Brentford (H) | Post-Match Thread

Keeper! said:
He clearly did well but I have seen him play far better, that's the point I was making and it puts the performance of our defense in prospective.

Our back line looks superb with the ball at their feet but often when genuinely threatened or physically challenged look ordinary.
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Absolutely agree with this. We do seem to lack a powerful physical presence.
 
City_Sean said:
So many people have peddled that this is our best ever squad and it's miles way from it. We have zero depth, no pace to stretch teams. The squad looks stale.

We've ended up with Grealish and Mahrez who the manager doesn't trust.

I don't think we'll win the league. You can't drop points to Brentford, Villa and Newcastle.
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There’s a few teams going to drop points v Newcastle and Brentford.
 
wolviedinho said:
The rotation policy at the back has gone mental. No settled defence this season has seen us look lost. The buildup from the back is not fluid and the defending is at best just about ok.

Injury to Walker did not help. We seem to be back to full back problems. Which is hampering the team cohesion. I thought we would have enough to cover but seemingly not. Ake should be Lb and Cancelo rb. Putting stones in at RB is a disaster. I would prefer us to go 3 at the back with wing backs who can focus on attack and give us width until we can recruit. Teams are strangling the life out of our width forcing us to come inside. We have no playmaker to open them up. We looked most dangerous this year playing quick ball into Haaland otherwise we struggle.

Change it Pep. We have the The CB’s to make a very good 3. Put Walker and Cancelo up wide or Gomez/Rico until Walker is back.
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Our main playmaker is Bernardo.
Gundog can do it, so can Rodri, but either one or the other and not both.
Palmer isn't the finished article yet - but he will get there.
So please don't say that we haven't got a playmaker.
 
Paul1970 said:
We haven’t really got a captain who can pull Us out of the trenches when we need it either . Let’s face it if it wasn’t for haalands goals we’d be way off the pace
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I agree, think this has been highlighted at Klanfield as well. Only one with any bark in our side that day was Bernardo and he's probably the smallest player in the side.
Think the presence of Fernandinho around the place can't be underestimated even if he wasn't on the pitch.
Seem to rely too much on having that moment of magic or luck to get ourselves out of jail. Played a lot of games without and urgency/tempo this season and not really pressing the action in the first half.
 
Mifred said:
We have not played well for a few weeks and this type of performance/ result has been coming
Hopefully the break might give us the chance to hit the reset button and pause the momentum for the others!
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Been longer than a few weeks, we haven't looked good for a couple of months, the drop off started 2nd half of the rags game. We've just done enough to win games without playing at all well, not sure what has changed
 
I think we’ve become very one dimensional now, give it to Haaland, Alvarez a prime example on the break. Erling had 3 marking him yesterday so that leaves us two spare players, revert to last season and let the others try and score! I noticed how narrow we were up front and Pep screaming for width, with the wingbacks they had the best ball would’ve been between the wing back and the centre half, you can do that with width, get round the back of them. Pep has to also make the right subs, Gundogan off Bernie in the middle we were far too defensive , switch Foden to the right, left Grealish or Alvarez on the the right.
The defence was all over the shop yesterday as well but you have to hand it to Toney he bossed them and they got a deserved win, I won’t panic too much as we always seem to get stronger after Xmas but this World Cup could fuck up lots of players for all teams.
 
kismet said:
Spot on Millwall couldn't agree more. When we've commanded games we're OK but Brentford and Pool rushed us and we looked shakey. What's happening.
What would your best defence be. ?
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It’s hard to say at the moment but it would definately involved Dias because he has leadership qualities that some of the other defenders dont seem to have.

I would also be looking to buy a competent left back in January.
 
Blue and true said:
I love Pep to bits, and will always be thankful for what he's achieved here. But he's a stubborn bastard, and it can sometimes be a detriment to the team. Substitutions have always been his blindspot; Jack played one of his best games in a City shirt on Wednesday night and didn't get a single minute today: that's an insult, not just to him as a player but to our collective intelligence. It was obvious the attack needed a fresh injection of impetus, (we'd still be out there now looking for a second goal) from the 60th minute onwards. It just wasn't working. And he completely ignored the one obvious change that would have livened up the attack. The one change he did make was made too late. His obstinacy got the better of him. The players were garbage, but he had several options to change the dynamic that, bewilderingly, he overlooked.

He chops and changes for too much for my liking. When we get our squad back from the World Cup, he needs to settle on a definitive, best 11. We need a settled team. Pick a formula, stick to it, and fuck off the experimenting. Those who don't make the cut can play the domestic cups, until one of the regulars plays themselves out of contention, shit bust. The reason Arsenal are where they are is not because they are head and shoulders above us, but because Arteta knows his best 11 and has been playing it since the season started. It's hard for us to build any rhythm when the team changes on a regular basis. And I don't buy into this bullshit that we don't have a best 11 and our squad needs to spread the appearances. We do have a best 11, and it's up to Pep to decide upon it; that's why he's paid the big bucks.

I'm still confident we'll win the League, but Christ we're making it difficult for ourselves. Onwards and upwards. CTID.
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Basically we should start our best 11 and stick with them unless it isn't possible (for the usual reasons).
Pep needs to get the blinkers off sometimes and reduce the experiments too.
I am far from confident that we will win the league this season.
 
dickie davies said:
Let's start with allowing the time wasting
What is the point of waving your arm at the keeper and turning your back?
At another point he threw his head to one side in a "come on" type motion

Foden fouled, allows play to continue as it looks like an advantage, its broken up by Brentford, play on

Brentford player fouled, allows play to continue as it looks like an advantage, it's broken up by City, whistle blown foul awarded

Fouling when City were taking a corner. Play stopped and a retake, when a pen should be awarded

Haaland booked for turning his man who was totally committed

Added time
Laporte down for 7 and a half minutes
Play stopped for the linesman's equipment failure which was another minute and a half
Four subs (I think)
All the time wasting as above and more
Ten minutes time added

Brentford celebration was two minutes, he added a further 57 seconds

It was a pathetically weak refereeing performance
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Add to that excellent list,
allowing Brentford to stand close to the corner kicker but insisting Foden stands way behind the white marker on their corners
 
Our movement off the ball was non existent at times. We don't seem to be able to cut inside to the byeline anymore either?
 
SWPISHOME said:
Personally I disagree with this comment, Not having a pop by the way everyone has their own opinion and that's what forums are about (Had to get that in their because still some salty people on here after the defeat)!

This City side work their socks off basically every week leaving everything on the pitch as we've seen last week against Fulham. Yesterday was a big big off day we just weren't at it, The line up and tactical changes hampered us too. I think a result like that has been coming a while now, Too many changes every week to the side especially defensively we can't keep changing our centre backs, 14 games in and we never know from week to week who our best centre backs actually are.
Haaland should have been nowhere near the side yesterday too, He's not fit he didn't look right. We had an in form Alvarez fully fit sitting on the bench.

It's clear as day to see how much we miss Kyle Walker and how vital he is to the way we set up, Hopefully he's back fully fit for us for the last few months of the season.
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I agree. But would add that the midfield is not functioning right either if Kev is off key like yesterday we struggle.
We are not creating overloads play is congested, slow and lateral. The key feature of yesterday's game indeed Chelsea as well was the transition when we lost possession, with us always looking vulnerable and likely to concede.
The league is still there to be won but we need to be better as in reality a 5 point gap probably flatters us.
 
We’ve been off the pace for a while now. Hopefully this break will give Pep chance to have a think and turn this around. Can’t really blame the World Cup as others around us are on fire. Seem to have lost the drive and I’m not sure why
 
One of the best things about getting beat is all the weird nostalgia that comes over people.

"We lack a real leader like Kompany"
"Never replaced Ferna"
Lads around me at the game were missing Sane of all people.

I just want to remind people that Ferna's record at Anfield was as bad as this season's. Every player you want back after a single performance also got beat (and usually a few more times than this current lot get beat).
 
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