Are we clearly suffering from a lack of striker this season? Have midtable sides figured us out?

[Marvin]

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we looked beaten as soon as Palace scored. If you look back at the matchday forum on here, quite a few people were saying just that.
While I appreciate that isn't probably the most reliable forum to refer to, it does give a snapshot of what people were thinking at the time, rather than having had time to reflect.
Thankfully, it doesn't happen very often, but it's definitely a habit worth avoiding!

It was game over when Laporte was sent off.

 

[franksinatra]

Some really good points on here about strikers and the difference having midfielders in offensive positions. One of the lads (Vlahovic) who often gets touted on the Transfer forum illustrated the point perfectly today with two of his goals. Both goals he found space in the box and a sixth sense when the ball arrived. His third goal he saw the ball played wide, knew a cut back was coming, took a step towards the back post to throw the defender and then sprinted in front of him to attack the space and receive the ball and finish first time. Strikers just have an instinct. Too often you see technically gifted players like Cancelo, Foden etc pull the ball back or cross to no one and its often due to the players arriving in the box who do not have an instinct for goal or the ability to lose a marker or find space.

 

[Lavinda Past]

It was game over when Laporte was sent off.

It shouldn't have been though. We should have been strong enough with 10 men to beat a side like Palace.
We were never at the races yesterday. Too many heads went down after the early goal and the sending off just put a lid on a bad performance.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

Maybe i am missing something here , but i thought the first 25 minutes of the 2nd half the team showed a lot of fight and passion until Jesus's goal was disallowed which confirmed it wasnt going to be our day,only then did we accept defeat.
The Laporte sending off and his dreadful error along with an totally inept refereeing performance where the main factors of our defeat , some games incidents go against us and it can be tough to turn things around , and to be fair this team does have form for showing the fighting spirit required. Saturday was just one of those days when we didnt take our chances and the oppostion scored with virtually every shot on target , a defeat against a lucky Palace side(even Viera admitted they had some luck) will not define our season thankfully

 

[Agueroooo9320]

Some really good points on here about strikers and the difference having midfielders in offensive positions. One of the lads (Vlahovic) who often gets touted on the Transfer forum illustrated the point perfectly today with two of his goals. Both goals he found space in the box and a sixth sense when the ball arrived. His third goal he saw the ball played wide, knew a cut back was coming, took a step towards the back post to throw the defender and then sprinted in front of him to attack the space and receive the ball and finish first time. Strikers just have an instinct. Too often you see technically gifted players like Cancelo, Foden etc pull the ball back or cross to no one and its often due to the players arriving in the box who do not have an instinct for goal or the ability to lose a marker or find space.

exactly this is what I am speaking about. that movement to find space in the box to get a shot on goal. what aguero used to do best.

 

[paulchapo]

Maybe i am missing something here , but i thought the first 25 minutes of the 2nd half the team showed a lot of fight and passion until Jesus's goal was disallowed which confirmed it wasnt going to be our day,only then did we accept defeat.
The Laporte sending off and his dreadful error along with an totally inept refereeing performance where the main factors of our defeat , some games incidents go against us and it can be tough to turn things around , and to be fair this team does have form for showing the fighting spirit required. Saturday was just one of those days when we didnt take our chances and the oppostion scored with virtually every shot on target , a defeat against a lucky Palace side(even Viera admitted they had some luck) will not define our season thankfully

Spot on. We upped the tempo in the second half and were battering Palace, for a good twenty five minutes at least. This isn't a pop at De Bruyne but we improved after he went off. If the Jesus goal had been allowed I think we would have gone on and won. Both Palace and ourselves had three shots on target, we had loads off target as normal. Palace were helped by the officials who allowed them to slow the game down at every opportunity. We definitely played against fourteen yesterday

 

[ysmsa]

What I noticed early on was the front 2 who were pressing and closing down their keeper and defenders, it was KDB & Foden!

Is that the best use of these 2 highly talented players? Probably fucked KDB up and could be why Phil seemed to get wound up and frustrated in chasing shadows of shit players.
Jesus and Bernardo would be more suited to this and let KDB and Phil do their stuff further back with time on the ball.

Not having a Striker has gone on for too long and is compromising the team, square pegs in round holes.
The nearest we have is Jesus but he's stuck out wide.

 

[LongsightM13]

Burnley. Says it all.

Cornet will be off somewhere much better next summer. As will the likes of Raphinha.

 

[ysmsa]

Spot on. We upped the tempo in the second half and were battering Palace, for a good twenty five minutes at least. This isn't a pop at De Bruyne but we improved after he went off. If the Jesus goal had been allowed I think we would have gone on and won. Both Palace and ourselves had three shots on target, we had loads off target as normal. Palace were helped by the officials who allowed them to slow the game down at every opportunity. We definitely played against fourteen yesterday

Battering Palace come on!
The only chances we created fell to Rodri our DM and Jesus' goal was offside so why would it of stood.

We never looked comfortable yesterday and Palace looked likely to catch us on a break at any time which they did twice.

Hopefully just a 1 off yesterday but we were shit (quality of players considered) and got what we deserved.

 

[lmhblue1]

Front to back the team's just not adequately balanced right now, simple as that. Right footed left back, playing Laporte just for his left foot even though we have a much stronger attack *and* defence with Stones in it, LB can't provide overlapping runs for Grealish who is clearly in dire need of that type of linkup when playing LW, KDB's lack of fitness leading to a lack of control, the fact that whoever plays false 9 will virtually always be wasted against well organised defensive units, etc.... So it's not just the striker issue, although having an actual finisher would obviously help massively.

(I realise the way I described it makes me sound like I think we're complete shite but that's not the case lol, obviously I think we are a very very good team. It's just that these types of issues will inevitable cost us points over time. Last season Pep was able to find a solution, we just have to wait and see what happens this time round. I think the re-introduction of Stones and Zinchenko and the more frequent resting of KDB would be a good start, personally.)