To single out the defence is so wrong. Its not an individual problem, our defence is vulnerable as a by product of the way we play regardless of the players ability, it's the biggest weakness of a Pep team but something he's clearly willing to risk as the rewards are so high as proven by last season's achievements.
Any increase in defensive sturdiness would come at the expense of our dominating attacking displays. Pretty sure Pep himself has said how hard it is for defenders in his team to look good, there's a lot of pressure placed on them to defend 1v1 constantly, one mistake, error or even just letting your man get the better of you once often results in a goal against. I do think he needs to adapt on occasions, any time we play Liverpool being one of them but given his achievements you can't really blame Pep for having complete faith in his methods.
Thought our back line got exposed a few times last night. I don't think Laporte at LB helped but we seem to be cut open on a regular basis away from home in Europe.
Liverpool and Monaco away both spring to mind
I think the idea of a back 3 in Europe is one I'd like to see given a chance.Laporte is not a left back and looked like a fish out of water at times. When fit Mendy is first choice the question is whether him and Sane can play together in the same side. Personally I would like to try a back three with Vinny anchoring a stones and laporte 3 with Walker and Mendy the wing backs. We need to try something different because at times we are too predictable and teams are more and more being able to nullify our attacks by swamping the midfield and catching us on the break.
Not a lot of people realise just how exposed we leave our defence if we lose the ball cheap with how far up we play. In peps first season Ota was slated, like him or love him the best defender in the world one against three forwards will look bad.