AS Monaco (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

Craig said:
There’s only Bernado slower than Dias and there are 40 year olds who could out run Bernie now. Not a chance he’s quicker than Akanji. Ake yes as he’s also slow these days and wasn’t pacey to start with. We lack pace at centre half unless it’s Khusanov is all i’m truro say.

In the past we had a much better and more dominant midfield so that helped a lot.
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Well is that a problem to lay at the feet of Gvardiol. He’s a decently quick CB with a lot of good qualities. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water because if we got rid of him you can bet there’d be a queue of teams willing to take him.

The problem is the midfield like you say. I don’t care how quick your CB’s are, if any half decent team are allowed to play the ball into forward on the run against a high line you’ve got problems
 
ancoats said:
Going forward, City are a danger to anybody in Europe, but when City are defending, its a hard watch.
We need to tighten up at the back and stop looking like rabbits in headlights, because when the bigger games with world-class players start to come around we will get found wanting

Early doors and nobody is going to win the Champions League or get knocked out just yet, City will grow and learn lessons and from what we watched last season, the new format in the Champions League is still bedding in and it needs time to learn what is needed from the 8 games to get into the knockouts,

One big thing from tonight is that we didn't lose. Win your home games and don't lose away, we will be in a great place
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Agreed, but to have a chance in the CL got to have your worldies firing. Not quite there yet but got a chance if stepping up
 
SWPISHOME said:
...

It would also help is he kept our most dangerous player on the pitch in recent weeks with Jeremy Doku instead of whipping him off just to leave Bernardo Silva on...
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L'Equipe would probably mark him 0.5/10 for tonight's (non)performance, half point would be probably for tuning up for the flight to France.
 
2-2 Man City


Manchester City

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola speaking to TNT Sports: "That was a good game. We made some decisions, we created a lot of chances. Unfortunately at the end we defended an unfair free-kick not perfectly, and we conceded a penalty that Nico touched the ball first, no intention. But it is what it is. We have a point and we will take it."

On if the penalty at the end was fair:

"I don't know if it was a penalty but it was given. So that's that."

On Erling Haaland scoring two goals: "He's is very good, he plays to score goals, very good. You have to find him and when they played two central defenders and two holding midfielders that is not easy to find him but he scored goals."

On Rodri going off after 60 minutes: "It is step by step. 90-minutes was too much for him

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland speaking to TNT Sports:

"I don't feel good - we didn't win. We did something unnecessarily in the second half. We didn't play good enough, we didn't deserve to win.

"We need more energy. We needed to get at them more like in the first half, they took the lead in the second half and I don't think it's good enough."

Penalty incident: "I didn't see it - but if you kick someone in the face it's probably a penalty."

On only having seven first-half touches: "I still think I'm involved in the game, doing movements and giving space to others. It's not just about touching the ball to be in the game, it's about making runs. I did my job in the first half, second half I didn't. I didn't score goals or finish it off.

"Every Champions League game is tough. Look at last year we went out. Every game is tough, not many teams have won their first two games and that's why."


Nedum Onuoha
Former Manchester City defender on MOTD: UEFA Champions League

It was a disappointing result but one of the positives for City tonight was Foden's performance, and he has been playing well since he came into the team for the Manchester derby.

Foden has been important in terms of trying to unlock some of the tough defences City have faced, and he made a big difference against Monaco too.

It felt like a lot of the chances City created came through him and although he has not assisted Haaland with either of his goals, a lot of their creativity came through him.

Any time they could find him in pockets of space, his ability to get on the ball on the half-turn to look for the right pass meant he could create something against what was a dogged defence. It was really impressive.
 
chesterbells said:
Yep, though on the wider point, if one of our players gets turned who in our team has the necessary pace to deal with that/retrieve the situation?

Thinking of all our midfielders and defenders, Khus is quick. If I make an alternative list of all our players who look sluggish speed-wise, there seem to be a few more names on it though.
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Yeah, sorry it was more an indication of him having to commit the foul due to an uncharacteristic loss of possession and him seeming off the pace. Agree though, Khus & Nunes are the ones with pace. Gvardiol is quick but was getting himself the wrong side tonight through being too aggressive
 
SWPISHOME said:
We aren't blessed with the most attacking depth right now?

We've the best striker in world football yet Pep is happy for us to pass the ball from side to side and backwards for 50 minutes.

It would also help is he kept our most dangerous player on the pitch in recent weeks with Jeremy Doku instead of whipping him off just to leave Bernardo Silva on...

Yes we missed a couple of chances, that aside, we let the game pass us by and that's down to the manager being content with keep ball, we should be creating alot more against a team of tonight's calibre, yet we're happy enough to fuck about.

Maybe you can give Pep a back massage or whatever shite your on about.
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Everybody listen! Let’s make this guy “SWPISHOME” the next manager, get this Pep guy out of there, he’s clearly out his depth.

We should’ve scored 3, genuinely. Maybe 4 after Reijnders shot which was saved and Halaand put the rebound into the side netting.

It reminds me of when Sterling missed that sitter again Lyon in the CL, and people blamed Pep for how we lost that game. Comical!!!
Peps teams have always played the ball sideways and backwards… and then forwards in between the lines like they did so many times tonight. I don’t know if some of you genuinely watched a different game, or maybe didn’t watch intently for 90 minutes. I feel like some of you don’t really know football, and maybe just started following City, but some of the complaints I see in here and in game threads is astonishing.

Clearly Doku has had an injury history. He’s played 3 straight high intensity games. We were far away in control of the game at 2-1, with no real threat coming from Monaco. We have a game at the weekend, and I’m assuming he plans on starting Doku then. If Doku stayed on and got hurt, you would have been moaning about why he didn’t take him off. Doku wasn’t even effective this game, and Savinho didn’t even play poorly when he came on. At that point it was about controlling the game which is why he left Bernardo on, who is great at that.

The only real attacking subs we have are Bobb, Savinho so no we aren’t blessed with attacking talent off the bench like in the past.

As good as Halaand is, he needs to really improve his feet, which I see has gotten better. But he needs to be able to drop into pockets and pick the ball up, and create more. Zlatan and him are different players, but he could study some of game and learn from that. Him standing there a lot of times, waiting for service against low blocks can make us pretty predictable.
 
Marvin. said:
We're not at the level of Barca, PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern any more.

We need to improve our playing squad by whatever means possible and it won't be a flick of a switch.

A lot of our fans are really stupid. This is an elite competition and we are not an elite side any more but we can be again. There are already signs this season that we are improving. That's all we need to see to remain patient.

I wouldn't put too much hope in Cherki. He'll most likely need time to adapt. It's possible he might start on the right.

I am not angry. As I was watching that game, I knew that Monaco would very likely equalise.

We are short of where we want to be but at the same time last season we were conceding 4 to Sporting away from home. I don't see that happening this season. We are a work in progress with shortcomings. The shortcomings will get dealt with.
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Of course, Cherki is still young and inexperienced but as all who have coached him, watched him develop know he has the knack of doing things not many players can do. In other words to be successful you need that maverick type of player in the side especially against well drilled defences .

I'm also not too concerned but Erling summed up the game perfectly - this was a missed opportunity because we were back to playing very slowly in Europe and used up a lot of energy playing cautiously when they were for the taking - we should have won it 17 shots away from home usually get's it done but at least we didn't lose ha!
 
Stelea said:
This season (excluding Huddersfield), played 8 and only won half of them against the 3 poorest teams in the prem and 10 men Napoli. Gonna be a long inconsistent season.
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Yeah and against the strongest team we played like no team has ever played under Pep before. Don't really get where some people get so much confidence for this season. Same mistakes in losses against Tot and Brighton as last season and pretty much today also.
 
waspish said:
Pep never wants his team to con referees dive “play the referee” which is a shame when the margins are so small now and with five subs tiring out teams now is none existent! We have that much of the ball we could easily work on passing in pen box learn to play the game that other do as in any touch fall down! I bet if one of our player went to head the ball didn’t get touched like he didn’t then dive hold his head then the whole Monaco team complained to the referee! Out play wouldn’t have gone down and carried on!
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Foden was mugged in the box while running with the ball and stayed on his feet to keep possession, Doku was mugged and didn’t even get the throw-in, let alone the foul!!
It’s a joke.

Not to turn this into an “I remember when…” but I long for the days of yore where you got up with a broken leg and limped off under your own steam, IF you went off, because you didn’t want to give your opponent the pleasure of feeling like he knobbled you!

Today, it’s “how many different ways, and in which dangerous field positions, can I con the ref into giving us a free kick, because as a man and professional footballer, I have no shame?”!!!

Before foreign players showed up, it was a no-no. Today, there are not enough English players to field 20 PL teams and even they are just as chickenshit!

It’s a cancer on the game, but no-one cares enough to do a damned thing about it!

And, I’d love to see the stats on the number of stoppages from players holding their heads now that refs are told to stop the game for them.

Fucking disgrace really, and VAR should look at EVERY STOPPAGE FOR A “HEAD INJURY” or face holding and get the yellow cards ready for simulation and cheating!

There are touches to the upper body and there are “I got pole-axed in the head/face” challenges…and the difference needs sorting via the use of yellow and red cards! Games are getting frustratingly unwatchable and piss off EVERY fan!
 
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Craig said:
There’s only Bernado slower than Dias and there are 40 year olds who could out run Bernie now. Not a chance he’s quicker than Akanji. Ake yes as he’s also slow these days and wasn’t pacey to start with. We lack pace at centre half unless it’s Khusanov is all i’m truro say.

In the past we had a much better and more dominant midfield so that helped a lot.
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Bernardo is in his last season at City as you well know. Speed isn't everything.

What is the point of saying that we lack pace at centre-half unless its Khusanov. Khusanov is our player and no doubt we bought him specifically because of his particular strengths.
 
Xhavenjoe said:
You have an active imagination if you you think Soriano is influencing the team Pep picks.
Pep is a stubborn man and he decides the team, good or bad.
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Definitely not referring to him being in the team, more about one of the most confusing contract extensions I’ve probably ever heard…
 
Ken92 said:
Yeah and against the strongest team we played like no team has ever played under Pep before. Don't really get where some people get so much confidence for this season. Same mistakes in losses against Tot and Brighton as last season and pretty much today also.
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We haven't even had a pre-season. We're still in our pre-season and will be in our pre-season when the season ends.
 
In Europe that's a penalty all day every day.
I always felt at 2-1 they would score again unfortunately we didn't score again.
We are improving but it's only slow margins. CTID
 
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