.

Get a grip folks, finished second in the premier league, won a cup and a shield, quarterfinal in the champions league, semi final in the FA cup.

I’m as disappointed as the next city fan, but let’s not turn into that bunch from across town and moan when we don’t win everything - let’s be grateful for where we are, what we have, the players we have, players we may get, and look forward to next season positively.

But most of all - let’s remain humble and remember where we came from and the dark days - and be thankful for the ability to moan about being knocked out of the champions league in the quarterfinals ffs.
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exellent post.
 
Fordyboy46 said:
Another thought I've had about the strangeness of Saturday night's performance, is that how much Pep wanted us to go through worrying about the lack of preparation time we'd have for the new season. He always bangs on about how important rest time is and we'd have virtually two weeks before the new season starts if we'd have gone on to the semis/final where we'd have had two more high intensity games . Just seemed so odd as when chasing the game he was very reluctant to bring on any attacking subs, Mahrez was too late and the substitution bringing Merlin on well he may as well not have bothered. Don't think it will be hurting Pep, like it is us.
Click to expand...
we still had more than enough posession and chances to have won
 
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