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We had plenty of ball control.
What we missed was a better way of breaking them down than whipping aimless crosses into the box.
10 | Jack Grealish - 2021/22 Performances
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What we missed was a better way of breaking them down than whipping aimless crosses into the box.
That's what I meant under "quiet ball control" and "less direct football"...
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We kept the ball well though, we just didn't know how to break them down which is why we resorted to the crossing. I don't think having Grealish keeping hold of the ball instead of Bernardo, Mahrez or Foden would've made much difference to be honest, we still would've been faced with the same scenario. I think our best way to cause them trouble would've been on the counter but there wasn't much opportunity for that.
applejuice
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The difference is how many opposite defender you can attract/how much pressue you can absorb for your teammates when you hold the ball. And that is the critical element to break down tight defence.
Sterling/Grealish have the better touches in the box per 90 stats than the rest of the team. Grealish is the best in terms of CPA (carry into box) in PL. Ideally it will be Sterling/Grealish to create overload and attract defenders on the left wing and give Mahrez space to shoot/cross from the right wing.
However Pep made a mistake to replace Sterling with Mahrez.
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Cheadle_hulmeBlue
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Thought we missed him yesterday.
You don’t have ball control when you give it away time and time again under no pressure. We did that nearly all game. And it’s one thing Jack doesn’t do
Aye we was missing one of his decisive game winning goals.
Cheadle_hulmeBlue
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you sound fun.
Without Bernardo - we aren't able to make a good build-up - against the high-pressing teams. KDB struggles in small spaces and always looses the ball and Gundo also isn't as good as Bernardo for that task.
If you look at the third goal Tottenham scored, there was complete inability to control / possess the ball when Tottenham started to press and ball was easily lost in the end. That's why if there was a team like Liverpool - who loves to possess the ball as well and high-presses all the time - that midfield would have even more problems. Even against Lyon that was obvious.. So KDB-Gundo duo is complete disaster for that kind of games... But during the 89 minutes it was a different game and that's why I'm not talking about it right now. Tottenham is a counter-attacker team and you don't have build-up problems against them...
As for the Jack - Pep still hasn't used him as a midfielder and we haven't experienced how good is he in that part, but near to the opponent's box - his pauses and extra touches and "slowing down the tempo" movements - help team to relax, defenders and especially Rodri get extra time to prepare for the counter-attack and game becomes less dynamic, more comfortable for City..
Yesterday we had too many "direct football" players.. KDB gets the ball and if there is no space - just crosses without any hesitation :D, Sterling same - especially when he played as a RW first 20 minutes, Gundo, Bernardo played out of his position maybe for the first time this season as a False9 and we had no player on the pitch - who could slow down the tempo..
As a result this high tempo game tired our players as well and defense collapsed.
That's why I don't like high-tempo, entertaining, dynamic games involving City - because that's not the ideal environment for City. It's better when there is low-tempo game, a lot of small passes, tiki-takas and as a result we always win. Just look at the PSG home game - that's how Neymar-Messi-Mbappe trio were defeated and I don't think Harry Kane plus Son - outweighs them in that sense.
If we had played against PSG like that - score would be 6-1 or something.. Low tempo is our environment, that's where we play our best football and I hope Pep will stick to that (especially against the big opponents)..
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