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The book is a great read and this theme does come up numerous times. Grealish is known in the squad as the 'rest area' as they know they can rely on him to take the ball in and get up the pitch. Having tortured myself watching 65 mins to 80 mins again, we had 4/5 chances to establish...

I would be more concerned if we weren't suffering so much with injuries and not contending in these games at all. The frustration is that we've played some great football at times and could've been clear in the Sporting game and yesterday. Even Spurs we missed out on penalties due to some...

This image sums up what's going wrong at the moment - it's the build up to the equaliser. Bernardo, having put the ball out of play trying to switch, then makes a 60 yard sprint to try & press. He's now in line with Haaland. It leaves Gvardiol two on one, and then in turn allows the run of...

Having now watched the game back, it's not as bad as I had feared reading reports and comments over the weekend. We are in a unique position of having won four titles, weathering a storm with the charges and a hideous injury list any club would struggle with. It's certainly been a sluggish...

The 'press baiting' by Akanji was orchestrated to make a mockery of Sparta's bus parking. I actually think Pep's half time gesture was at their bench for the ridiculous play - they had 11 in their own area at times. When De Zerbi arrived at Brighton, this was one of the techniques they used to...

Vital three points - attacking tempo was good in the first half but seemed to stutter in the second half with the changes. Made good use of underlapping opportunities. Any team now adopting the 541/532 defensive shape against us are going to be incredibly hard to break down, especially as...

Really important to get three points yesterday, given absences and lack of playing time so far this season for Foden. Fulham have been impressive so far and recently turned over Newcastle. Hadn't lost since the opening day either. However, we have run into a problem in recent games with...

Evidently frustrating to drop points but there were some positives to take. We consistently played through their press and should've scored at least one more goal in the first half. Gundogan had a bizarre game, seems he's still adjusting to the pace and physicality of the league. The stock...

Clearly a big blow, but we have sufficient depth and experience within the squad to cope. There are 5 or 6 players that can cover the role. Rodri's absence was magnified last season as we had no KDB and Kovacic was new to the team. Our problems against Brentford & Inter were being overly...

Still trying to work out some of what I witnessed yesterday. We started really well but lost our way after Rodri's injury and then conceded a frustrating goal. Prior to them going ahead we lost our intensity around the second balls. If you watch the sequence leading to the corner, Saliba free...

I think we played fine in the end. Four clear chances that should be goals, Bernardo first half and then Foden & Gundogan second. Foden is definitely the man against banked defences that limit space like Inter & Brentford did. He was causing a lot more disruption by carrying the ball and...

This was a great win given the international break disrupting rhythm, the changes to the team and conceding so quickly. I dislike their 'pragmatic' style they usually adopt against us, but their build up play in the first 20/30 minutes was excellent. Our press was incorrect and overly...

The club's original statement was this in 2018 - “The attempt to damage the Club’s reputation is organised and clear.” And it still stands today. It's becoming smothering, the constant attacks and being made out to be a pariah club. Most of us just want to watch our team. The grandstanding...

I don't feel flat, it's more exhausted - this felt like an extremely long season after the treble and I was amazed at our players having the mental resolve and will to win again. For the last 4 seasons we've been into April & May looking to win 3 trophies, almost every game being must win under...

I'm disappointed this morning, but certainly not as much as previous years. Winning the CL has given me a different perspective and I feel like we've had a huge education on how it can be won also. You can pinpoint moments in each game, like Lukaku's header in the final last season or Dias...

I agree with the Bernardo & Rodri points - it was so frustrating to watch at times and I did worry they would add a third before it was sorted out. Stones was probably the tidiest of the defence and midfield in the first half. Rodri looks in dire need of a rest, which is likely at the weekend...

I read an interesting preview of our game against Arsenal, where the author showed short passes is one of our important metrics. and I've kept an eye on it over the last three games. It may be a bit daft, but I felt second half we exerted much better pressure on Madrid by having our spacing...

We played ok on Sunday, especially given Arteta was very pragmatic with his set up. Can't work out whether Arsenal's percentage plays (cheap fouls in easy areas and pumping it long on dead balls) deserve credit or if it's a sign of weakness. It always feels like those tactics have a limited...

Struggling to work out whether it's a good point or two more frustrating dropped points in a 'big 6' game. Started well but Liverpool adjusted to version of our 3412 which began to cause us issues. They could get well into our half with longer passes to Bradley. It also gave them a 4 v 2 in...

This was a really important, hard-fought win. The games against the deep block sides are always tough, particularly Brentford who are happy to drop 11 players into the area at times. They are a much better side with Wissa and Onyeka, who provide more running power. Of course, these tactics are...