Al Hilal (N) | CWC | Post Match Thread

For all the years of that defensive high-line, the often ponderous midfield, susceptible to the counter attack and that inching forward of the attaching horseshoe system, if we put away our chances then we wouldn't be having this conversation as regularly as we are. That's our weak point.
 
manimanc said:
(Just making a note to oneself for next season.)

Avoid the post match thread always.
The fannies in this thread cryarsing and pulling the team to bits over glorified friendlies and not realising the team has a hangover from last season will be absolutely unbearable.

What am I actually reading?

What.
The.
Actual.
Fuck.
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When do you suspect we'll return to being a consistent, high performing team out of interest?
 
The Black Shed said:
For all the years of that defensive high-line, the often ponderous midfield, susceptible to the counter attack and that inching forward of the attaching horseshoe system, if we put away our chances then we wouldn't be having this conversation as regularly as we are. That's our weak point.
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Playing Devil's Advocate:

Ok, let's pretend that we tucked away a few more and won 7-4 last night. How confident would you be about next season?
 
Roachy said:
When do you suspect we'll return to being a consistent, high performing team out of interest?
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We'll have a nice break, get rid of dead wood and old legs, the new coaches and new players will settle in and get to know eachother and we'll be tip top for Wolves away.......

Or Pep might start Gundo with Bernardo in midfield and cause a massive meltdown on here.
 
manimanc said:
We'll have a nice break, get rid of dead wood and old legs, the new coaches and new players will settle in and get to know eachother and we'll be tip top for Wolves away.......

Or Pep might start Gundo with Bernardo in midfield and cause a massive meltdown on here.
Click to expand...
Personally I find what happened at the Club World Cup concerning, We as fans might have seen the games as glorified friendlies although it wasn't the case for Pep and the players which seen us been knocked out by Al-Hilal and the manner of the defeat didn't help either.

Khaldoon clearly stated in his end of season interview that he wants us to go and win this competition, Plus it would have earned the club massive money in the process.

The January signings have barely got a kick since they've joined, Surely they all should have got more minutes yet we continued to see players playing regularly that's been bang out of form for a long period of time on top of the "old guard" continuing to play. You'd think that they'd be playing less if Pep wasn't planning to have them around.

In the games against Juventus and Al-Hilal we continued to get cut open on the counter attack with is being very high and naive defensively and that is worrying because it was a common theme throughout last season.

Personally I reckon it's a longer road back than people think, At the end of the day it's a results business and I'm not so sure Khaldoon will be so nice if this continues into next season.

Big season for this for Pep and some of the players.
 
noseve said:
And @manimanc What's going to trigger the improvement?
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A bit of rest. The team need to recharge. Pep looks ready for war already but the team need to switch off from last season and reset for next season.
New coaches will trigger improvement, they need time to implement their ideas, it isn't going to happen when they are trawling America in the cash cow cup and having a few days here and there.
I'm presuming we'll stay in the UK now and not be jetting off somewhere to play farmers 11 in outer Mongolia so hopefully a bit of graft and time on the grass to come back next season different and up for it but we need to shut the back door when we have a corner, conceding goals from our own set piece is criminal.
 
The Black Shed said:
For all the years of that defensive high-line, the often ponderous midfield, susceptible to the counter attack and that inching forward of the attaching horseshoe system, if we put away our chances then we wouldn't be having this conversation as regularly as we are. That's our weak point.
Click to expand...

Whilst I partly agree with what you say, remember we were 3-0 up at home v Feyenoord after 73 minutes last November and only got a draw. We were 2-0 up away at PSG after 55 minutes and lost. Our defence is not just vulnerable, it can be catastrophically brittle and everybody knows it.
 
manimanc said:
We'll have a nice break, get rid of dead wood and old legs, the new coaches and new players will settle in and get to know eachother and we'll be tip top for Wolves away.......

Or Pep might start Gundo with Bernardo in midfield and cause a massive meltdown on here.
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Possibly, who knows. At least we won't be able to put it down to the exertions of a title winning previous season or going far in the CWC if it goes pear shaped.
 
SWPISHOME said:
Personally I find what happened at the Club World Cup concerning, We as fans might have seen the games as glorified friendlies although it wasn't the case for Pep and the players which seen us been knocked out by Al-Hilal and the manner of the defeat didn't help either.

Khaldoon clearly stated in his end of season interview that he wants us to go and win this competition, Plus it would have earned the club massive money in the process.

The January signings have barely got a kick since they've joined, Surely they all should have got more minutes yet we continued to see players playing regularly that's been bang out of form for a long period of time on top of the "old guard" continuing to play. You'd think that they'd be playing less if Pep wasn't planning to have them around.

In the games against Juventus and Al-Hilal we continued to get cut open on the counter attack with is being very high and naive defensively and that is worrying because it was a common theme throughout last season.

Personally I reckon it's a longer road back than people think, At the end of the day it's a results business and I'm not so sure Khaldoon will be so nice if this continues into next season.

Big season for this for Pep and some of the players.
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I don´t understand how Khusanov played only one half in 4 games, he can´t be worse than those other CBs and yesterday would have been very good against their fast forwards. January window has starting to look a really weird one.
 
Newman Noggs said:
Whilst I partly agree with what you say, remember we were 3-0 up at home v Feyenoord after 73 minutes last November and only got a draw. We were 2-0 up away at PSG after 55 minutes and lost. Our defence is not just vulnerable, it can be catastrophically brittle and everybody knows it.
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I have to agree with this, It's clear as day that there's a lack of leadership at the back.

The centre backs we currently have are the type of players that would be played alongside a leader, It sort of reminds me of the days when we would have Vinny Kompany missing from the line up and you'd automatically think "ah bollocks"...Again we had good centre backs then with the likes of Lescott or Nastasic but both were poor without leadership.

It's a very brittle backline, Not much backbone to it truth being told.

I suppose we also have to ask ourselves the question as to why it's so easy to get at them too, One pass through the middle or down the sides and all of a sudden the opposition are at out back four.
 
Lee the Blue said:
So glad I got up at 2am to watch that shambles. A few points to make after watching us conceded 4 goals to Al Hilal - when you do that you simply dont deserve to win

- I thought we'd realised fielding old men in central midfield doesnt work? Yet here we were again with Bernardo and Gundo deployed centrally and we waited until we were 2-1 down before making a change. STOP WITH THE OLD MAN MIDFIELD FFS

- Nunes isnt up to it, never has been and never will be. Pep had to withdraw him last night before he may have got himself sent off. Akanji comes on and though solid defensively he offers nothing in the oppositions half of the field, so this greatly reduces our effect as an attacking force. Priority 1 and 1A has to be to find a right back who fits Peps system and is up to the standard

- The goalkeeper; does he ever make a save these days? The "ole" wave at the 3rd goal as though diving is beneath him was annoying. The opposition keeper makes umpteen saves - every shot at our goal goes in. Ederson is injured too often these days and seems to be a man running his contract down to bugger off for high wages next summer. I cant be the only one who thinks we need a better keeper?

- 3 Centre halves on the pitch and we cant defend a crossed ball, for either the 3rd or 4th goal. Garbage

- Standard stuff from Savinho and to a lesser extent Doku - who was double marked most of the night. After great games they dont affect another one the same way for weeks. Their next games like the one vs Juve will be in November on what theyve shown so far

- No idea why Nico Gonzalez isnt seeing the field much at all and seems the final option in midfield. Always looks half decent to me when he plays but Pep clearly doesnt rate the lad at all. Khusanov too appears to have dropped into this envelope - the lad looked really promising but has since disappeared and Nunes, Rico,Ake and Akanji are clearly preferred to him - Im not sure why?

- Plus point is we should give them all the squad the month of July off to recharge, rest and clear their heads. Hopefully in that time we can use it to locate and acquire a right back and hopefully a goalkeeper who can make the odd save and looks like he wants to be here. Also time to remove all the dead wood in the squad - 8/9 need to go elsehwere, at a guess Ortega, Nunes, Stones (cant stay fit), McAtee, Reis (loan), Echeverri (loan), Grealish, Phillips, Walker for starters.
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I agree with the majority of what you said but we dominated the game in the first half with Gundo and Bernardo, and these days, 30 isn't particularly old. Modrich is only just leaving Madrid at 38 or 39. If we had put away our chance it would have been a good first half
 
ken tali said:
I don´t understand how Khusanov played only one half in 4 games, he can´t be worse than those other CBs and yesterday would have been very good against their fast forwards. January window has starting to look a really weird one.
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Reading alot of other posters comments on here regarding Khusanov and looks like 90% are in agreement that the lad should be starting games.

Dias has fallen off a cliff massively, Akanji looks so leggy in his displays, Nunes shouldn't be playing at right back either although credit were it's due to him he's stepped in and tried to help the team.

Personally there's absolutely no way Dias and Akanji is a better proposal at centre back than Khusanov right now. It's time to play Khusanov and Gvardiol at centre back going forward.
 
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