Match Thread | Sporting CP vs. Man City (05/11/24)

[Colin Bells Boots]

If we could only take the chances we create !

Pep will no doubt be concerned about this aspect of our play.

Hopefully we put this right in the second half and get back home with no more injuries.

 

[Chak19]

No competition for his place. Of course when fit he is undropable but we are too heavily reliant on him scoring as we have ended up with a squad with a worrying lack of goal threat in it

That wasn't a problem when he scored 10 goals in the first 5 games, he's just not firing at the moment.

 

[.db.]

I think Ferdinand and Lescott are being harsh on their striker, I think he meant that

 

[Pingu the Penguin]

Think Bernardo and Kovacic are a huge problem positionally when defending against counters. Both find themselves beyond the ball and if we give it away cheaply they're in straight away. We'll probably tighten up and win 4-1 but the break constantly being on is only gonna make our forwards less certain of what they're doing.

Good point

 

[Blue Llama]

Should be out of sight
Savio so frustrating, great skill but no final ball or finish
Oh for Mahrez right now...

He is playing well and it's down to him to get crosses in, which he is doing. It's not down to him that players are not getting on to them. You may as well blame Foden for nobody scoring from his corners.

 

[TheBlueCat]

Foden needs to keep the momentum. If we keep getting him on the ball things will happen

 

[VOOMER]

Nothing that can't be fixed by buying a quality left back and right back in January.

 

[01cravend]

Rico has a great touch and control under pressure but all he offers around the box are sideways passes/ball retention, not much creativity and is always reluctant to shoot himself. Would like to see him overlap winger every now and then.

 

[nellyonthewing]

Some really good individual showings just that we get turned over and are wide open.

 

[sh249]

We‘ve played well, much better than in recent weeks. Foden has been very good. Should have been 2 or 3 up.
Still feels like we‘re a bit too open in terms of the setup. Lewis plays so far up the pitch - not at all like the ‚inverted full back‘ we‘ve used before. And with Gvardiol playing fairly wide, there are big gaps either side of Kovacic. That‘s why teams find it so easy to play through us.
So different to the treble winning team, with three centre halves playing fairly narrow, and Rodri and Stones in front of them.

 

[eyalluvitt]

Even with half our 1st team missing, we are giving the greaterest manager in isssstree a tough game

 

[Kamaro011]

Not replacing Alvarez was a mistake. Desperately need another striker. Decent performance and you can tell words were had after Saturday, but that crazy high line..

Tell me which world class striker in the world will want to join our club if Haaland still in there.

I will wait.

 

[hammocity]

I think Haaland needs competition he's got no one in the team that can push him for the striker position. He's a world class striker Haaland but competition helps to improve, Aguero became even better when Jesus was his competition.

Absolute bollocks of a post, Sergio improved when Pep came but he was already an outstanding player. Haaland pushes himself, he doesn't need anyone else to drive him on.

 

[Blue Til Death]

A sweaty ballbag with a bit of shit on it.

A chocolate teabag..!

 

[No.8]

Not the most popular player on here but a fit Kyle Walker is a huge miss to City. That goal and the 1 v 1 chance earlier don’t happen if a fit Walker is playing. His pace at the back is a big loss

City should still win this comfortably as they have been excellent at times. Foden on this form is practically unplayable

 

[eastmanc]

Keep going lads we played really well in that half.

 

[johnny crossan]

Almost like TNT studio Laura wants Sporting to beat City - how unusual......

 

[BlueMoonRisin’]

Disappointing to concede after starting so well but City look up for beating them and I think we will.

 

[Tuearts right boot]

The same problems persist, wide open at the back to every single simple 3 pass attack. how many times have we seen teams get in the exact way they did for their goal the last half a dozen games? It's absurd Pep is refusing to address it.

An improvement on last weekend but their naivety together with foden looking good made us look better than we've been in reality. Foden and Nunes have both been great, savinho looks lively but absolutely zero end product tonight and looks weak, Lewis has been really poor, anonymous in defence and keeps giving the ball away. Bernardo started deeper alongside kovacic and both he and the team looked better, seemed to push up more as the half went on and we looked progressively worse for it.

Kovacic is going to have to come off early, can't risk a red.

Maybe Pep is assuming that we will score more than we concede and if so....so be it. Cant see any other way

 

[vanchi]

We lose the ball and its 3 on 2. Happens every week. We have a systemic error. Is it Rodri missing leaving a hole?

of course it’s a systemic error. and if you check, many goals were conceded last season with rodri playing too. imho pep doesn’t really mind coz he would’ve changed something. many chances created tonight, the finishing sucks.