Champions League Final | Post-Match Thread

Pep blew it. We all like know it

He knows it, let us down yesterday. As soon as the team was announced everyone was like wow.

Once again he thought too much. I love winning the league but I hurting today as that will be forgotten.
 
StillBluessinceHydeRoad said:
I didn't sleep a wink and this morning I'm still amazed that after supporting City for 65 years that I can remember I can still be so badly affected by one defeat. Pep's come in for criticism as is the case after every CL defeat and I too was surprised and concerned by the omission of Ferna from the starting line up and Raz's place in it. But I'm certainly not going to argue with or criticise a football genius and I was convinced that Raz must have really impressed in training - and maybe he did. In the end the selection wasn't the problem, and if he didn't have a grat game Raz was no worse than anyone else. All week I had been telling myself that we had all the best players, the better team and the better manager, that if we played our best we'd win, and I'm just as convinced of all that this morning: but there was just a niggling voice telling me that teams rarely play their best in CL finals and the nighmare would be if City were way below their best - and so it proved. Whether it was nerves , whether the occasion got to our lads I don't know but from the off they were leaden footed and hesitant. At times they looked like 11 complete strangers needed three touches to decide what to do with the ball. I'm not criticising any of them because I was a bag of nerves a week before kick off and I got worse but none of them was recognisable as the player we see week in week out and I sympathise massively with them because they really feel the pain of defeat far more than I do. But Kev rarely got into the game until he was flattened by a brutal body check (did Mo Salah see that?) and even Phil - heroic young Phil Foden - never influenced the game anywhere near as much as we know he can on an off day. Some games teams just never get going, a real collective off day. Just our bloody luck that our first CL final was such a day. But City will be back and one day of a screwed up system will all be worth it when we see our lads holding that damned trophy up high.
Click to expand...
You've brightened my day.
Cheers pal
 
I think for all the ifs buts and maybe’s, we have to accept that Chelsea played very well, executing their plan to perfection and they might have won anyway playing that well. They really should have sealed it in the second half with that chance that he put wide and could have had two more in the first half. We will never know what would have happened. For me too many players didn’t show up. We looked nervous and edgy and our usual crisp passing was missing. It’s was just a very poor performance and a very good one from Chelsea. I’m not sure changing one player would have led to an exhilarating performance. We have been stuttering since the rags match for me with 3/4 exceptional performances thrown in. We needed one last night and we didn’t get it.
 
Dobsy said:
I think he was concerned about Reece James after the last game and wanted strength and pace to counter that, hence Raheem.

Then he wanted maximum focus on possession play, which is why he went with Gundo.

Personally before the game I called Sterling and Fernandinho, with Bernardo dropping out. Pep telegraphed what he was thinking by playing Raheem so much recently.
Click to expand...
We failed to keep possession our greatest strength, we failed to get behind the full backs, only once did we look like scoring, ONCE!

Last year he left out David Silva in the semis against Lyon, a player who has served the club magnificently, who wanted to go out on a high, last night he did the same to Fern, a player who earlier this season had the balls and courage to go into the dressing room and say this is not good enough.

Fern must have been gutted when he looked at that team sheet, personally and I hope I am wrong he has played his last game for us.
 
Pep fucked it (again).

We all knew the only way we weren’t winning last night was if Pep over thought it and changed a winning formula.

Good season overall but last night was another moment of madness from Pep when it really mattered.
 
The1nvisibleMan said:
Not if we play like that again. There is no evidence to suggest we’ll be in another btw just arrogance
Click to expand...
The1nvisibleMan said:
Not if we play like that again. There is no evidence to suggest we’ll be in another btw just arrogance
Click to expand...
I think @ayrshire_blue was expressing a feeling of confidence rather than being arrogant and why shouldn’t we be confident? We didn’t fluke it to the final and bad judgement potentially cost us the trophy.
 
JamesMCFC said:
After last night's game, I think we need to 100% purchase a mobile DM and a striker.

Wouldn't be shocked to see Sterling or Mahrez being sold for Grealish either.

Lacking a mobile DM for the modern game seems criminal nowadays.
Click to expand...
We need some more personality on the pitch, we have two at the back in Walker and Diaz, but midfield and upfront, zero.

Far too quiet, far too easy going, Foden could well be a leader with experience, but KDB, Berardo, Mahrez and Sterling all lack aggression at times.
 
So we had a goalkeeper then a flat back 4 like so


_____________
I Edersson I

Walker Stones Dias Zinchenko



and the an enormous gap to 6 attacking midfielders who were so flat they had no space and no forward to link to...



Mahrez KDB Gundog Bernardo Foden Raz




The Chelsea goal seemed further away than our own back 4 who were a train ride away and Mendy was that untroubled he spent most of the game asleep.




Mendy Zzzzzz


It was painful to watch. It's not the losing, Lord knows we are all fully trained in that feeling, it's the realisation that in the club's biggest ever game we had our worst performance in recent times, and not because players suddenly lost form but because the manager lost the plot.
 
We may all have to accept that we wont win this bent competition with Pep at the helm. Personally I am okay with that as I only care about the domestic stuff anyway but I accept I’m probably in the minority with that view.
It’s just that year after year after year after year he tries to be clever when what is required in the CL is pragmatism. He does it in big league games too but we invariably have 30+ games to make up for it in the league.

I’ll be quite happy to wait for success in europe until after Pep has left which I hope is in a few more years yet.

My only frustration this morning is that I believe Pep doesn’t see City as ‘big enough’ or ‘historically important enough’ to really be at the very top table and consequently feels the need to try and over egg the pudding in compensation.

Let’s have another few years of domestic success and worry about Europe when we change manager eventually.
 
Dobsy said:
I think he was concerned about Reece James after the last game and wanted strength and pace to counter that, hence Raheem.

Then he wanted maximum focus on possession play, which is why he went with Gundo.

Personally before the game I called Sterling and Fernandinho, with Bernardo dropping out. Pep telegraphed what he was thinking by playing Raheem so much recently.
Click to expand...
Good post, you’re probably right but he’s never played that line up before. It’s him trying to be clever in a big game.
You know, when Guardiola was talking pre match about players being upset at missing out in the final I would’ve put my mortgage on him meaning Sterling and not Fern. Realize now, never assume anything with Guardiola.
 
We lost because Chelsea did not allow us to play. They marked tightly and closed down every pass in the final third. Mahrez was denied time and space. Sterling was dominated by James.

It looked similar to the way Brighton played us recently. Have we been sussed?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top