9 | Erling Haaland - 2022/23 Performances

[Tugay One Cup]

When we have chances to break we don’t take them we allow the opposition to regroup. It’s frustrating to watch at times.

Especially games like yesterday when Brentford were pressing really high. All that space wasted for the sake of "control".

 

[braut]

For anyone saying he's uninterested, unfit and lazy.

This is footage from stoppage time after being fed nothing for 90+ minutes.

 

[madloaf]

For anyone saying he's uninterested, unfit and lazy.

This is footage from stoppage time after being fed nothing for 90+ minutes.

He's not any of these, but i reckon he was fucking bored yesterday.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I've just had a video sent to me from my ERO of Nat interviewing Big Dunc who sez that Alfie took EBH to EFC when he was 14 or 15 and EFC wouldn't part with the £2m!

 

[alexmcity]

All that space wasted for the sake of "control".

That's a silly complaint. Any system has its limitations and involves tradeoffs. It's not easy to find the right balance between tactical flexibility and rigidity. Too much flexibility will end in chaos, too much rigidity will cause fragility. The fact that City tend to score more goals than virtually any other team in Europe while conceding fewer chances than any other team in Europe shows Pep is generally quite good at finding the right balance between attack and defence. Moaning about "control" is quite pointless. It would make sense if City weren't among the highest scoring teams in the history of English football. Sometimes, the system will show defects (hence the tradeoffs), but another system (with, say, less control) will show more weaknesses over time.

 

[citizen_maine]

I've just had a video sent to me from my ERO of Nat interviewing Big Dunc who sez that Alfie took EBH to EFC when he was 14 or 15 and EFC wouldn't part with the £2m!

Can you post it?

 

[Tugay One Cup]

That's a silly complaint. Any system has its limitations and involves tradeoffs. It's not easy to find the right balance between tactical flexibility and rigidity. Too much flexibility will end in chaos, too much rigidity will cause fragility. The fact that City tend to score more goals than virtually any other team in Europe while conceding fewer chances than any other team in Europe shows Pep is generally quite good at finding the right balance between attack and defence. Moaning about "control" is quite pointless. It would make sense if City weren't among the highest scoring teams in the history of English football. Sometimes, the system will show defects (hence the tradeoffs), but another system (with, say, less control) will show more weaknesses over time.

I think you're muddying the waters there a bit mate. I'm not talking about our play in general, I'm talking about the match we lost to Brentford.

If a team is pressing high in numbers and you manage to break through but your buildup is so slow that it allows them to regroup every time then denying yourself the advantage you initially gave yourself.

On another day it could have been different but at the weekend it wasn't and we were beaten by the better team.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Can you post it?

 

[alexmcity]

I think you're muddying the waters there a bit mate. I'm not talking about our play in general, I'm talking about the match we lost to Brentford.

If a team is pressing high in numbers and you manage to break through but your buildup is so slow that it allows them to regroup every time then denying yourself the advantage you initially gave yourself.

On another day it could have been different but at the weekend it wasn't and we were beaten by the better team.

I got your point. My point was that too much flexibility isn't productive. I mean, you can't change your overall approach from game to game. Our approach against weaker teams is to pin them in their third and play mostly there, patiently passing the ball and looking for opportunities. Most of the time it works fine, but there are tradeoffs, and every season we have games like Palace or Southampton (last season). If we try to use the space quickly instead of letting them regroup, mistakes in the transitions mean that we are open to counters, and that's what we wanted to avoid against Brentford. We failed, partly because we weren't sufficiently concentrated in defence and attack (29 attempts at goal, ffs).

 

[Saddleworth2]

I got your point. My point was that too much flexibility isn't productive. I mean, you can't change your overall approach from game to game. Our approach against weaker teams is to pin them in their third and play mostly there, patiently passing the ball and looking for opportunities. Most of the time it works fine, but there are tradeoffs, and every season we have games like Palace or Southampton (last season). If we try to use the space quickly instead of letting them regroup, mistakes in the transitions mean that we are open to counters, and that's what we wanted to avoid against Brentford. We failed, partly because we weren't sufficiently concentrated in defence and attack (29 attempts at goal, ffs).

I remember when we played them away last season and beat them, Pep commented afterwards, ‘if you play fast, they come back at you faster’. It would seem that if you play slow, the same thing happens.