Another transitional season? No.

[jimharri]

I agree completely. The problem we've got is that we will happily slap Burnley 6-0 and lose the week after 1-0 to WBA etc. The number of goals we are scoring is masking a bigger problem.

We can't defend. More or less every game, there'll be a basic error (or 5). You won't win titles defending like we're doing. Even at Wolves, there was a 15-20 minute period in the second half when we were on the ropes. Somehow, we got through it and saw the game out. But that's not going to be the case every time.

 

[Damanino]

Yes the distribution of goals scored is interesting too, some 6-1, 7-0 trashing or we had 8-0 last season (?) too is making the stats look very good end of season, but in the 9 lost PL games last season we only scored 7 goals. And conceded 20.
5 of those was only a 1 goal loss, and in all we had enough chances or even more then the opponent but we could not finish them.

(3 draws we had, all of them 2-2, we had so many chances to score more than 2 in them for example City-Spurs early on which could have been 5-2 really)

Makes a big difference instead of couple 6-1, 7-1 only do 4--0 wins but you add the two extra goals to our losses/draws and we might have 10-12 points more while some rivals a couple less if its against them. Same number of goals scored but different points tally in the end.

Leeds will be interesting, they can play crazy scorelines, they will put our defence under pressure and 99.9% sure they will score at least two goals imo, but we should have more space too than normally to create chances.

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

We can't defend. More or less every game, there'll be a basic error (or 5). You won't win titles defending like we're doing. Even at Wolves, there was a 15-20 minute period in the second half when we were on the ropes. Somehow, we got through it and saw the game out. But that's not going to be the case every time.

Completely agree. No team - ever - has won titles with a bad defence.

It's not as it we have an off game once a season now, it's a pattern. The defence now is probably Pep's biggest test of his career. I suspect that he thought he'd have to find new ways to unpick opposition defences but he is now finding his teams are easy to pick off.

My worry is that he thinks we need new players. We don't, we need a new system which makes players better.

 

[Blue Hefner]

We are transitioning into Arsenal. Look great at times but don’t like it up us.....

Too slow, too weak and generally don’t like it on anything other than on Easy Street

Needs sorting

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Mendy even in the first half looked like he was running through treacle,I’d write him off and cut our losses with him ..

there must be some mug in the French league who have a decent LB and will take £50m cash Or £60m plus Mendy

 

[deano ou812]

there must be some mug in the French league who have a decent LB and will take £50m cash Or £60m plus Mendy

Take him out of the team for now,I’d rather play one of the EDS left backs ..

 

[Blue back home]

There’s no need for a transition season. We need the injured players back and to defend properly. We have the squad to win the league, just need to get the basics right first. The basics start by getting rid of players who don’t want to be here.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

We desperately need a transitional season, but the issue I have is that we aren’t even transitioning. We are sleepwalking.

 

[madden150]

Completely agree. No team - ever - has won titles with a bad defence.

It's not as it we have an off game once a season now, it's a pattern. The defence now is probably Pep's biggest test of his career. I suspect that he thought he'd have to find new ways to unpick opposition defences but he is now finding his teams are easy to pick off.

My worry is that he thinks we need new players. We don't, we need a new system which makes players better.

Your right but its not just the defence. The balance of the side just doesnt seem right. The movement off the ball isnt where it should be, too many wayward passes and turnovers (especially Mendy) and then we arent as organised at the back on the counter. Alot of that imo is Rodri not being at the level that Ferna used to be at. I'd love to see Ake played as a DM to see how he faired. Worth a try.

 

[alexmcity]

We desperately need a transitional season, but the issue I have is that we aren’t even transitioning. We are sleepwalking.

Of course, we are transitioning. We play well in some games and poorly in other games. The nature of a transitional period is that the team is inconsistent and goes through ups (Real) and downs (Lyon). Injuries haven't helped either. Laporte's injury and Stones turning into a sicknote ruined much of last season. Being down to bare bones at the start of this season and being a bit behind in the preparation makes it difficult to compete again. But things will start to get normal if/when we overcome the injury problems.

Liverpool conceded 3 goals against Leeds with their best team available. We are without our best CBs and strikers. It's only normal to suffer, specially without protection from the refs like Manure. They and the dippers wouldn't have been punished with 3 pens like us.

Think we will need several months to get going. The transition from Kompany, Dinho, Silva and Aguero to a new team was always going to be painful. They are legends precisely because they are hard to replace. Money can't solve the problems right away and we are reluctant to sign very expensive players anyway. Which for me is the right way to go forward.