Defence conundrum

[alib]

The first thing our defenders can do to help us stop conceding like we did vs Chelsea is stop diving in 60 yards from our goal inside the opposition half?

 

[Neville Kneville]

The first thing our defenders can do to help us stop conceding like we did vs Chelsea is stop diving in 60 yards from our goal inside the opposition half?

It's a judgement thing & Otta hasn't got it. It can happen on the edge of our box, on the wing, at the halfway line, anywhere. He did it all last season.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Burnley had a guilt egded chance to make it two each last week.

They didn't have Costa or Hazard.

Indeed they did, but we had bodies between them and the goal. That wasn't true for any of the three yesterday.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Indeed they did, but we had bodies between them and the goal. That wasn't true for any of the three yesterday.

It was actually. But the bodies were fucking useless & left as dead bodies.

 

[lasereyes]

in hindsight, it was a mistake sending Mangala out on loan when we had no replacement. I am the first to agree he had many weaknesses and I would have seen him more on the bench than as our primary starter. But there are certain games when you need a big strong centre back - particularly yesterday. We have seen how he has dealt with both Costa and Zlatan in the past and my feeling is he would have stopped Costa on that equalizing goal yesterday. Not clear why we left ourselves so short (literally and metaphorically).

 

[OB1]

Because we brought Pep in, to be Pep.

If he spends this season patching up holes rather than making the team play like Pep, we won't wn anything anyway, because that's not what he is good at.

So then we start next season, from the same position we started this one.

Why don't people get this?

All the knee jerk reactionaries are doing my head in.

Pep always had a big job ahead of him to get City to the place we need to be and this was always going to be a season of transition. The club may have wasted opportunities to be in a better place by not doing as good a job of recruitment as they should since the first title win but crying over spilt milk won't help. We have Pep now and we need to give him the time to do his thing.

 

[OB1]

I'm not for one moment suggesting Pep should abandon all his principles, of course not.

Merely a tad of pragmatism, given the inadequacies of some of our players. It's not using pretending to be something we are not. So yes by all means we should try and play "the Pep way", but shouldn't we just be *bit* mindful that we're leaking stupid goals time and time again?

He was pretty pragmatic at Burnley.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Why don't people get this?

All the knee jerk reactionaries are doing my head in.

Pep always had a big job ahead of him to get City to the place we need to be and this was always going to be a season of transition. The club may have wasted opportunities to be in a better place by not doing as good a job of recruitment as they should since the first title win but crying over spilt milk won't help. We have Pep now and we need to give him the time to do his thing.

It's the English/Prem/1st Div mentality. If at first you don't succeed, you are clearly doing something wrong, even if you have won the Champs Lg twice doing it. So give up & play like every other team would.

Even Glen Hoddle was on it day 1 'he can't do that with his fullbacks' etc.

If Pep is struggling in two years, he'll change it, then go.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Why don't people get this?

All the knee jerk reactionaries are doing my head in.

Pep always had a big job ahead of him to get City to the place we need to be and this was always going to be a season of transition. The club may have wasted opportunities to be in a better place by not doing as good a job of recruitment as they should since the first title win but crying over spilt milk won't help. We have Pep now and we need to give him the time to do his thing.

Exactly this - you are being kind referring to reactionaries though. Some perversley have been waiting to pounce on setbacks since he was announced.

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

It was actually. But the bodies were fucking useless & left as dead bodies.

I defy you to find any of those goals where there was a City player between the goal scorer and Bravo.

 

[OB1]

Exactly this - you are being kind referring to reactionaries though. Some perversley have been waiting to pounce on setbacks since he was announced.

Yeah, I am trying to be kind.

 

[Neville Kneville]

I defy you to find any of those goals where there was a City player between the goal scorer and Bravo.

Costa went past Otamendi twice. Both the other Chelsea goals involved their players just running past ours.

 

[Mr HJ]

For me it is far more important to replace the fullbacks - how we have ended up with the four we have now is a mystery. Thinking about it, finding a centre back who will transform us is going to be tough and very costly Bonnuci would have done that but Italians like to stay in Italy. I can't think of too many defenders who are that good, Chelsea gave us many opportunities to score and I think they will be found out with Cahill as their fulcrum. Looking at Liverpool today Louverns was a complete liability - they were so vulnerable to balls played down the middle -a lot like us. Best case is to promote from within and spend the money of fast, technically gifted full backs. The way we want to keep possession and look for overlaps yet have players capable of stopping counter attack is only fixed by a complete upgrade of the infamous four.

 

[fatbloke]

I'm not for one moment suggesting Pep should abandon all his principles, of course not.

Merely a tad of pragmatism, given the inadequacies of some of our players. It's not using pretending to be something we are not. So yes by all means we should try and play "the Pep way", but shouldn't we just be *bit* mindful that we're leaking stupid goals time and time again?

It's a learning process, if we don't follow the principles we'll never improve. Short term pain for long term gain. So what if we don't win the title this season, its only one season.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

For me it is far more important to replace the fullbacks - how we have ended up with the four we have now is a mystery. Thinking about it, finding a centre back who will transform us is going to be tough and very costly Bonnuci would have done that but Italians like to stay in Italy. I can't think of too many defenders who are that good, Chelsea gave us many opportunities to score and I think they will be found out with Cahill as their fulcrum. Looking at Liverpool today Louverns was a complete liability - they were so vulnerable to balls played down the middle -a lot like us. Best case is to promote from within and spend the money of fast, technically gifted full backs. The way we want to keep possession and look for overlaps yet have players capable of stopping counter attack is only fixed by a complete upgrade of the infamous four.

there are two reasons city have not bought fullbacks over the past few seasons, one is Maffeo and the other is Angelino, citys owners want to see the academy succeed and this year Gunn, Maffeo, Angelino, Garcia and Ieanacho, have all been given an opportunity to oust their peers.
next season the quality will go up again but for now it is up to them, but city do need a cb and find one that will improve us is easy

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Finding a replacement as good as Kompany wont be easy, the big names who Kompany never let have a kick is long and impressive

 

[salfordbluetrue]

Finding a replacement as good as Kompany wont be easy, the big names who Kompany never let have a kick is long and impressive

Stones and Ottamendi are Kompanys replacements ,and no neither is as good, but get your vids out of a young Kompany when we first moved him back to cb , his runs forward long passing and his closing players quickly down were the best in the business . well i have watched Van Dijk for a few years now and he does just that albeit on the left

 

[mancity1]

Spot on.

Come on Pep, stop fucking around now as it just isnt working fella.

That's a bit simplistic.

We don't have defenders with the speed and nous to play the the way we are currently effectively any way but even if we reverted to RM's approach opposition's would still get the opportunity to score the goals we have given up so far.

We haven't replaced a full back ( all should have been by now with better ones ) and the others we have bought in for cover were without exception not up to standard on a week by week basis.

The crocked VK hasn't helped of course because you are never sure if he will stand up for more than a couple of games but we stay loyal to those who are loyal to us.

Until our defence is completely overhauled ( we certainly need a better keeper than Bravo ) we will continue to leak simple goals no matter the system because quite frankly the players we have in those positions have fallen behind what is needed now in the premiership at the very top at least anyway.

 

[bobom]

I don't feel it's the system - quite the opposite. Given the amount of possession we have in most games we're shipping more goals than we should.

Basically all the defenders need to have really clear, cool heads - for that reason I have no confidence in Otamendi. And playing such a high line, they need to be pretty quick, which is letting down Kolarov.

I'm really unwilling to suggest we just throw money at the problem. There aren't many off-the-shelf defenders around who foot the bill, and none that are value for money.

But if we're going to have defenders that make a couple of mistake a match, I'd rather they were young guys who will learn and improve rather than Ota/Kolarov/Clichy.

 

[the plasterer]

Play maffeo right back, sagna as a centre half, least sagna has got a slight inclin on how to defend, maffeo is ready in my humble opinion