Al Hilal (N) | CWC | Post Match Thread

[coolcity]

Got to be honest. When we signed new CB's in Jan and seeing the pace and aggression of Khusanov i thought at last we'd seen the last of Akanji. Unfortunately not. And as much as Nunes has improved he just isn't up to it defensively.

The midfield raises lots of questions. I think the Bernardo captaincy position means Pep sees him as a regular starter and even Gundogan getting picked. Until Pep can step away from him temptation to always pick his old favourites we will get these types of performances.

And finally Doku has had a decent tournament to be fair, but him and Savinho should be miles away from being regular starters for any team that wants to win big trophies.

I suspect Khusanov isn't fully fit, somebody mentioned the other day that he'd taken a knock in training but we'll see more of him in the new season.

Bernardo works incredibly hard and I'm not sure why he gets slated so much. This "age" thing that many of you have a mental block about needs to stop, we've seen plenty of players in European teams and at this tournament who are week into their 30's. Modric has only just retired at 39. I bet Bernardo covers as much ground as anybody else and if you cut out the experienced core of the team, well try it and see where it gets you. You see it time after time on teams that have to sell their best players and then go downhill.

Leave Doku out and we'll never get through a team with a packed defence, he probably did more to get around then then anybody last night which is why we had 30 chances. I'm appalled at how little respect he gets here, we need more intelligence and guile in the box, players who are prepared to work with him, not just hope he gets past the two obligatory defenders he ties up and bypasses the rest of the defence to land the ball on their toes for a tap in.

 

[coolcity]

Just finished watching the game on replay - terrible performance.

You must have watched a different match then.

 

[SWPISHOME]

If we continue to play a high line then Khusanov has to start, he is the only defender with pace (see Kyle Walker 2017 until about 2023).

Stones, Ake, Akanji and Dias - who goes?

Genuinely don't think any of us with bat a eye lid if all four were sold.

2/4 are always injured, The other two have fallen off a cliff.

New Right Back
Khusanov
Gvardiol
Ait-Nouri

Should be the way forward.

 

[Lee the Blue]

There’s a visible difference between RAN and Gundo here. Reijnders slow to get back too. This is only in the 46th minute if I’m correct.

The old City problem of Old men in central midfield rearing its head once again. Gundo looked like he was playing in a testimonial there

 

[Earlyriser]

I don't even know why half of you bother watching City, or following football at all. You're trying to psycho-analyse every result and every aspect of it and not you've decided we need to get rid of a while host of players including Echeverri who I don't think has even had the chance to play a full 90 minutes for us so far.

No mention whatsoever of the fact that we played in excessive heat and humidity for 2 hours against a team that plays in those sort of conditions most of the time, at the end of a long tough season with players who only arrived a week or two ago yet still managed 30 shots on goal which is enough to win 9 out of 10 matches. Great analysis, ever wondered why you're not a world class football coach?

You appear to have overlooked the fact that virtually all our players are from overseas and have spent large parts of their careers playing in heat.

 

[Matt Diablo]

ha!ha has Gundo got his slippers on .

Time for him to do one seriously . . .

 

[johnny crossan]

You must have watched a different match then.

Are you an Al Hilal fan? Anyway - just to be clear - all our defeats these days with the resources at our disposal are usually terrible performances and this is among that number.

 

[Earlyriser]

Just finished watching the game on replay - terrible performance.

Did we win on Replay?

 

[Matt Diablo]

So glad I got up at 2am to watch that shambles. A few points to make after watching us conceded 4 goals to Al Hilal - when you do that you simply dont deserve to win

- I thought we'd realised fielding old men in central midfield doesnt work? Yet here we were again with Bernardo and Gundo deployed centrally and we waited until we were 2-1 down before making a change. STOP WITH THE OLD MAN MIDFIELD FFS

- Nunes isnt up to it, never has been and never will be. Pep had to withdraw him last night before he may have got himself sent off. Akanji comes on and though solid defensively he offers nothing in the oppositions half of the field, so this greatly reduces our effect as an attacking force. Priority 1 and 1A has to be to find a right back who fits Peps system and is up to the standard

- The goalkeeper; does he ever make a save these days? The "ole" wave at the 3rd goal as though diving is beneath him was annoying. The opposition keeper makes umpteen saves - every shot at our goal goes in. Ederson is injured too often these days and seems to be a man running his contract down to bugger off for high wages next summer. I cant be the only one who thinks we need a better keeper?

- 3 Centre halves on the pitch and we cant defend a crossed ball, for either the 3rd or 4th goal. Garbage

- Standard stuff from Savinho and to a lesser extent Doku - who was double marked most of the night. After great games they dont affect another one the same way for weeks. Their next games like the one vs Juve will be in November on what theyve shown so far

- No idea why Nico Gonzalez isnt seeing the field much at all and seems the final option in midfield. Always looks half decent to me when he plays but Pep clearly doesnt rate the lad at all. Khusanov too appears to have dropped into this envelope - the lad looked really promising but has since disappeared and Nunes, Rico,Ake and Akanji are clearly preferred to him - Im not sure why?

- Plus point is we should give them all the squad the month of July off to recharge, rest and clear their heads. Hopefully in that time we can use it to locate and acquire a right back and hopefully a goalkeeper who can make the odd save and looks like he wants to be here. Also time to remove all the dead wood in the squad - 8/9 need to go elsehwere, at a guess Ortega, Nunes, Stones (cant stay fit), McAtee, Reis (loan), Echeverri (loan), Grealish, Phillips, Walker for starters.

Absolutely spot on 100% mate. Respek:)

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

On a more positive note (especially with the media taking the competition seriously now that City have been embarrassed) Foden looks hungry for goals again.

Also I forgot to add.

Last night was Foden's 100th goal for City which immediately puts him in a select list.

 

[wolviedinho]

Pep really needs to stop playing the old guard. Iv no idea why he is stopping our transition. The same problems last season all came back against a good team who counter quickly and can defend the low block. I know we scored some good goals and the link up play in the first half was great but and it’s a big but, we didn’t take our chances and we can’t manage a lead.

Should have shut down al hilal and controlled the game far better than we did.

Honestly sick of watching us get ripped apart by 1 ball over the top. It’s getting tedious now and we seemingly don’t know how to solve this problem.

IMO very much one step forward and five back. We won’t be winning anything defending like that every match.

 

[Mifred]

Genuinely don't think any of us with bat a eye lid if all four were sold.

2/4 are always injured, The other two have fallen off a cliff.

New Right Back
Khusanov
Gvardiol
Ait-Nouri

Should be the way forward.

If you have a Bat eye lid you wouldn’t see them leave

 

[eyalluvitt]

Can't understand why we bought them.
Pep does this and it's damned annoying.

Why buy players that we clearly need and then not play them. I can see a season of the old guard getting repeatedly caught out again. It's like the club have to sell them to stop Pep picking them.

Pep likes to keep his Ferrari in the garage and commute to work on his trusty old e-bike

 

[paulsimpson]

Losing to Saudi team full of Brazilian and ex EPL journeymen is one thing, but losing by conceding four pushes it on completely different level.
Pep suddenly got to answer so many important questions and whether Gundo can make it or not for another season is not one of them. By the way, the very moment he was subbed alongside Nunes our effectiveness in the final third fell 50% at least.


You can clone Usain Bolt and play them as CBs and they are going to get found out playing them 70 yards from their goal.

I agree mostly but Khusanov covers that ground easily. But why play a very high line? It congests the playing area which is good if we can penetrate through it which we couldn't in the Secondary Half but gives the opponent an opportunity upon regaining possession to exploit our relatively slow back line.

 

[eyalluvitt]

Dias has been worrying me for a while. No pace, more interested in pulling his shorts up to his crotch and pointing at players rather than doing his own job. Zero pace and just tries to wrestle people to the ground

Saved by the offside flag after wiping out an attacker in the box, he should have been subbed asap

 

[citeh94]

Stupid competition anyway. Attention turns to Wolves in August, don’t worry lads have no doubt Pep and Pep will sort it out, we just need a new keeper and all will be well, possibly a new right-back and midfielder and could do with a new centre-back, actually 2 new centre-backs, we could also do with maybe 2 new midfielders. And we need to get rid of a few players in that process, all will be ok :)

 

[Doc_Testosterone]

There’s a visible difference between RAN and Gundo here. Reijnders slow to get back too. This is only in the 46th minute if I’m correct.

This goal shows lack of proper communication between RAN and Gvardiol. Gvardiol decided to go headless chicken and cover the winger when RAN was already challenging him. Lead to two players, and most crucially our supposed Rolls Royce CB, being completely out of position. Then Dias just doesn’t deal with anything properly, reminiscent of his Bernabeu performance.

 

[ysmsa]

Just watched it.

Doku and Savinho need to fuck off.
Utterly useless.
They offer nothing.

Doku, are you serious. Created loads in this tournament, not his fault no one is reacting.

Today was about chances missed as usual and a vulnerable defence, should've been 8 - 4!

 

[johnny crossan]

Did we win on Replay?

Alas not, although I only became aware we had lost shortly before I posted my single word judgement, which also applies to how I feel too.

 

[noseve]

Also I forgot to add.

Last night was Foden's 100th goal for City which immediately puts him in a select list.

One of the few bright spots. They showed an overheard view of his goal and he took off so early, so committed, giving Cherki a target (which he found brilliantly). We should definitely try runs from deep more often, a nightmare for defenders.

That single moment suggests that Phil's Phil again