The players weren't motivated either and thought they could of coasted to the Semi Final. Nothing to do with Pep's coaching but his team selection was baffling.
I disagree. The players wanted this but if you're tactically poor, it's always going to look as though they weren't motivated.
you forgot to add he has been doping in his career which is half his success,you know like you usually post,blue my arseRewarding failure. Bayern and Juve sack coaches for winning leagues without European progress; £700m spent on top of inheriting Kompany, Fernandinho, David Silva, De Bruyne, Aguero etc, yet still nowhere near Championship League success due to his annual tactical implosion. If he couldn’t get a semi with that team, he isn’t going to with the default downgrades he signs to replace them.
He’s previously been very lucky - he inherited a Puyol who’d previously won a Champions League and Euros with Spain, the brilliant Rafa Marquez who succeeded alongside Puyol under Rijkaard, plus Pique who’d learned his trade with Ferdinand and Vidic pre-Pep.
Bayern were European Champions with the best keeper in Europe, Boateng and Lahm who’d go on to win the World Cup plus Alaba, Martinez etc.
When he came here, he’d fall all back on Kompany to lead the defence, signed Walker who Pochettino had turned into the best rightback in the league, plus he had the best killer of counter attacks in world football in Fernandinho to paper over the cracks. This is probably the first season he’s had to forge an defence and it’s components himself - it’s been shambolic. Stones is still daydreaming, Otamendi is still diving in - surely a great coach would have neutralised those basic flaws with 4 years of working with those players? Zabaleta was chaotic, and Kompany was a sub midfielder when Mancini got a grip of them, yet he turned them into two genuinely world class defenders.
That’s why the only defenders we sign should be ready-made elite footballers who know how to defend regardless of tactical directive - like Koulibaly - because all of his project players have failed.
Lyon out worked us. They weren't nothing special tactically.
And alot of that is on Pep and his personnel choice. If we wanted to match their energy, you play Foden and Bernardo. We tactically played into their hands in a foreign formation to us.
It was baffling but Pep can't legislate for Sterling's miss and Lyon's dodgy second goal.
Sure, he cannot, but the question is why do we always find ourselves in those situations? Why were we 1-0 down against Lyon with less than 30 minutes to go? Same way, why did we have to turn around a 1-0 deficit against Spurs to qualify for the SF? He's constantly putting us in disadvantageous situations especially to a squad that's generally inexperienced at winning European trophies. His constant tinkering and overhauls are ruining any chance we legitimately have in the competition.
Not taking our chances which isn't a new phenonmon no matter which manager in charge. We could set up more defensively and still get skinned, battered and out run by the hardworking opponents. VAR/referees is a major issuse we've had our fair share of that time and time again that is not down to the manager. and
What chances? We barely created any in 60 minutes when Pep realised his tactics were totally wrong. And what chances did we have apart from a fortunate pen against Spurs? We literally had 2 shots on target that game. Yes, we're a generally wasteful side. We know that. But when the volume of chances we create takes a drastic fall, it's on Pep. If we're not good enough, fine but don't hampen our main strength. VAR didn't screw us, it's all just decoration and deflection to not highlight some abysmal tactical decisions from Pep. There is no controversial VAR goal or Sterling miss if Pep plays his tactics right.
What chances? We barely created any in 60 minutes when Pep realised his tactics were totally wrong. And what chances did we have apart from a fortunate pen against Spurs? We literally had 2 shots on target that game. Yes, we're a generally wasteful side. We know that. But when the volume of chances we create takes a drastic fall, it's on Pep. If we're not good enough, fine but don't hampen our main strength. VAR didn't screw us, it's all just decoration and deflection to not highlight some abysmal tactical decisions from Pep. There is no controversial VAR goal or Sterling miss if Pep plays his tactics right.
We hit the woodwork a few times in the second leg against Spurs game alone and we only got knocked out on away goals against them. We were back to our normal attacking selves and Llorente's goal should of been disallowed. In the Lyon game our second half performance was an improvement and up until that second dodgy goal we were looking like we were getting to grips with them.
Second leg we were great against Spurs and second half much better than Lyon. But that happened because Pep didn't have a choice. He messed up in the first leg against Spurs not getting any away goals and messed up against Lyon with us going one behind.
Pep kept it tight to give us a chance in the second leg.
It never needed to be tight. It's not our game or our strength. We're built for chance creation, we beat Spurs 3-1 in the same fixture a year prior. There's no doubt in my mind that if we set up 433, we'd have scored atleast 2 away goals.
Yeah , don’t think they had to play the game of there lives, just were well organized defensively and took there chances .Lyon out worked us. They weren't nothing special tactically.
Yeah , don’t think they had to play the game of there lives, just were well organized defensively and took there chances
Same as every other team that’s beat us this year ,Arsenal , wolves etc .
They could of easily picked us off in the first leg where it would of been a bigger problem
When have Spurs ever picked us off? They've beaten us when we've been incredibly wasteful, they've never picked us off.
...it had to be a near perfect game from us to be able to break Lyon down.
Our Midfield un-balance is what hindered us.