Bournemouth (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

If Foden kicks it out for a corner and Silva commits a tactical foul both goals are avoided

I only saw highlights there on MOTD, it made our performance seem a bit better than what I was expecting from what I’d read
 
Bournemouth played it around and showed how much we were out of sorts. The lack of pace in our team was evident.

Only in the last 10 mins with Rico and Doku did we look like creating anything in the final third.

Oliver not giving a foul at least on Haaland when clattered was ridiculous.
 
Mostly agree with this but...

Gundogan looked completely lost today because I don't think he understood the role he had to play. Was he a 8 or a 10? I don't think he's past it. I just don't think he understood where he was supposed to be.

If we can learn anything from the Euros, we know that putting Foden on the right doesn't work. It just doesn't. It takes away from his game of cutting inside. Instead of that cut to the middle he was doling it out to Bernardo. That didn't work.

As far as Bernardo. Either put him out on the right or put him as the 10 or 8 and let him roam. That's what he does best. I still think he has an incredible workrate.

You're spot on with how teams seem to have "innovated" past us. Teams know we put so many people forward that once we lose possession, here comes a blistering counterattack.

I think our problems are structural (no replacement for Rodri) and strategic. We never counterattack. Never. And its so frustrating. We have the skill and talent to do it. If we're in our own final third defending and get possession, we plod up the field because Pep does not want us to lose possession on a counterattack. And teams are keen to us now. They will just drop and say, "come and solve the puzzle". We rarely see any team play us straight up. We have to adapt to this.
I think to counter attack properly, we have to set up differently occasionally and today may have been one of those games to do it although without Doku and Savinho it probably wouldn’t have worked as we don’t have the pace.

Park the bus ourselves, unsettle the crowd, invite them on and then hit them.

Conceding these early goals is killing us. We almost did this in the first 2 minutes today when they should have scored. That is ridiculous. Second half starts and we do it again within one minute!
 
Mostly agree with this but...

Gundogan looked completely lost today because I don't think he understood the role he had to play. Was he a 8 or a 10? I don't think he's past it. I just don't think he understood where he was supposed to be.

If we can learn anything from the Euros, we know that putting Foden on the right doesn't work. It just doesn't. It takes away from his game of cutting inside. Instead of that cut to the middle he was doling it out to Bernardo. That didn't work.

As far as Bernardo. Either put him out on the right or put him as the 10 or 8 and let him roam. That's what he does best. I still think he has an incredible workrate.

You're spot on with how teams seem to have "innovated" past us. Teams know we put so many people forward that once we lose possession, here comes a blistering counterattack.

I think our problems are structural (no replacement for Rodri) and strategic. We never counterattack. Never. And its so frustrating. We have the skill and talent to do it. If we're in our own final third defending and get possession, we plod up the field because Pep does not want us to lose possession on a counterattack. And teams are keen to us now. They will just drop and say, "come and solve the puzzle". We rarely see any team play us straight up. We have to adapt to this.
Agree. Infact about the only time we broke ' quickly ' was for the team goal v Sparta when Haalaand scored.
 
Didn’t see the game today but watching MotD, it looked like a quite even game with them doing what most teams do this season, score against us while we’re pushing everybody up in their half.

I had no confidence today and said to my lad that I thought that it’d be our first PL loss of the season. It turned out so but could’ve easily have been a draw.

Well done to Bournemouth, didn’t realise how immense we had been against them before today.
 
Lots of truth in that, but it ignores the FACT that we have been living a charmed life this season, pulling victories out of nowhere, with full backs scoring winners out of nowhere, and a very VERY average start (at best) by some supposedly international, world class, players.

Sure, injuries to two of our best players (Rodri & KDB) haven’t helped, but it’s that the entire team has looked disjointed, slow, ponderous, and under constant attack by clubs others are beating off the park.

We have looked devoid of attacking threat in many games, with today merely being the latest example. We had 2/3 possession and our first attempt on goal came on 79:20, with Haaland passing one into the keeper’s hands.

In fact, it wasn’t until Doku came on that we looked to have an attacking threat at all, unless Nunes managed to get around the outside of his full back a time or two, with zero support in the box.

Defensively, only Ederson saved us getting the Sick Swan against us…at Bournemouth…so the last 4 years might have been glorious, but football is a “What have you done for me lately?” game, as United have learned to their horror! Istree doesn’t cut it, unfortunately, and everyone will bask in the warm glow of this defeat, and its manner, as the hopeful end of Pep’s Man City domination.

It feels like he’s been sussed, when teams in the lower half take us to the mat and we escape with a late win. When we are battered for 80 minutes, though, that’s a different animal and I’m hoping the ONLY factor at play was that half the starting line up was injured, as was most of the bench.

Lastly, we had a midfield today that played like they were running in molasses and needed three touches, and at least one 360° turn, just to get the ball under control and find half a yard of space.

Gundo, God love him, has looked a pale shadow of the player who left for Barca, because the 2 years are like dog years at his age.

Kova played well, but was hustling about trying to find a spark where none existed, and, to be honest, I’m not even sure who the midfield support was for most of the game, because they swept through us like wildfire.

I know it sounds alarmist to watch one really poor performance, that we almost pulled out of the bag, but for the width of the post, but no-one in their right minds could say that City looked anything other than bereft of ideas and the energy to create any today.

With a couple of tough games coming up, and an international break that will be taking the piss if ANY City players leave, it’s not a great time for us and so I’m glad we have clawed our way to 2nd and are still in with a serious shout.

We desperately need players fit and at it RIGHT NOW, but it appears Pep and Co. are going to have to wait until after the international break for most of them, Christmas for Oscar and next season for Godri. What’s weird is that Godri might have played his last game for Pep, but we won’t know until Pep decides what he wants to do, which is a travesty in itself!

CTID and all that, but today was a bad day. Felt like the Housing Inspector came in and told me the crack I noticed in the wall was actually going to require a complete remodel and new foundation and it was only the lovely wallpaper that had been hiding the damage for the last 18 months!
Well said.

Pep just needs new players to go again.

The aging squad is reminiscent of season one. Pep must decide if he has the stomach to build again.

If not we will have a new manager.

it’s not really a big drama, it’s football. We had the best and dominated for years, those players have gotten older and some have departed. City need to recruit again which won’t be easy at all going by the last few windows and our reluctance to spend.

We should be proud of how the club has grown over the last 10 + seasons. They have raised expectations and those expectations will need to be meet. Climbing the mountain is fucking difficult but staying on top is even harder.

So yea just spend some fucking money on quality top tier players. Give the boss a team he can dominate with until he leaves. Anything else is taking him for granted.
 
If senior members of the squad were not fully fit today, but still started, why did Pep not use a couple of the kids to provide more energy? Just seems very odd to me.

Rico and Foden have been the only regular starters from the academy over the last 8 years that have established themselves.

Pep's been brilliant in many ways, but not enough academy players have broken through to establish themselves as regular first teams.

With the current fitness, injury and burn out issues facing key players it is the perfect opportunity to use fresh legs from the EDS.
 

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