Norwich (a) post-match thread

[mayo31]

Cancelo Ferna Stones Mendy.

So basically with this we will be playing with 2 at the back

 

[OB1]

When Kevin doesn’t play we zig zag up the pitch and have a slower build up (won the quad without him). When he plays, the side to side passing doesn’t last as long as when he gets the ball he drives at the defence and we look more dynamic. Obvious stuff. City with and without Kevin are two different teams. As a team we’re like a coiled spring - more spring when Kevin plays.

Good point.

 

[Blumers Bloomers]

Is it safe to come in yet?!

 

[gingerprince]

Lots of knee jerk reactions and opportunities for fans to scapegoat player whilst others playing/calming down issues

eg "ffs its early in the season...." and " but scapegoated player x or y played x games last year and won cups/title etc and

"We were as poor versus Newcastle away but look what happened after that" and all the above are indeed true statements.

But last years run in was a titanic Herculean task to win by a hairs breadth.

Under Pep we play from the back, from our own goal line. Our play has been mesmerising at times. We have been able to

breakdown defensive setups or maraude thru more attacking minded teams at times. A joy to watch individually talented

players combine their strengths and abilities to either use pace or guile to create seemingly simple tap ins. However, we

play from the back. If we are weaker there, whichever players play in front, will find it harder, then forwards suffer from that

poorer service. If we are stronger at the back, less teams press us there, we face forward, we move it forward more quickly

Without Kompany and missing Laporte we are weaker at the back. We dont have a defensive left back, Laporte is excellent

at covering defensive frailties of whoever is left back, be that Zinchenko, Mendy or an other. His forward attacking passing

quality is way beyond that of Stones or Otamendi. Kompany more direct forward passing was always quicker than that of

Stones, more, I'll keep hold of it & then change my mind then step forward again then pass it square to not lose possession.

Stones & Otamendi are good defenders. However, Otamendi, its thought would have left, if we had bought a CB to replace

Kompany. Pep wouldnt have bought a CB, unless he thought they would have been an improvement over Stones/Otamendi.

I posted in the Forum preseason that I thought a long term injury to Laporte or Edison would be most difficult to cover once

we signed Rodri as cover for Fernandhino. I'm sure Pep will find a format that eases this and yes the seasons just started..,

Our competitors are squealing with delight at the moment, hopefully squealing with anguish at the business end of season[/U]

 

[northwichblue]

So we were going to score 4, 5, 6 goals were we

 

[OB1]

We have conceded chances against most teams we have played against during the last few seasons.

Most of the time they have cocked them up & we have scored freely at the other end. But on the days we didn't get away with it, we have crashed out of Champions Leagues, & almost lost titles.

All of those games have involved truly awful defending, rather than being undone by brilliance from the opposition.

We have a weakness in that area which people like to ignore & it's time we worked on solving it imo, rather than just concentrating on passing & attacking.

We were also arrogant v Norwich imo, playing both the slow duffers plus old Dave, in the same team with a newly returning Stones & the unpredictable Otamendi, with no Fernandinho.

Rodri is great but he doesn't yet do the coalface defending & by playing the non existent Gundogan in place of a creative or defensive mid, we weaken ourselves at both ends.

Imo, Rodri is better than Gudogan in every aspect of football apart from maybe free kicks, so we could play him in place of the German Ray Wilkins & still get Fern in the team to help protect the useless Zinchenko.

We have conceded chances to other teams but we concede the fewest shots of any team in the league.

No one's ignoring weaknesses but I'm quite sure Pep is constantly trying to improve how we defend. He will point though to how many chances we concede as an example of how much success we have defending. I personally think the failure to convert more chances is a bigger failing; despite being top scorers. We just aren't perfect, are we!

It tends to be errors rather a systematic issue that is our problem. We crashed out of the UCL last season largely because our best defender - probably one of the three best CB's in the world - made uncharacteristic errors.

I would agree that in a few games Pep should play Rodri and Fern in midfield but Rodri is our DM for the coming years and Pep loves Gundo so it's a non-starter using Rodri instead of him on a regular basis. Yesterday was not a game where we needed to play Rodri and Fern together: other players needed to do jobs of which they are perfectly capable of.

What I would prefer Pep didn't do is play Merlin and Silva together because of the lack of pace.

If Mendy is not about to return, I'd try Cancelo on the left.

 

[lefty goldblatt]

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, but yes, our defence may have been poor, yesterday. Players and teams make mistakes, that's how opposition teams score goals.
A huge reason for our dropped points this season, lays at the other end of the pitch. Yesterday, Norwich 6 attempts on goal, 3 on target, 3 scored. Us, 20odd attempts on goal, 8 on target, 2 scored.
It was a similar story v Spuds.

We just aren't ruthless enough, and that's WITH Aguero (a legend), a hugely in form Sterling, and Jesus. We try and walk the ball into the net, or pass it in. Some of those attempts late on, yesterday, an U14's keeper could have stopped.

I hope we'll learn

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Sack the board !

 

[deegee33]

I suppose it was too much for him to say “Otamendi should have a been a blow job and Stones wasn’t much better.”

Rather odd way to criticize somebody, after all, even a bad blow job still gets results and makes me feel good. Ottamendi did neither.

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

bad day at the office hopefully. Though it did feel like Leicester/Everton a couple of seasons ago where we had issues at the back especially with Bravo in goal. The media are going to highlight it to death and Stoneve to be exceptional to get over it. Otamendi too.

It's now an issue though and we're going to be playing against that pressure as well as the opposition. We could do with Garcia/Someone else coming in to take the spotlight off