Brentford (H) - Sat 9th May, 17:30 | PL | Pre-Match Thread

[pepguardiola'smoustache]

might we be playing with (mostly) 3 at the back?

bernardo slotting into the left back if and when needed (he's done it before)

o'reilly as the holding midfielder.

and the rest of the team just get up the pitch as much as possible and score as many as we can?

 

[Dizbuster]

I think it could be the end of Nico

He will surely request a transfer at season's end.

 

[AliBobbyJ]

I’m complexed as to what you trying to get at…..

Is "complexed" a word now?
Or am I confused?

Sod off anyway.

 

[bluethai]

Hope Reijnders stops shooting into the stands for once.

 

[Gabriel]

Don’t think we can hold as high a line today, so better to play the length of the pitch and use Reijnders’ mobility along with O’Reilly and Nunes and Cherki feeding the attackers. Looking forward to this.

 

[CC1]

Khusanov not even in the squad, is he injured?

Yes. He wouldn’t be “left out”

 

[bg1968]

I was wrong..

View attachment 191489

We are definitely conceding a goal or two with that selection , just hope we can outscore them , a Haaland hat-trick will virtually guarantee him the Golden Boot , come on Erland show Thiago who's is the real deal :)

 

[super_city_si]

He will surely request a transfer at season's end.

No one requests transfers anymore. They lose a bonus. If he wants out he’ll get his agent to get offers in ans say he like to leave

 

[mosssideblue]

At least when the seasons over, the wet fannies will be quiet

 

[waspish]

When you look at that team it’s so weak in midfield maybe we dominate the ball that much it be all about the defence stopping the goal chances

 

[blue_danube]

Khusanov not even in the squad, is he injured?

Must be. Either not fit or sick?

 

[Stelea]

No Rodri, no answer. That is a frighteningly weak midfield against a team who will bully us. Even if O Reilly steps into midfield, Ake will get exposed for pace.

 

[Dizbuster]

No one requests transfers anymore. They lose a bonus. If he wants out he’ll get his agent to get offers in ans say he like to leave

Whatever......

 

[YatesA]

Reijnders is not the answer at all with bernardo alongside him. Nico gonzalez must be well out of favour.

 

[blue_danube]

I was hoping Phil might start ahead of Semenyo. Thought Phil looked sharp against Everton and think Semenyo has been looking a bit leggy.

 

[The Blue Eh]

Honestly, I've no problem with Doku (anymore). He's frustrating, but still has some really good games - and the odd great one. I'm still not convinced that his return is top-notch though, considering the amount of the ball he's given. He also kills the momentum of breakaways too frequently for my liking and doesn't check out the situation before collecting the ball, thereby missing Erling's runs frequently. Scored a couple of beauties the other night, though, so hopefully he'll gain a lot of confidence and take a few more shots (assuming that he's allowed to - we never know which is a player's decision and which is a gameplan). All in all, though - definitely a starter, every game now, given the squad.

O'Reilly should always be one of the first on the team-sheet as far as I'm concerned.

So I wasn't having a dig, but I do think that we are too predictable with the 'give it to Doku' gameplan. We have a couple of dangerous RW players in Semenyo and Nunes and I think that we should keep opponents guessing more often. Maybe switch the play more than we do.

Re: the Saints match, Boro pegged them back today just as we did, but they were still managing to get their shots away. My comments were made at half-time - it all changed 2nd half though, Boro dropped their level whereas we picked up the pace.

This league's not done and dusted yet - 4-1 tonight and then get behind those Hammers.

The “give it to the winger” gameplay has worked effectively in Pep’s system. Think the Sané/Sterling/Mahrez days. It is the responsibility of the winger to hold the width (fighting against a their natural instinct to drift in), and the responsibility of the rest of the team to find the winger when he is 1-on-1 with a defender out wide. This obviously falls apart if you build up slowly, allowing the opponents to set up more defenders near our winger or if the winger drifts in (in which case they walk into multiple defenders anyway).

That said I also agree with you that Doku’s style of play invites some of the problems. We’ve seen others like Vinicius change their approach to become more effective in G/A. I hope this part of Doku’s maturation. Like you say, the boost of confidence from scoring goals will only help.

 

[Blue_Lightsaber]

No one requests transfers anymore. They lose a bonus. If he wants out he’ll get his agent to get offers in ans say he like to leave

You know that's 1 reason I really liked Jesus besides all that he did for us..

He got his transfer done before the loyalty bonus kicked in and saved City like 3 mil or something.. where as most players generally wait to get the bonus on the way out.

Say what you will.. he's no Judas!

 

[waspish]

We have two midfielders who want to roam

 

[bluemoon32]

Bernardo is going to have to work even harder than usual

 

[blue_danube]

last I checked all fans are welcome on this forum if I’m not mistaken? Everyone on this forum has joined the forum on different dates, so I’m complexed as to what you trying to get at…..

Perplexed?