Brighton (A) - Post Match Thread.

[ono]

Let's talk about his cool finish then, or his great ball to Jesus that should have resulted in a goal or his pressing and tenacity to break through the Brighton defence which led to our second goal.
It's a two sided coin the Aguero debate and the long and short of it is we picked up 3 points because of his direct involvement. Strikers miss chances, always have and always will.

And that's all fine. I don't think people were saying he had a bad game. Jesus also had a very good game. But he also missed a sitter.

Our problem isn't getting players to play well. Our problem is making our dominance reflect on the scoreboard. So people are justified to be concerned by it, seen as though it was probably our biggest crux last season.

 

[SilverFox2]

I thought we were wasteful of chances yesterday; again sometimes it was about not making the correct final ball.

Sergio's stats show that he scored one goal from two shots, which would be a phenomenal strike rate if he kept it up. The stat's don't capture his swing and miss so in reality he got one from three, which would still be a big improvement... His two misses yesterday were horrid and I think exceptional: he's usually closer to the mark when he fails.

GJ managed one shot on target from four attempts, which is simply not good enough for what we need; although one goal from every four shots would be world class.

We have to improve our conversion of opportunities into goals; yesterday is just one game but it didn't provide any evidence that we do not need to add a top quality striker to the squad. It did give some hope that we will defend better, from front to back, and I'm a firm believer that improvements at both ends of the park will create a virtuous circle of improvement because, psychologically, doing better at one end relieves some pressure on the players at the other end and reduces the tension that can lead to mistakes. Pep made a point about our wonderful pre-season displays occurring when there was a lack of pressure on the team...free the mind, free the body.

A good start would be to be accurate with our shots. No probs on goal conversion from shots on target.
Why not try passing the ball into the net at least then it has a chance of being a goal- We pride ourselves on our passing game yet that final pass into the net eludes us.

 

[OB1]

Thanks Mark. His arm was still in the fucking way of the ball going towards the goal and he was a long way from KDB.

It was a nailed on penalty.

I thought it should have been a penalty but it wasn't obviously a deliberate handball but there nor was Jesus' and he got booked.

I still not convinced Silva was offside for GJ's disallowed goal.

 

[Dreadzone]

Agreed. We have seen it any many games since we have established our possession game.
And City haven't developed enough ideas to break up walls the and score the first, which it is all about.

So what could we do?

Just a brainstorm - to be completed and passed on to Pep: :)

1) stay deeper to pull the opponent out and then run and play into the space
2) pretend to play weak, lazy, slow maybe extra bad passes to invite the opponent and then pull the trigger and go
3) give the ball away from possession in an extra obvious way, stay back and let them come out
4) learn a variety of running patterns to confuse a packed defense by quick movements and open spaces for midfielders or full backs to rush in.
5) when 1-0 up and the bus is still being parked: keep the ball and play it back to our defense as long as possible until they come out, showing that WE want to play footie and the other team is refusing. The crowd supporting by "OLÈ" for every touch.

What I want to say is, we need to smarter playing to our strengths and stop acting in a contra productive way to compress the team even further in an area where we would like to have space.

At least we should invent a variety of alternatives to ask too much of a limited opponent.

This^ plus we always have 'hoof' ball if needs must! ;0)

 

[wythenshaweblue£££]

Was tough to break them down yesterday but the main thing is we won and kept a clean sheet. Onwards and upwards

 

[OB1]

We're going to have to be much better in the future. Rewatching the game back we were far too slow in possession. On another day we might not have broke them down. We desperately need more dynamism which hopefully Sterling, Mendy and Silva can provide.

Pep obviously thought that was the case from his comments in the post match press conference. In fact, he summed things up well.

I always say though that you don't have to zip the ball about all the time if your opponent has such a low well organised block but you do need to quicken it up around the box and you have to take the early chances that you get. We had some good chances to score long before we did.

Maybe we need to be more unafraid of losing the ball around the opponents' box; especially if we can keep winning the ball back as quickly and effectively as we have.

 

[hihosilva]

I thought it should have been a penalty but it wasn't obviously a deliberate handball but there nor was Jesus' and he got booked.

I still not convinced Silva was offside for GJ's disallowed goal.

Blue tinted glasses on I think.
Silva was marginally off side. As for the the penalty shout, I would have been annoyed if it had been given against us.

 

[OB1]

Was tough to break them down yesterday but the main thing is we won and kept a clean sheet. Onwards and upwards

I think one Brighton player had an average position in our half, and then barely. Houghton has got them very organised and their prime objective was not to get thrashed.

 

[Dreadzone]

MoM very easily. We need to see him defensively though. It was ideal for him yesterday. Sure he'll be good at that too.

Frightening thought for other teams is that we still have Mendy and Bernardo Silva to come in.

Chelsea will be very good too once Bakayoko, Hazard, Morata etc come in.

And Gundo back!

 

[Brendan110_0]

Blue tinted glasses on I think.
Silva was marginally off side. As for the the penalty shout, I would have been annoyed if it had been given against us.

The issue is, it would most certainly be given at the other end of the pitch. 1st penalty denied, I'm keeping a log for the swings & roundabouts brigade.