Improving in the CL

We lack leadership and self belief. Kompany needs to give players a rollicking when they are just going through the motions, as was the case last night. Also, we need to find a system and pick the best players to suit it, instead of picking the best players and trying to fit them into a system.

The CL has much more tactically, technically gifted and fitter players than the PL, and we need to adjust our tactics accordingly.
 
Won 2, Drawn 2 Lost 7 in our last 11 CL games! Not good that but considering that 5 of those 7 loses came to Bayern, Madrid, Juventus and Barca x2 isn't that much to be ashamed of. Having said that I didn't see much wrong with last night other than our play in the final 3rd, the killer instinct wasn't there and it just seemed like we were being too cautious, no pace in play and we were backing off Juve too much...

I did see elements of improvement though as I've not seen us dominate a game in the CL like that against an opposition like Juventus before, all credit to Juventus for being so well organised in all aspects of the pitch but this is how we should be playing not them.

In the Group stages you realistically want to win all your home games and at the very least draw your away ones which will put you on 12 points and guarantee you to go top of the group and if not at the very least send you through to the last 32!
 
The biggest problem last night was that we gave them too much time on the ball, especially in midfield. That comes down to tactics. I've said it before, but Yaya needs to be dropped in the CL or played higher up the pitch. Pellers will never have the balls to drop him though. I know we had our injuries last night but we really needed two hard-working midfielders in the centre of the pitch and we only had one. Ferds was actually our man of the match for me.

Anyway I'm still confident we will progress. We also had our fair share of bad luck last night!
 
Criticisms of our CL performances tend to be split between "we dont adapt our style to CL football" and "we dont play our own game". Contradictory though those statements are, I think there's an element of truth in both. We seem to fall between two stools, neither one thing or the other.
 
I thought we were the better team last night and our performance compared to Napoli, dortmund and roma home matches was much improved. We need to be much more clinical in front of goal because this proved to be the difference. You can't afford to give teams like juventus a sight of goal because they will take chances. Yesterday we had 4 very good chances/situations to score but didn't take them and that ultimately cost us. Don't lose heart guys because I feel that despite the result we look good enough to progress.
 
cibaman said:
Criticisms of our CL performances tend to be split between "we dont adapt our style to CL football" and "we dont play our own game". Contradictory though those statements are, I think there's an element of truth in both. We seem to fall between two stools, neither one thing or the other.
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exactly we seem to be caught in a inbetween ideas.
BTW is there any permanent thread for tactical discussions on BM.
 
We just need to be a bit wiser in future. Sure we had a lot of chances to score and had Aguero been fit we probably would have won BUT, after we go 1-0, in a tight game we should have changed it and sured things up and I don't know how many times we're going to see it - all the best teams run down the clock except from us.

We need to adopt that strategy to see games out because trying to score more isn't working.

In the second half yesterday there was 3 goals, 6 substitutions and countless acts of time wasting - they gave 3 minutes added time of which the ball was in play around 1 and a half minutes.

Will we ever learn?
 
Quite a few have hit the nail on the head, have a set formation, that is balanced and suits us, not pick an unbalanced 11 and try fit it in. Juventus have their set formation and pick the team around that.
 
City didn't play at their best, but nonetheless should've been 1-0 up inside two minutes, if it weren't for Sterling's awful finishing. Would've created a totally different game, a much easier one for City to begin with. Same story in the second half, right after the (illegal) 1-0, Sterling should've sealed it but missed another sitter. Sterling's finishing, or lack thereof, is really a big problem and should be worked upon intensively, luckily he's still very young so there's hopes he can improve. One thing's for sure he's not a natural born finisher, so I don't think City or any team will ever get more than 15 goals a season from him.
As for the general level of play, I think City's key players, with the exception of Kompany and Fernandinho, were quite disappointing. Silva had lots of ups and downs. Touré played way too slow. Sterling's finishing, again, was appalling, and so on. As imperious as City look in the Premier League, that's how nervy, shaky they look in the Champions League, overcome by utterly irrational performance anxiety. There's no doubt in my mind that City have more than enough quality to compete with the very best, but the team - the harder they shout the less convinced they actually seem of their own capabilities.
Finally, as much as some City fans hate it, the team is very dependent on Sergio Agüero, with him around confidence automatically goes up a couple of notches and City would effectively have been 1-0 up after just 2 minutes.
And put De Bruyne in the starting XI FFS. The whole idea of buying him was to improve City's chances in Europe, so putting him on the bench won't help that cause.
 
Pace & organisation not slow headless chickens strolling around poncing about. And FFS get rid of Kolarov right now.
 
The question assumes that we underperformed.

Did we? For me we played a lot better against Juventus than we did at home to the other top teams in our groups in previous seasons.

Some fans need to recognise that there are other top teams in Europe and that the opposition doesn't just let you play. Games are decided at this level on fine differences and there really wasn't much to choose between two good teams.
 
Marvin said:
The question assumes that we underperformed.

Did we? For me we played a lot better against Juventus than we did at home to the other top teams in our groups in previous seasons.

Some fans need to recognise that there are other top teams in Europe and that the opposition doesn't just let you play. Games are decided at this level on fine differences and there really wasn't much to choose between two good teams.
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yes we did, we have the 2nd most expensive squad in the world. just let that sink in.
 
jimharri said:
Am I wrong?
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well i dunno, i mean it's too early to tell. if we labour through the group, scrape 2nd or dip out in 3rd, then i cant help but agree but if we go to Germany next and win nicely followed by a home win over sevilla then perhaps it will begin to click.

ifs and buts perhaps, but i thought we had ample opportunity to put the runners up of the champs league to bed, which would have been a very positive step. as it was we didnt and i just think it's a bit early to say we've made zero progress.
 
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