Our attack - what's off?

[CatMan]

Speed - Lack of it!

All success in any sport is gained by exploiting space at speed. Whether it's tennis, rugby, football, boxing or even F1, exploiting the space at speed is crucial to getting the better of your opponent.

It's therefore no surprise, when our 1st pass is always sideways to retain possession after a turnover, that we are no longer exploiting our opponents weaknesses when they are most vulnerable.

Yesterday, and the contrast could not be more vivid, when we won possession our 1st pass was sideways, when Liverpool won possession they were prepared to risk losing possession immediately by exploiting any positional weakness we may have with a forward pass.

Until that philosophy changes we are scuppered. This league is simply too strong to assume 1 goal can win games as per the Mancini era. What were once bang average teams are playing without fear and at high tempo, and are quite prepared to sit deep and play counter attack. Our problem is that these teams have better players than ever before and can carry it off.

In short, this is going to be a long season and without a pacey quality forward and a philosophy to play forward to him, we are going to become what our play currently is; bang average.

 

[SanPellegrini]

I think the difference is our lack of central attacking players

It’s quite shocking how in just a few years we’ve gone from a team known for its world class midfielders, to a team where yesterday only De Bruyne fit that mould. When you consider that Gundo and Rodri were both playing DM, and the complete lack of movement and creativity from both of them (Rodri because he doesn’t have the talent, Gundo because he’s mostly a box to box ball carrier), our midfield instinctively feels very bare with just Kev.

Despite Pep’s focus on the wings, I actually think we lack width, or “breadth” might be more appropriate, because we don’t have many runners between the lines. It’s easy for the opposition to pack a midfield when there’s no one moving about: just imagine them trying to do that with prime David and prime Yaya. Our attacking midfield ends up being three lone players spread across the full pitch - Wingers either side who want to cut in, one central midfielder (usually Kev). That *can* work for a counter attack, but we’re not a counter attacking side

 

[Deleted member 77198]

This is being debated in various different threads and I thought it deserves its own one. We've been known as one of the best, if not THE best, attacking side in the premier over the last few seasons. However last year we saw our attack stutter at certain times and it seems that trend has continued into this season. We are still more than capable of beating a poor side by 4 or 5 goals on our day but against the more organised and better teams we seem to falter. Arguably Liverpool and Chelsea now seem more clinical in attack than us.

So why is that? Why do we seem devoid of ideas going forward? Why have we lost our fluidity and dynamism? Is it fitness? Player injuries disrupting our forward three? Have teams become accustomed in how to defend against us? Or is it something else?

Thoughts blues.

When Sterling isn’t provided with the opportunities or space to make him look good, he’s just highlighted as being distinctly average. Especially when faced with good and deep lying defences. All he does is lose the ball and has completely lost his defensive work rate. His all round game is so lacking, and for me he doesn’t deserve his place in the team.

de Bruyne is running around the pitch like a mad man doing the running of three or four men because his midfield partners are too slow and the forwards ahead of him constantly give the ball away. It’s affecting his game.

Mahrez is the same as Sterling, just loses the ball all the time yet has never had any defensive work rate. Also, like Sterling, doesn’t deserve his place in the team.

Foden and Torres are young lads so you’re going to get inconsistency from them. But I’d be giving them a good run of games now. Sterling and Mahrez have proved they are consistently poor so these two won’t do any worse with a run of games.

Gundogan is a good tidy, but very slow, player. Can’t afford to have two slow players in midfield. But he’s better than Rodri at 6.

Rodri is so poor, ‘The Statue’ should be his nickname... woeful 3 out of every 5 games, acceptable in one and and excellent in one. That’s not anywhere near good enough!

Fernandinho and Agüero, older now, often injured, can’t rely on them really anymore, they are the past really, but by far the best still!

Jesus is an ever improving player, work rate like I’ve never seen before. He’s the least of our problems.

The biggest issue that’s doing my head in, is the total lack of consistent games in the same position that Bernardo Silva gets. He’s clearly the second best player at the club behind de Bruyne and his energy and tenacity will make up for three-men’s work that de Bruyne is trying to do. It’s actually infuriating me how he’s just used as a sub and a bit part player. Pep’s fucking blind to this lad’s qualities! No matter how many fucking woeful games Sterling has, he keeps his place. But Bernardo plays well every time he plays in midfield, always one of the top few players on the pitch, like at SheffUtd last week, but he’s out of the side and the pops up as a sub in the right wing for ten minutes for the next few games.

We can’t create chances at the moment because too many of our players aren’t good, it really is that simple.


My team going forward would be:

———————Ederson————————
Walker——Dias——Laporte——Cancelo
——————Gundogan———————
——-de Bruyne——Bernardo———
Torres————Jesus————Foden

Which would be a great team with a really good new defensive midfield signing.

 

[City_Sean]

All the problems stem from the midfield. We miss someone who links the midfield to attack, we lack any control and our 8s aren't doing enough to show for the ball when our wide players have it.

We can't play triangles because Gundogan can't do it, and Kevin looks exhausted. Add to that Bernardo is off form.

Its staggering we didn't move for Auoar.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Midfield way to slow & zero creativity if Kev not on top form.

sterling needs a rest
Jesus works his heart out but not an out & out striker
Aguero injured but also lost his pace

top 3 very unbalanced but midfield is the issue when it’s Gundy & Rodri playing

I think the last two games show Gabby can be an out and out striker. Two amazing goals with very little service.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

Raw pace.

 

[Saddleworth2]

When Sterling isn’t provided with the opportunities or space to make him look good, he’s just highlighted as being distinctly average. Especially when faced with good and deep lying defences. All he does is lose the ball and has completely lost his defensive work rate. His all round game is so lacking, and for me he doesn’t deserve his place in the team.

de Bruyne is running around the pitch like a mad man doing the running of three or four men because his midfield partners are too slow and the forwards ahead of him constantly give the ball away. It’s affecting his game.

Mahrez is the same as Sterling, just loses the ball all the time yet has never had any defensive work rate. Also, like Sterling, doesn’t deserve his place in the team.

Foden and Torres are young lads so you’re going to get inconsistency from them. But I’d be giving them a good run of games now. Sterling and Mahrez have proved they are consistently poor so these two won’t do any worse with a run of games.

Gundogan is a good tidy, but very slow, player. Can’t afford to have two slow players in midfield. But he’s better than Rodri at 6.

Rodri is so poor, ‘The Statue’ should be his nickname... woeful 3 out of every 5 games, acceptable in one and and excellent in one. That’s not anywhere near good enough!

Fernandinho and Agüero, older now, often injured, can’t rely on them really anymore, they are the past really, but by far the best still!

Jesus is an ever improving player, work rate like I’ve never seen before. He’s the least of our problems.

The biggest issue that’s doing my head in, is the total lack of consistent games in the same position that Bernardo Silva gets. He’s clearly the second best player at the club behind de Bruyne and his energy and tenacity will make up for three-men’s work that de Bruyne is trying to do. It’s actually infuriating me how he’s just used as a sub and a bit part player. Pep’s fucking blind to this lad’s qualities! No matter how many fucking woeful games Sterling has, he keeps his place. But Bernardo plays well every time he plays in midfield, always one of the top few players on the pitch, like at SheffUtd last week, but he’s out of the side and the pops up as a sub in the right wing for ten minutes for the next few games.

We can’t create chances at the moment because too many of our players aren’t good, it really is that simple.


My team going forward would be:

———————Ederson————————
Walker——Dias——Laporte——Cancelo
——————Gundogan———————
——-de Bruyne——Bernardo———
Torres————Jesus————Foden

Which would be a great team with a really good new defensive midfield signing.

I agree with a great deal of that. Think you are over egging Bernies current form though. It’s true he works hard but with very little penetration or chance creation. Still if all he did was give Kevin some running support it would be better than what we have at present.
if I’m honest, my biggest worry just now is Peps lack of action in addressing some of these issues And his persistence with things that don’t work. I am still really pissed that Foden didn't even get on the pitch yesterday. No excuse or rationale for that.

 

[Brewster's millions]

It's a mixture of things

One is the actual lack of attacking players in the squad - we have 3 wingers and two strikers, so we're always going to be vulnerable to injuries, especially with Aguero's recurring issues. With Mahrez being very poor of late that means we essentially have 3 forwards before counting Foden.

I think the lack of athleticism and speed in the team means that we are deliberately slowing the play down and making fewer risky passes, due to the threat of a counterattack.

We need a left footed player on the left if we play Cancelo at left back, who was very good yesterday. Mendy can't provide that width on the left as he's a liability unfortunately.

We were always going to miss Silva and Sane - we need at one least top signing to fill the void.

Overall I would play Foden, Jesus and Sterling, with Sterling on the right.

And De Bruyne needs to stop chasing lost causes and knackering himself up in the first half of games

 

[yerwot?]

we pass sideways as the default option to not risk losing possession, the number of times the ball goes back to the player who passed it is almost a given. Noone wants to be the one who makes a mistake. Opposition teams know what's coming and who needs close marking. I have thought for a while that we could be a superb counter=attacking team, to do that we would need to draw the oppo defence forward instead of piling forward and trying to thread the "needle" . Counter attacking does not have to rely on hoof-ball, instead pace and guile to find space and exploit it. Sadly Pep will not agree , not least because he has been so successful playing his way. Seems heresy to suggest we need a re-set but the team is showing signs of a rift between manager and players, not a fall-out but a "confusion" of what he wants, and how to do it.
A couple of signings would be papering over the cracks in my very humble opinion. If we had nicked a winner against the dippers i would still be diappointed at the performance, in flashes it was excellent but just not often enough....

 

[brummie blue]

We miss Silva more than we could have imagined, we all thought Foden would step in or Bernie, but Bernie hasn't had a chance and Foden isn't there yet. KDB is brilliant, but Silva in the team allowed KDB more space and time. Playing the pair of Rodri and Gundogan with KDB is totally different, slower and less creative.

One huge gap that I wish we'd filled a while ago is Yaya, we don't have anyone that runs with power and speed who seems to push off tackles and can score goals from anywhere.