Al Hilal (N) | CWC | Post Match Thread

dajd1984 said:
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.
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Pep wants to attack. The problem is Rodri and Stones are out. Dias et al., are not good enough subs. and with risks come goals against. I do not blame Pep. He did play pragmatically last season and fans hated it.
 
I only saw extra time but was struck by despite dominating possession every time we lost it we looked really vulnerable (again).

Gutted we lost as was enjoying seeing the new lads fit in and would have been good to go further.

On the flip side the players will be afforded much needed rest and can come back more refreshed for the league starting.

Lots of decisions on players who were at the cwc to be made - Stones, Gundo, Akanji, Ake - what happens with them?

How do we make a pathway for Reis, Khusanov, Gonzalez etc.

It was a bit disheartening (simply because of the end result) to see Akanji coming on rather than some of the younger guys. Akanji and Dias have not been near their former levels for some time.

On the upside Cherki looks the business, Phil looks perked up, Reijnders and RAN look like they will fit in well.

Still looks like Pep trusts his experienced guys more than the new guys - surely this was the perfect environment to have a better mix in the team.
 
alexmcity said:
Reactions after a game tend to be guided by the bias that the outcome is logical and deserved.

But the outcome last night wasn't logical in that the better team lost. 14:6 shots on target, 18:4 corners, etc. It's not like our possession was sterile: we created many chances.

Just like PSG were the better team vs Botafogo and lost, so City were the better team last night and lost. We could/should have been 3 goals up before their first shot on target.

At the same time, there's little doubt we are not the best team in the tournament. We needed a lot of luck to win it.

There have been good things this tournament: the new signings, Rodri back, Foden scoring, Doku's form, etc. We'll improve next season. I'd be surprised if we didn't win 85+ pts in the league injuries permitting. Where that would get us is hard to tell. I think we will compete for the title.
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We will be lucky to hit 85 and I dont think that would be enough anyway. Hopefully this tournament was the end of the old not the beginning of the new. If we continue into the early autumn like last night then there will be no joy again come May.
 
Manc in London said:
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.
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You may have regarded it as a friendly but I can guarantee you that Pep and the players did not. That is the problem, we lost a very important game playing a good but not brilliant side, and we exhibited all the problems that we showed last season.

We are reliant on Rodri and Stones getting fit. We will be fortunate if one of them makes a full recovery.
 
Norbert D said:
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.
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His marriage collapsed too. That surely got to have had a massive effect. Behind every powerful man, is a powerful woman.
 
invisibleandalone said:
That's where a stop clock is a better method than injury time, stops the fakers and prevents any manipulation of time to be added.
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It’s not the wasted time that annoys me it’s the brake up of momentum that’s been built up.

For example from a corner cleared recycled out for another cross or shot but a player goes down with a head injury or the keeper is down and the games stopped immediately but nothing wrong with them if it’s proven by VAR that there’s not much wrong something needs to be done
 
Another Pep stinker, too many to mention over the last year or so. I do trust him to tweak it and make it right but if he doesn't and we follow the same path we were on last season then how long does he get?
 
Marvin. said:
You may have regarded it as a friendly but I can guarantee you that Pep and the players did not. That is the problem, we lost a very important game playing a good but not brilliant side, and we exhibited all the problems that we showed last season.

We are reliant on Rodri and Stones getting fit. We will be fortunate if one of them makes a full recovery.
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Or Pep has to change his approach and seek to replace the weak links which expose us.
 
Gumzy97 said:
Can we stop saying it was a friendly? Us fans can think that, but those players looked gutted that we are out so did Pep,Khaldoon had a face like thunder in the stands.
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It definitely wasn’t a friendly but if it was a friendly, why did we not experiment? We haven’t learnt anything about Khusanov or Nico G.
 
Bournemouth Blue said:
Weird that we thrashed Juventus and most were saying we re beginning to look like the team we were until last autumn, and now most are saying we are beginning to look like the team we were last autumn. Apart from the financial aspect, I for one am pleased the lads will get a decent break before the new season, although I suspect there will be a couple of friendlies arranged before mid August. A lot of squad juggling in the meantime, and a leaky north stand roof to fix
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Sometimes you see a game and it looks like we've turned a corner. You could look at Forest and Newcastle at home last season for examples of that. However, come the next game, the same old failings reappear, and that's exactly what we've seen over the last few days.

In reality, that game last night was a replica of games such as Sporting and Brighton away when we looked fabulous for half an hour only to lose our way and get caved. Yet again, we concede one and then concede another straight away, as happened a multitude of times last year, and, in the end, whilst we could have had about eight, they could easily have had a half a dozen too. Even against Juve, when we totally dominated, they scored two and missed a sitter.

What we saw against Juve and even tonight was a lot of hunger and desire, but that's not always enough, and what Al-Hilal exposed was what everybody else was exposing last season, which was our vulnerability on the break and an inability to prevent crosses from out wide resulting in goals. The fact that Pep cannot see that we are so susceptible to this and sets us up with two wingers that don't track back and two attacking full backs that can't defend is staggering.

If any good comes out of this, it's that we must realise that we can't play such a slow midfield if we have so much attacking width, that we need a right back who can defend, and we need a centre half (or full back) with recovery pace, because we cannot challenge for the title with the total inability that we have to defend, both from the front and at the back.
 
BolinCell said:
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.
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This is the key problem. Whether it is panic or just that our recruitment is no longer top notch we seem to be heading down a similar path to the Rags. Too many old legs need replacing at the same time which can apply pressure to recruit from what is often a small pool of A Class talent. We have recruited a lot of players this year, at not inconsiderable cost, who at best, might turn into A class talent.
 
Only seen the highlights so difficult to comment properly. Looks like we could have and probably should have been three up before they scored. Their first goal takes take ricochets and on another day could have fallen anywhere. That said could Ederson have caught the original cross? Their breakaway from a corner come from a header that lacked height from Reijnders I think. Again on another day it goes slightly higher or it is a couple of yards either side of the defender and it's a different ball game. Their third Dias is nudged out of the way by Koulibaly to allow him more room. Need to be far stronger and not be caught out so easily. For their fourth we looked like we were school kids chasing the ball, all in a small space allowing a free man out wide and then we just didn't defend. All fine margins which will be ironed out with simple fixes. For instance last man from a corner could be in the centre circle and not 10 yards outside the opponents box.

For the fourth goal what the fuck is this formation!
1751373795920.png
 
Marvin. said:
You may have regarded it as a friendly but I can guarantee you that Pep and the players did not. That is the problem, we lost a very important game playing a good but not brilliant side, and we exhibited all the problems that we showed last season.

We are reliant on Rodri and Stones getting fit. We will be fortunate if one of them makes a full recovery.
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Yep, we did show the same signs as last season but I think the problems are deep seated and will take more than four games while continuously rotating players and trying different combinations, as well as integrating new players. I will give it a bit more time before becoming concerned.

As for Stones, I can only think we are not playing him as he is likely to get injured and then we will not be able to offload him :) Which would be a shame because I think on his day he has been brilliant.

No reason to think Rodri will not be fine. he is likely to pick up some soft tissue injuries after returning.
 
RayCTID said:
Same could be said about Gvardiol but to be honest Pep's system does expose plenty of flaws in any defender's game.
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They spend half the game running backwards from the opposition half chasing fast players, and the other half seemingly being asked to be the playmakers to start attacks. We saw so so many times last year that the set up we are persisting with either doesn’t work as others have tactically countered it, or we don’t have the personnel suited to it. Big few weeks for the new coaches. They need to tell Pep to change it up
 
Marvin. said:
Pep wants to attack. The problem is Rodri and Stones are out. Dias et al., are not good enough subs. and with risks come goals against. I do not blame Pep. He did play pragmatically last season and fans hated it.
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What was the pragmatism last season that wasn’t liked?
 
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