Brentford (H) - PL | Post Match Thread

Anyone looking at City+ for the full match replay? I'm just getting a post-match interview with Jack.
 
Just need to say that the defending, first on their goal, next on that cross that Ed blocked on the line, was true, true wank. Ed did well, but thank God it was more or less straight at his legs. Otherwise it's 2-0.
Long time since I've seen our defence making errors like that. In Europe, against the better teams, that would be 100% punished. Even in the league…
 
Pep did feck the defence up tbf. Started with Rico on the wrong side, John and Kyle rusty as feck and Manu hasn't played that side for a while - plus no Ruben or Josko.
Surprised he did that against them, but he would have had a good reason.
 
Good win, tough game. Gvardiol was excellent when he arrived but they are a dangerous side for us - well coached too. Other than minutes in his legs, I was surprised we persevered with Kyle, but pace on one side and control on the other can create those overloads Pep loves.
I kept a close eye on him when he came on and he was superb. A Rolls Royce of a player.
 
This was a great win given the international break disrupting rhythm, the changes to the team and conceding so quickly.

I dislike their 'pragmatic' style they usually adopt against us, but their build up play in the first 20/30 minutes was excellent. Our press was incorrect and overly aggressive - I assume we anticipated they would play a 532 and look to play long into the channels.

However, in possession they used 4 at the back and pushed Lewis-Potter onto Walker, created a deep box and then moved it quickly, with Mbuemo or Wissa dropping to become an extra man forward.

What hurt us was Brentford's willingness to play quickly into eachother, with a lot of one and two touch combinations.


We tried to press in a very aggressive 424, but with Lewis Potter pinning Walker and Mbuemo/Wissa the centre backs, the back four was disconnected and it gave them a big space play in. Plus Flekken became a spare man and had time to clip balls onto the wider defenders.


They pressed us man to man in the first half and Ederson/Haaland punished this with the second goal.


Second half we had a lot more control and should've killed the game - their legs were going from 60 mins onward. I expected the change to 433 from them at 70 minutes to kick on but we dealt with it fine.


The changes that got us control were -

- Changed press so Haaland squeezed Flekken to push play onto one side of the pitch
- Rodri for Kovacic - presume due to yellow but he's much better at timing presses and winning seconds etc
- Gvardiol for Rico, just a lot more physical



Our start has been impressive but we need to sharpen up defensively ahead of these next three games. Inter and Arsenal will dismantle a poor press. Both games will require a lot of patience too.
 
This was a great win given the international break disrupting rhythm, the changes to the team and conceding so quickly.

I dislike their 'pragmatic' style they usually adopt against us, but their build up play in the first 20/30 minutes was excellent. Our press was incorrect and overly aggressive - I assume we anticipated they would play a 532 and look to play long into the channels.

However, in possession they used 4 at the back and pushed Lewis-Potter onto Walker, created a deep box and then moved it quickly, with Mbuemo or Wissa dropping to become an extra man forward.

What hurt us was Brentford's willingness to play quickly into eachother, with a lot of one and two touch combinations.


We tried to press in a very aggressive 424, but with Lewis Potter pinning Walker and Mbuemo/Wissa the centre backs, the back four was disconnected and it gave them a big space play in. Plus Flekken became a spare man and had time to clip balls onto the wider defenders.


They pressed us man to man in the first half and Ederson/Haaland punished this with the second goal.


Second half we had a lot more control and should've killed the game - their legs were going from 60 mins onward. I expected the change to 433 from them at 70 minutes to kick on but we dealt with it fine.


The changes that got us control were -

- Changed press so Haaland squeezed Flekken to push play onto one side of the pitch
- Rodri for Kovacic - presume due to yellow but he's much better at timing presses and winning seconds etc
- Gvardiol for Rico, just a lot more physical



Our start has been impressive but we need to sharpen up defensively ahead of these next three games. Inter and Arsenal will dismantle a poor press. Both games will require a lot of patience too.
#24 simply played behind our midfield on our left, leaving Lewis damned if he did, damned if he didn’t…then he got yanked!

Gundo’s worst game in some time and I was very surprised he wasn’t yanked. Slow, turned into trouble, let his man get in behind him frequently. Kova getting the yellow saved Gundo!

Add to all that the fact that Pep felt like he was saving some legs for Weds nights first CL game, and we looked and felt very disjointed, even when Rodri came on, even though he settled things down a lot in the middle of the park.
 

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