Bournemouth (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

ChicagoBlue said:
Like everyone else, I hope it’s a blip, but today it felt like a passing.

It exposed Gundo, it showed how old some players were, even though they’ve still got the occasional game in them, and it showed how the “modern approach” to the high speed counterattack…WHICH IS HOW THE REST OF THE WORLD IS PLAYING FOOTBALL NOW…is death to us.

I LITERALLY called for a loss today and even said it would come down our right side and be a cross in behind us. I can’t remember the last time I thought we would lose a game?!

It’s been coming and the injury situation has only exacerbated it. The Spurs game showed how frail we look and Bournemouth no-names went to town on us.

This is structural and strategic, not tactical. Structurally, we have not spent the money on, or the time to cultivate, the players we were clearly going to need to start filling holes that were developing.

You saw them developing, I’m sure, last season, and nothing was done to start addressing those issues. A free Gundo felt like a great little stop gap measure, but he’s currently being asked to be Prime Gundo and he just doesn’t have it in him anymore…and the flashes of it are getting fewer and further in between.

KDB certainly has brilliance in him, but for both club and country, we are seeing it less and less.

Phil Foden clearly has some personal demons/issues he’s trying to get over, because he’s a pale imitation of the POTY we saw last year. He could have won the game today, but his shots were wayward and he needed too many touches at other times.

Kova was always seen as a back up midfielder, yet has become pivotal (no pun intended) to us not being literally over run in every game. I thought he was superb today in a game where we got battered in midfield, so that felt like a big waste!

Bernardo? Love him to death! But, not only did he never have pace, but he’s lost a step, so if you’re a defender you just need to keep him in front of you because he’s going nowhere…yet he’s a WINGER for us, who steps into a second 6 role late in games to shore up the midfield when we take the old, tired fuckers off!

And then we have the likes of Grealish, who divides opinion worse than Trump, but seems to laugh off his own mediocrity. Or Walker, whose domestic woes are only bested by his on field woes, which tells you just how bad his season is going. His contribution to games was always “catch the rabbit that runs in behind” but that’s been laid to rest by multiple players this season, and it is not like his “positional sense” was ever going to get him out of a wet paper bag, let alone a football match where he’s getting toasted. If I see one more push or arse bump or bend when he’s supposed to go up for a ball or ease it out of play, I’ll scream!

So far this season, it’s looking like Gvardiol is our POTY. Think about that and what it says about who we are so far this season…
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It was great while it lasted. No doubt the scum will now start a renaissance to emphasise we have slid into a period of instability.
 
ChicagoBlue said:
Like everyone else, I hope it’s a blip, but today it felt like a passing.

It exposed Gundo, it showed how old some players were, even though they’ve still got the occasional game in them, and it showed how the “modern approach” to the high speed counterattack…WHICH IS HOW THE REST OF THE WORLD IS PLAYING FOOTBALL NOW…is death to us.

I LITERALLY called for a loss today and even said it would come down our right side and be a cross in behind us. I can’t remember the last time I thought we would lose a game?!

It’s been coming and the injury situation has only exacerbated it. The Spurs game showed how frail we look and Bournemouth no-names went to town on us.

This is structural and strategic, not tactical. Structurally, we have not spent the money on, or the time to cultivate, the players we were clearly going to need to start filling holes that were developing.

You saw them developing, I’m sure, last season, and nothing was done to start addressing those issues. A free Gundo felt like a great little stop gap measure, but he’s currently being asked to be Prime Gundo and he just doesn’t have it in him anymore…and the flashes of it are getting fewer and further in between.

KDB certainly has brilliance in him, but for both club and country, we are seeing it less and less.

Phil Foden clearly has some personal demons/issues he’s trying to get over, because he’s a pale imitation of the POTY we saw last year. He could have won the game today, but his shots were wayward and he needed too many touches at other times.

Kova was always seen as a back up midfielder, yet has become pivotal (no pun intended) to us not being literally over run in every game. I thought he was superb today in a game where we got battered in midfield, so that felt like a big waste!

Bernardo? Love him to death! But, not only did he never have pace, but he’s lost a step, so if you’re a defender you just need to keep him in front of you because he’s going nowhere…yet he’s a WINGER for us, who steps into a second 6 role late in games to shore up the midfield when we take the old, tired fuckers off!

And then we have the likes of Grealish, who divides opinion worse than Trump, but seems to laugh off his own mediocrity. Or Walker, whose domestic woes are only bested by his on field woes, which tells you just how bad his season is going. His contribution to games was always “catch the rabbit that runs in behind” but that’s been laid to rest by multiple players this season, and it is not like his “positional sense” was ever going to get him out of a wet paper bag, let alone a football match where he’s getting toasted. If I see one more push or arse bump or bend when he’s supposed to go up for a ball or ease it out of play, I’ll scream!

So far this season, it’s looking like Gvardiol is our POTY. Think about that and what it says about who we are so far this season…
Click to expand...
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.
 
It wasn't the greatest of games tricky team our team was no where near the level needed today. Players looked out of sorts. I thought once we got 1 back we might get a point we need another striker and a midfielder with legs. Rodri is a loss and KDB too but they will find the right players and we will see the team evolve again and again.
 
bobbyowenquiff said:
This is a strange season. We have not played well but neither have Arsenal or Liverpool. It could be like the year Leicester won it with someone coming out of the pack. A lot of players look knackered not just City. Also some of the mid table teams look stronger and may take points of the top three. Chelsea look the freshest team in terms of fitness.
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Should be with number and age profile of squad
 
A lot of fitness issues all over the pitch is some sort of excuse but, a shit slow central 2 who never looked like they could link together/move as a pair and overall fucking dreadful passing I can't excuse.

Ake no speed, Walker apparently hadn't even trained....Lewis, Akanji, Pusey & Gvardiol should have been the starting back 4. Thank fuck Eddie was in great form like Ortega was in midweek.

We could very easily have been pasted these last 2 games and have got away lightly losing just by an odd goal.
 
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.
 
Mr. Shush said:
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.
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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!
 
Mr. Shush said:
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.
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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.
 
ChicagoBlue said:
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!
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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.
 
Don’t care what anyone says: I’m fucked. Cup of tea then feather. These trips are great / murder.
 
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