Champions League Final | Post-Match Thread

chedlee said:
This is so right and wrong. It is a psychological test of manager, player, team and club. Pep has been there and won it (and taken us to 3 of the last 4 league titles) and he constantly talks about how the club need to understand what they are going for and to have the belief they can do it. Last night was another lesson and we are not alone, there was some stat on first time finalist losing the last 7 times or something. Pep picked a team well capable of winning that game but the team failed him and us, if they can’t win because so and so isn’t playing then that isn’t a great look.
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Clarkie?
 
cleavers said:
There was nothing "lucky" about their goal, they'd had 3 similar chances before it. It was rank bad defending, started with Walker, involved both CB's (or more to the point didn't involve either), and ended with Zinchenko (not blaming him, he was trying to cover, but had no chance), and if Havertz had not scored, we'd have been down a man, with a sub goalkeeper to boot.

That's not bad luck, it's bad play, simple as that, and it stemmed from not having a tackler (fouler) in midfield for me.
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Spot on
 
The weak point of Pep's football philosophy is teams like Chelsea in cup competitions. He is a very good manager and aware of this. Unfortunately he over-compansated and instead of strengthening the defence he came up with this idea.

He overlooked the psychology of the players which partly explains their weirdness. I am sure the players, like all of us, were surprised when they saw the team sheet.

It is a choice, it cannot go two ways. Play Pep's style and PL is fine but cups are doubtful or the other way around.

This season's genious "false 9" tactic brought the PL. I think in the new season, some adjustment is needed for a more balanced style of play in big games and cup competitions.
 
BolinCell said:
Mahrez is Mahrez, forever cutting back inside and never getting to the by line for our trademark cutback goal. Sterling has had a stinker of a season, Walker causes more trouble to defenders than Mahrez. KDB moved forward with menace only to have to turn around and pass the ball back because their was little ahead of him. Foden the same little space to operate in and no forwards making runs because they were sat on the bench. I can't fathom how people don't understand that playing without recognised forwards (Aguero or Jesus) is a massive hindrance and just because it payed off when we had injuries to our forwards doesn't make it right. Several occasions during that match Chelsea passed to their own goalie on his goal line and he waited for City challenge then passed to a defender, the ball was then lumped over the top and they were on a break. That closing down would of been natural to a forward and the midfield would not of been dragged into the box.
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My preferred option would have been Jesus on the left. Aguero (or Torres) in the centre, Mahrez on the right.
Either Fern or Rodri in place of Bernardo.
We could then have either played through the middle with Foden or via the wings with Jesus/Mahrez..
Foden and Torres seem to have a good understanding and work well together.
 
Another thing was playing De Bruyne in the middle of the top 3 and Foden behind. Should have been the other way round but with Sterling in the middle and Foden in Sterling's position.
 
northstandgiveusasong said:
Another thing was playing De Bruyne in the middle of the top 3 and Foden behind. Should have been the other way round but with Sterling in the middle and Foden in Sterling's position.
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Sterling shouldn't have been on there, simple as that, in any position, his performances haven't deserved it. He was OK against Everton, but that's about it, and it was the first time in a while.

I'm not having a go at him personally, but his performances have not been good enough to merit a place in City's biggest ever game.
 
cleavers said:
Sterling shouldn't have been on there, simple as that, in any position, his performances haven't deserved it. He was OK against Everton, but that's about it, and it was the first time in a while.

I'm not having a go at him personally, but his performances have not been good enough to merit a place in City's biggest ever game.
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I totally agree but just based on what 11 Pep picked. He wanted Mahrez and Sterling to nullify the wing backs and press them back which is OK but left our attacking options short. We had decent possession 2nd half and if Sterling's position was swapped with Foden it would have worked more effectively when on the attack. Positions can easily be switched according to whether defending or attacking.
 
northstandgiveusasong said:
I totally agree but just based on what 11 Pep picked. He wanted Mahrez and Sterling to nullify the wing backs and press them back which is OK but left our attacking options short.
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Sadly neither did, and worse still Walker overlapping (or whatever it was) resulted in their goal.
northstandgiveusasong said:
We had decent possession 2nd half and if Sterling's position was swapped with Foden it would have worked more effectively when on the attack. Positions can easily be switched according to whether defending or attacking.
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Players also need to take some responsibility too, they can make changes like that themselves, they don't have to wait for the coach to bring out the whiteboard.

I blame Pep for not playing a DM, and not changing it early enough, but I leave it there.

The players who were out there didn't give enough in general, whereas Chelsea's put every sinew into their performance, whilst a number of ours (some of our biggest names) thought because we won the league easily, a cup final would be easy too, hopefully they've learned something.
 
northstandgiveusasong said:
I totally agree but just based on what 11 Pep picked. He wanted Mahrez and Sterling to nullify the wing backs and press them back which is OK but left our attacking options short. We had decent possession 2nd half and if Sterling's position was swapped with Foden it would have worked more effectively when on the attack. Positions can easily be switched according to whether defending or attacking.
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Agreed pushing them back was fine but it made them stronger right across the defence. It stifled our attack. Mahrez and Sterling were well controlled by two top class full backs. It wasn't even close in terms of a quality match up. That made it hard for us to attack from wide leaving Kante to shore up anything going in the middle. (BTW he was the best player on the field by a mile) Chelsea were perfectly set up to nullify us and counter. Your right though we needed to be more fluid. Some of our best performances have been when the players have been moving around in different positions.
 
Grassland Blue said:
My preferred option would have been Jesus on the left. Aguero (or Torres) in the centre, Mahrez on the right.
Either Fern or Rodri in place of Bernardo.
We could then have either played through the middle with Foden or via the wings with Jesus/Mahrez..
Foden and Torres seem to have a good understanding and work well together.
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Any kind of focal point up front for the midfielders to aim for would of done.
 
Grassland Blue said:
My preferred option would have been Jesus on the left. Aguero (or Torres) in the centre, Mahrez on the right.
Either Fern or Rodri in place of Bernardo.
We could then have either played through the middle with Foden or via the wings with Jesus/Mahrez..
Foden and Torres seem to have a good understanding and work well together.
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My preferred option was Raz no where near the starting 11, taking up the place of Phil, who didn't no where to be our what to do.

One of our best players effectively eliminated from the game due to the managers line up!
 
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