Real Madrid (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

Thought we looked overwhelmed early. Started swallowing that a draw would be okay with me. Started hearing echoes of all the Nunes negging and then he gives away what looked like a pen. In hindsight and after the game as a whole, seemed that was actually a smart play that could well have resulted in Vini in unabated otherwise. Thought Nunes showed more proof of his evolution in this game.
O'Reilly was purely brilliant and impressive. Felt Doku caused them all sorts of problems even though most of his final product came to nowt. Felt Gonzo was on fumes early 2nd half. Cherki with flashes here and there. Bernie quietly stitched together alot of otherwise frayed seams. Erl and Phil unremarkable imo aside from chuffed Erl put a wrinkle in his usual pen routine to good effect. Back line did its job and Gvad from my eye was mopping up all kinds of messes and absorbed a ton of late pressure.

No real take on the subs except Savi actually looked a bit better (not a big hurdle to clear). Reijnman still looks like a reindeer in headlights to me at times and as if at any moment he'll slot it into gear and be at the pace we hoped.

Team looked like they were 2 steps off it early 1st half and pretty well gassed late on... but got the 3 points. They played nowhere near their best. I hope they are able to dig deep for this weekend as I feel even Wolves can claw points off the Arse... i know, wishful thinking.
 
Ajm1985 said:
Sit Bernardo next to Nico G and not have him lead the press or be on the right wing would be great. Left us exposed a lot by asking Bernardo to do too much. He ran the most out of all our players, which be often does, but he doesn't have the pace to be effective with that running.
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That's what he was supposed to be doing, although I agree that it's getting too much for him. But him running around everywhere was also part of the reason we were creating overloads. Rodri for Bernado would stop that problem but we have nobody else that can do that job well.
 
stonerblue said:
What's worse is when a player heading toward the touchline blindly plays the ball inside and right into the danger area, not only giving the ball away but taking himself out of the game also.

He was everywhere.
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That's Bernardo's problem at the moment, in my opinion.
To have Nico G as the sole defensive midfielder, against good teams away from home, is too risky.
Bernardo seems to have a "free role", which can create problems for the opposition, if City control the midfield.
Thankfully, Real Madrid's midfield (inc. Bellingham) was poor.
Their threat came from the flanks, but City's back four usually cut out this danger.
To me, Bernardo needs to sit deeper with Nico G. in away games, especially at Palace on Sunday...
 
ninjamonkey said:
Not had Bernardo Silva aimlessly pressing in a false 9 position off the ball and ask him to play right wing in possession. He was badly needed actually in midfield alongside Nico. i also wouldn't have had us throw so many players ahead of the ball only to then play so slowly and indirectly anyway. both those tactical decisions left us extremely vulnerable defensively and played exactly into Madrids hands. Second half when we stopped doing exactly what they wanted, their threat was significantly diminished.
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Bernado's role is to play in the midfield. He did get caught upfield in the firsst half but as I said above, nobody elese can do that job. If we hadn't have conceded possession too often around their box in the first half hour it would n't have been a problem. The things you are describing are not a "set up " problem, they are simply errors we made. You could see at half time Pep had told them to calm down and stop rushing it and that got us on top. The system and personell didn't change.
 
surprisedbygrass said:
Good point . The move to set piece chess is as time wasting as goal kicks once were . And about as entertaining as watching a table being laid for a banquet in Buckingham Palace. The referee is like the head butler making sure the fish knife isn't touching the soup spoon then spots the flower arrangement has fallen over and has to get that sorted ....last night there was none of that so no one got a rest .
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The PL is starting to get boring with how much time the ball isn’t in-play or watching bad actors lying down pretending to be in agony or even just having a random sit down on the pitch to take time off the clock. I don’t mind teams sitting back, having less possession and counter attacking, everyone is perfectly within their rights to do that; it’s the timewasting and feigning injury to take time off the clock I find boring.

Games like Fulham last week and Madrid last night were much more entertaining and show what football could be like if both teams are playing to play and not just having one or both teams playing to not play. And it’s not like it’s just that good teams like City and Madrid can do that, Fulham showed that bottom half PL teams are perfectly capable of trying to keep the ball in play as much as possible to give them more time on the clock and more chance to score goals.

Football could, and should, be a much better sport than it is. Unfortunately, as much as we moan about the referees and the governing bodies, football is often ruined by the idiots in the dugouts creating these negative tactics and aspects of the game, and the idiots on the pitch playing the game.

It’s one of the main reasons I never look to who we could replace Pep with and always hope he signs contract extensions, because he wants the ball in-play and the game being played as much as possible.
 
Didsbury Dave said:
Bernado's role is to play in the midfield. He did get caught upfield in the firsst half but as I said above, nobody elese can do that job. If we hadn't have conceded possession too often around their box in the first half hour it would n't have been a problem. The things you are describing are not a "set up " problem, they are simply errors we made. You could see at half time Pep had told them to calm down and stop rushing it and that got us on top. The system and personell didn't change.
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But he wasn't playing in midfield, he was in a false 9 or right wing position more than he was in midfield. I wanted him in midfield. There was foden or Haaland to do it but my point was that job didnt need to be done at all. We achieved absolutely nothing by pressing the cb/keeper into playing simple 20 yard passes beyond him who then had a free pass into our now wide open midfield which is exactly what Madrid want and when they're at their most dangerous.
 
.db. said:
The PL is starting to get boring with how much time the ball isn’t in-play or watching bad actors lying down pretending to be in agony or even just having a random sit down on the pitch to take time off the clock. I don’t mind teams sitting back, having less possession and counter attacking, everyone is perfectly within their rights to do that; it’s the timewasting and feigning injury to take time off the clock I find boring.

Games like Fulham last week and Madrid last night were much more entertaining and show what football could be like if both teams are playing to play and not just having one or both teams playing to not play. And it’s not like it’s just that good teams like City and Madrid can do that, Fulham showed that bottom half PL teams are perfectly capable of trying to keep the ball in play as much as possible to give them more time on the clock and more chance to score goals.

Football could, and should, be a much better sport than it is. Unfortunately, as much as we moan about the referees and the governing bodies, football is often ruined by the idiots in the dugouts creating these negative tactics and aspects of the game, and the idiots on the pitch playing the game.

It’s one of the main reasons I never look to who we could replace Pep with and always hope he signs contract extensions, because he wants the ball in-play and the game being played as much as possible.
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always said there should be some form of game time managment clock for those type of situations, so we still get the best of 90 mins being played
 
OldhamBlue94 said:
That means nothing, only 1 single shot out of the 17 was on target. We defended brilliantly last night against one of the best teams in the world. Going forward we were excellent also if it wasn’t for cortois we could have scored 5 or 6.

If we beat palace at the weekend then I’m confident we can go on another big run of wins
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I'm always optimistic - but that's the blind faith of being a football supporter, isn't it? So let's hope you're right about the run continuing.

I'm not talking about going forward - my concerns are at the other end. Even if we'd scored 6, that wouldn't have changed what I saw at the back.

17 shots does actually mean something - either that you are defending very deeply, or that you have been cut open often. It doesn't specifically relate to the 'technique' of backing off a player shaping up to take a shot 20 yards out, which was a common theme last night, but that combination doesn't exactly help the nerves.

Saying that we defended brilliantly is probably over-stating it? I think Mbappe would have had a field day.

And whilst I admit that 'you can only beat what you face', it might be worth reminding ourselves that this is a Madrid side depleted by injuries that has only won 2 of its last 8 matches.

Our injury list last season was regularly touted by those calling others 'fanny-wipes' , so those same posters should be happy to take RM's absences into account last night.

I'm not in either the 'we're shite' or the 'we're capable of winning everything' camps, just tempering my enthusiasm with a bit of realism.
 
Mcmanamanamanamanaman was moaning that RM had loads of players injured. I agree they had some injuries, a few more than us. However, RM still had a billion euros worth of talent to choose from. They are the richest club in the world after all. Great result for City. I don't think we played our best, but we still beat the most entitled bunch of wanxers in world football in their back garden with the roof shut.
 
Marvin. said:
Needless to say, the Guardian are not happy. The link is to archived material so you can click it and read without any benefit accruing to the Guardian.

https://web.archive.org/web/2025121...-manchester-city-finding-way-past-real-madrid

I believe that City got away with some poor periods of play. Pep said similar but they have accentuated the negative. That they do so, confirms that we are on the right track.
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That article is 100% accurate depicting the last night game and more broadly, the issues we've been having this season. If the opposing team hits certain level of intensity and aggression our game control literally goes out of window. I've re-watched the game this afternoon and I downgraded our performance 15-20% than I thought of it last night. When pushed, this team just doesn't have the MF. Basically the repeat of Arsenal game, but we scored two goals and didn't concede late equalizer.
And the article makes some positive pointe in the end, if all of The Guardian articles are like this one, I would resume reading their football section.
 
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