Al Hilal (N) | CWC | Post Match Thread

[BolinCell]

Hopefully it’ll make him sanction more spending then. Start with Livramento.

we can't just keep buying players. The trick is to buy good players. Cherki looks promising. The guy who played left back looked good first game but not so good last night.

 

[Norbert D]

Ake Akanji and Ederson need to go !
Stones needs to go
Gundogan needs to go
Anybody else ?

Pep ?

 

[Semper aggressus]

The question should be, why is Pep letting it happen all the time. We have seen it over the last couple of seasons and teams have worked out a system to beat us, Pep should fixing the problem and drop 10 yards deeper and get some pace at the back, Walkers recovery pace is missing and should be the first thing to fix

The bigger question is why the hell are we persisting with Bernardo and Gundogan!?

What do they offer that Reijnders, Foden, Gonzalez and even Grealish don’t?

It’s no wonder our defence looks shit, they’re getting no help from midfield at all, the old men just don’t have the pace. They offer virtually zero attacking threat either. In turn that exacerbates the issue that Savinho has pretty much no end product.

If fit, we should be starting every game this season with Rodri, Reijnders, Cherki, Haaland and Marmoush included in the side.

 

[Marvin.]

Don't think Khaldoon and the board will be best pleased with that line up and performance after landing the easy side of the draw and clearly wanting to win this tournament. Yet another complete balls-up...

It's a shattering blow, but the only question for me was in not stating Ries and Khusanov.

We were at risk from the moment we beat Juve 5-2.

 

[wolviedinho]

tactical issues wont go away unless Pep makes changes. we dont run enough, we either need workhorses in midfield to make this type of highline to work and serious speed in fullback positions with a GK that will save something occasionally and t least one CB that can eliminate danger not panic even more...

its over that we defend by keeping the ball on opponents half and bore them to death with our passing. the moment we lose the ball and do it quite often it turn into a high xG shooting chance for even mediocre sides while top sides can murder us badly.

It’s on pep to make sure we don’t get caught in transitions. So far he has not got an answer. That’s why it keeps happening. Holding onto the ball is no longer effective.

 

[Lavinda Past]

Ruben Dias?

Dias is so overrated it's unbelievable. Flatters to deceive with his arm waving and chest pumping. He's not a leader, and he's not a top class defender.

 

[Semper aggressus]

we can't just keep buying players. The trick is to buy good players. Cherki looks promising. The guy who played left back looked good first game but not so good last night.

We don’t need to; Cherki, Reijnders and Ait-Nouri are good signings, as was Marmoush.

But we need a proper right back.

 

[Goldust]

I’m no Pep, however surely the logic would have been to start Foden, Cherki and Mamoush the latter being more possession focused and drain the opponent in the heat. Then in extra time bring speed on with the likes of Doku, Savinho and Bobb with the other team is tired.

 

[RayCTID]

Dias is so overrated it's unbelievable. Flatters to deceive with his arm waving and chest pumping. He's not a leader, and he's not a top class defender.

Same could be said about Gvardiol but to be honest Pep's system does expose plenty of flaws in any defender's game.

 

[Lavinda Past]

Time for Pep to swallow his pride. Did he bring Klopp's number 2 in to ACTUALLY listen to him or just to cosplay at being humble?

Praying he has self awareness and that his ego isn't the size of planet like Capello suggested it was.

Capello was right. This 'decline' was just a matter of time. Pep needs a long break.

 

[wolviedinho]

It’s not the players but the system is not working aswell as it should.

The coaching team need to put the work in to stopping the counters. It’s killing our gameplan.

No amount of money will fix tactical errors.

 

[mexico1970]

Same could be said about Gvardiol but to be honest Pep's system does expose plenty of flaws in any defender's game.

All we needed last night was a rapid defender and a half decent goalkeeper and we would have won that match, but we didn't and we lost it.

 

[RayCTID]

All we needed last night was a rapid defender and a half decent goalkeeper and we would have won that match, but we didn't and we lost it.

Eddy was decent but a quicker defender would have helped. Despite Bono's MotM performance was partially down to our usual wasteful finishing and little bit of good fortune.

 

[Norbert D]

Capello was right. This 'decline' was just a matter of time. Pep needs a long break.

Pep appears increasingly manic the last few years, can’t be doing him any good. Should have walked away with his head held high after number four, but, I think he wants to stay until this FFP shite is all sorted, his loyalty to the club is fantastic but at what price.

 

[mexico1970]

Eddy was decent but a quicker defender would have helped.

I thought he had a howler mate but it's all about opinions. Imagine a little tweak to the system where we have a player who just sits there behind say a back 3 sweeping up all the long balls it would negate all this nonsense.

Obviously that'll be up to Pep to figure that out because as a mere mortal I don't know how much it would fuck his system up.

 

[Bluearmy]

The more I look at it, that January transfer splurge is looking like a real waste of serious cash. We'll never see Reis, Khusanov and Gonzalez totally out of the picture and only Marmoush looking a positive addition. I think and hope the summer additions will be a lot better

I said it at the time about JAN and got shouted down on here. We ended up in January with zero bonafide full backs at the club despite being desperate for actual full backs (with Walker going) and 9 centre backs on the books. WTF was that all about. And some wanted more centre backs at that point on here (Barmy). The DM to rescue us from the Rodri injury wasn't played, despite costing £50 mil (what was the point of this signing). And Marmoush, who looks a player to be fair, is probably best central which we already had covered with Haaland (albeit we had no back up, up to that point). We were desperate for 2 wingers, 2 full backs, a DM and an AM and effectively got none of what we needed in Jan, despite the huge outlay.

This summer looks better (Potentially), but it wont if Pep keeps playing the old guard like he has up to now!!

 

[dajd1984]

When a team beats our high-press/quick ball recovery, we give them high quality chances.

When we play a team with high quality players, who can do that multiple times, we give them multiple high quality chances.

It’s what we did in the UCL against spurs, Liverpool, RM circa 5 years ago.
Then we seemed to learn, and against better quality opposition, we’d rely less on winning it back quickly every time, but with a slightly deeper, more solid base. And with that change, we seemed to grow in maturity, especially in the UCL, and could then compete with the best teams.
But we seemed to have forgotten this again.

Spurs last season are the extreme example of this. Of a belief in a principle so much that you fail to recognise the quality of the opposition.

Pep seems to want to move to playing with 2 at the back. Like he’s obsessed with showing what a maverick he is.
I just hope he has people around him who can moderate that and add some pragmatism.

 

[Marvin.]

It’s not the players but the system is not working aswell as it should.

The coaching team need to put the work in to stopping the counters. It’s killing our gameplan.

No amount of money will fix tactical errors.

Tactical errors or players who can't defend one on one

 

[Manc in London]

I am not going to overreact because it's a friendly and if we had played most of the game with our best xi, I think we would have won comfortably. I am basing my view on the past year or so but I think it's becoming increasingly clear there are a group of players who should have a limited play time. When three or four of them play together, the chances of us winning significantly decreases.

RE Dias, has he become slower or everyone else quicker. I know he was never quick but he seems to have got a lot slower.

The only time I truly felt we looked solid against the long ball was when Khusanov played. He is one of the few defenders with pace that can match attacking players.

 

[citymad]

Expectatons for this coming season will have taken a blow. That was the copybook on how to play against City for the past two seasons. Yes we had better movement but our finishing was horrible. We were way to open. Lets hope Pep has something new up his sleeve for next season otherwise we'll be no where near challenging the scousers.