Al Hilal (N) | CWC | Post Match Thread

[cookster]

It was nothing like City losing to a Championship team. They have some really good players. Milenkovic-Savic, Koulibally, Neves and Cancelo are all top class players, way above Championship level.

All those players have their best days behind them.

 

[BolinCell]

This is a very silly and untrue comment.

I could take getting dumped out by PSG or Bayern. Not from some Saudi Arabian outfit.

 

[Silvatoure21]

Dont really know what you seen for Doku to be brilliant

They deserved that. Really well played.

Our soft underbelly persists and I worry that our total lack of defensive solidity is going to cause last season's confidence issues to reoccur.

I was never arsed about this competition but it's been a better insight to the standard of the team than the usual preseason friendlies.

Well that was embarrassing. They're a decent side and they played well but there's no scenario we should be losing that.

Looks like another season of being targeted in behind our left side, just glad Ait-Nouri had a decent debut before whatever that was.

Defensively, the players themselves aren't the problem, it's the setup, we're wide open regardless of who plays and will be until the structure is sorted.

Peps got 4 weeks to figure out changes and adjustments. Hope the new coaches are good. They’ve been together for about a month, so I wasn’t expecting big changes yet. 4 weeks of pep in the lab then 2 and a half weeks of practice to implement changes and maybe they can come up with a better plan for the frailties against the counter. I don’t think our defense is terrible, I think the way pep sets us up makes our defense terrible. Im Not sure about the incredibly high line. We become so vulnerable because our cb’s don’t have pace. Ruben can be a great cb, but we are in way too many one on one situations and you’re going to lose those from time to time. Having a reis or khusanov play with one of our experienced cb’s would give us cover for our high line and they counld gain some experience.
I thought we had created a few good corners. Got a goal off one and should have had another. But when you get 16 or so corners, you have to score at least once. That’s been an issue for years

 

[Great Kompany]

Is Nico Gonzalez the new Phillips
And out of 8 new signings - we played 2.

Is this not a pre season friendly to see our signings gel or what!
Bernardo starting Gundo starting Akanji Ake coming.
Pep is acting at a like a teenager whose phone should be thrown out of the car to make them not use it. Whats with the Unc’s playing so many matches!

 

[dadnlad]

Has it now become a creditable tournament?

 

[eyalluvitt]

Its his tactics that are causing the issue, we arent good enough defensively to play the high line, add to that a goal keeper who cant stop a fucking thing, it doesnt look good

He is spending money but not fixing the big issues, another not competing for the title season will be his last

 

[Nightmare Walking]

All those players have their best days behind them.

They're still way above Championship level.

 

[BolinCell]

It was nothing like City losing to a Championship team. They have some really good players. Milenkovic-Savic, Koulibally, Neves and Cancelo are all top class players, way above Championship level.

They were average. We made them look good with pathetic defending. The kind of defending we seen all last season. Nothing has changed in that department.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

I don’t think our defense is terrible, I think the way pep sets us up makes our defense terrible. Im Not sure about the incredibly high line

Pep has played incredibly high lines with every incredible winning team he's built over his career.

If the players aren't up to it then they aren't good enough to play for one of those teams.

The issue I have with Pep is persisting with his favourite players instead of showing the ruthlessness he was known for earlier in his career.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

The start of the second half killed us, after we should have been on easy street by half time.

At 3-3, it was 3 shots, 3 goals for them…THAT is the new “Typical City” and it has to change.

I said before this tournament that the only way we are going to win the PL (or anything) is by tightening up the defence, but we are still so susceptible to the fast break it almost begs for Khusanov to play every game just to sweep up!

Anyway, yet another game against a team employing the 5-4-1 low block and hitting us on the break, so it’s hard to be surprised.

The sad part is we were all on such a high after the performance in the Juve game, we thought we had turned some imaginary corner, when all we actually did was turn back down the same street we were traveling down last season.

I said it after we scored the goal and we were facing the low block for them to stem the tide, but it should have been 4-0 at HT, and we just went back into our same old, same old, boring, predictable shuttle passing across the 30 yard line. School for the blind can defend against that if you’re never going to test penetrate the block!

Saving grace? The players can take a decent 3 to 4 week break, knowing they’ve done most of their pre-season already and when they come back it’s just polishing the diamond.

Here’s hoping they all get a good rest, they stay out of the “dickhead, multimillionaire” social media circus and take a nice quiet break with loved ones. The last thing anyone, let alone Mansour, Khaldoon & Pep want to see after shitting another Round of 16 brick against half a team of no names from Saudi and a bunch of “end of career, pay day internationals” is players coming across like a tosser on the internet!

The 4th of July is coming up this week in the States, which means summer is officially here and we’ve got at least 8 weeks of jollies to enjoy, with 6 of them without needing to watch football anymore. Time to enjoy it!

We are a work in progress, and that progress began here and showed promise against Juve. Here’s hoping we can pick up where we left off after that game when the players get back, tanned, rested, and ready to step it up.

Lastly, two things:

1) PSG or Bayern look likely winners, as it’s hard to see it coming from this side of the bracket.

2) What an absolute **** Inzaghi is!

 

[Sky Blue]

Is Nico Gonzalez the new Phillips
And out of 8 new signings - we played 2.

Is this not a pre season friendly to see our signings gel or what!
Bernardo starting Gundo starting Akanji Ake coming.
Pep is acting at a like a teenager whose phone should be thrown out of the car to make them not use it. Whats with the Unc’s playing so many matches!

The term "Uncs" should be banned from the forum.

 

[noseve]

You're not going to win much with a team of midfielders.
Perhaps we should look at buying defenders who can defend?

Was really excited by Ait-Nouri going forward, but he's failed the acid test tonight.

No positional sense whatsoever, I'm afraid

 

[Newman Noggs]

I thought we had created a few good corners. Got a goal off one and should have had another. But when you get 16 or so corners, you have to score at least once. That’s been an issue for years

You also have to be able to defend corners. Our opponents never need 16 corners to score 1.

 

[KS55]

Hugo has to take these old men off Pep starting with Akanji

Yes. That has the makings of a big row. Pep just seems unable to let the old folks go. He has to be told in no uncertain terms that if he wants a smaller squad he has to abandon his old favourites.
When teams find it easy to stroll through our defence, Eddie’s sweeper role is redundant and his weaknesses are shown up.
Akanji, Ake, Gundog are not up to scratch. Bernado is playing ok but age will catch up before too long. Stones is hardly ever fit. What has happened to Dias?
Does Pep not fancy Khusanov and Nico G?
Some serious talking to be done, I’d bring in the CEO (which we officially don’t have) if he wasn’t busy working for CFG.
City at a crossroads: develop a team for the future or obsess about winning now?

 

[Berti No Show]

Ah well. Just a glorified Pre Season Cup. Means nothing. Let the boys have a rest.

 

[Silvatoure21]

You also have to be able to defend corners. Our opponents never need 16 corners to score 1.

100%. It’s so frustrating. We need a Nigel de jong, Fernandinho type of guy on this team. We have no enforcers. I don’t think we are a small team yet we get bullied. Dias had the easiest header on the corner in the first half and hit it right to Bono

 

[youngbob]

Has it now become a creditable tournament?

Mad isn't it. The only people who seem to care about this tournament are American teenagers, other non-European "content creators", and the South American and Saudi sides desperate for credibility and legitimacy against European teams.

The bits I've seen have been fun enough, I suppose, but of the four games we've played I've watched about 120 minutes total in real time. It's a nothing tournament that was a nothing tournament a week ago and should remain a nothing tournament.

You could make more than five subs in each game and there was loud music after every goal. It's a shiny new thing for the YouTube and Twitch generation and I hope we never get invited back. Akanji was right to be irritated and our fans drinking the FIFA Kool Aid are embarrassing.

 

[cookster]

BTW they were missing their best 2 players.

 

[Goater101]

Ederson didn’t make a single save in 90 mins. Conceding 4 to fucking Al Hilal

 

[Alexia_Ko]

Is Nico Gonzalez the new Phillips
And out of 8 new signings - we played 2.

Is this not a pre season friendly to see our signings gel or what!
Bernardo starting Gundo starting Akanji Ake coming.
Pep is acting at a like a teenager whose phone should be thrown out of the car to make them not use it. Whats with the Unc’s playing so many matches!

Gonzalez is actually good so he’s not another Philips. His only deficit is pace and ball hogging