Bus parking for beginners

Can't believe the level of pessimism on here after a narrow defeat to a very good Spurs team. Football is not about winning every week and defeats make victories all the sweeter, let's not be entitlement junkies like the rags and dippers. As for last season being a disaster we won the league cup and came runners up in the league, any season between 76 and 11 we would have been delighted with that. A sense of proportion please blues can't win em all, just enjoy
Spurs quarter 69 said:
Can't believe the level of pessimism on here after a narrow defeat to a very good Spurs team. Football is not about winning every week and defeats make victories all the sweeter, let's not be entitlement junkies like the rags and dippers. As for last season being a disaster we won the league cup and came runners up in the league, any season between 76 and 11 we would have been delighted with that. A sense of proportion please blues can't win em all, just enjoy the ride.
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its been going on for ages. A couple of games ago we had our wingers on their proper sides and we looked dangerous again...then we went back to the same old turgid shite
 
Pressing and tactical foul from midfield have gone, that's why opposition can counter fast and direct to our box dangerously every time.
 
Spurs quarter 69 said:
Can't believe the level of pessimism on here after a narrow defeat to a very good Spurs team. Football is not about winning every week and defeats make victories all the sweeter, let's not be entitlement junkies like the rags and dippers. As for last season being a disaster we won the league cup and came runners up in the league, any season between 76 and 11 we would have been delighted with that. A sense of proportion please blues can't win em all, just enjoy the ride.
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No you can't win them all, but you can compete, and we aren't really doing that. The potential in this side is enormous but we are not giving ourselves the best chance of exploiting the talent.
Typical City...oops.
 
I don't agree that the way Pep plays has been found out or neutralised, we had 24 shots against the Spuds goal yesterday, that smacks of poor finishing, confidence and a host of other reasons but definitely not the way we play..

I do think we need more snap and pace in the midfield and, dare I say a few more timely substitutions to change things early, before its too late. Only 8 games in and we are poor but I still think we will come good and be in the mix when it matters..!
 
Blue Til Death said:
I don't agree that the way Pep plays has been found out or neutralised, we had 24 shots against the Spuds goal yesterday, that smacks of poor finishing, confidence and a host of other reasons but definitely not the way we play..

I do think we need more snap and pace in the midfield and, dare I say a few more timely substitutions to change things early, before its too late. Only 8 games in and we are poor but I still think we will come good and be in the mix when it matters..!
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How many of those shots were good chances or created after good play opening Spurs up?
 
Painfully bang on it OP. The amount of mid - long cross diagonal balls we continue to do for 5"8ish small players is gettin fukin stupid now. We hardly ever score from headers/ set pieces anyway - why bloody keep bothering!?
 
Blue Til Death said:
I don't agree that the way Pep plays has been found out or neutralised, we had 24 shots against the Spuds goal yesterday, that smacks of poor finishing, confidence and a host of other reasons but definitely not the way we play..

I do think we need more snap and pace in the midfield and, dare I say a few more timely substitutions to change things early, before its too late. Only 8 games in and we are poor but I still think we will come good and be in the mix when it matters..!
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For me our shots tally reflects little but territorial dominance. As a signal of our effectiveness on the other hand the total number of shots is pretty meaningless. How many of those shots were undertaken having circumvented the parked bus and with clear sight of goal? Virtually none. Loris made a good save from Jesus in the 1st half at the end of our best move of the match and was unluckily in the way when a goal-bound follow up shot hit him instead of the back of the net. That was pretty much it though, bar two headers from set pieces straight down the keeper’s throat. The rest were optimistic strikes from distance into a forest of legs and equally optimistic shots under intense pressure from attendant defenders who simply stuck out a leg and blocked those shots at source. Lloris, like too many other opposition keepers in the last 6 months, had virtually nothing to do, and I would suggest as a consequence that the way we play has most certainly been neutralised, albeit that the main reason is that we no longer have players with the key skill sets (in particular Sane, Dave and peak era Fernandinho and Sergio) to make it all work properly. Given that we’re going to face this human barricade all season, I think we’re in for a very rude awakening in terms of our finishing position come May....unless we come up with a “solution”
 
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The whole system is missing width and pace in midfield. When we were looking at our best in 2017/18 we had two wingers playing on their natural side being asked to do the basics of their game - none of this getting the ball to Mahrez/Sterling and asking them to beat players before crossing the ball into nobody.

Sane and Sterling in 17/18 were getting on the end of slide-through balls from KDB/Silva and crossing to the other one to tap it in. Nothing special but it worked a treat. This meant we never really missed attacking full backs.

Now it's changed to inverted wingers, though, you need full backs who are going to attack and those that are good at it. Look at Liverpool. Mane a right footer on the left with a left-footed Robertson bombing on and assisting while Salah a left footer on the right has a right-footed TAA bombing on and assisting. It's how it should be if you're playing with inverted wingers. We have Sterling on the left and Mahrez on the right being given the ball in tight situations and being asked to either perform miracles or cross the ball aimlessly into the box for nobody to get on the end of because we're not a team built for that.

Cancelo is playing at left back and never uses his left foot so there's none of the full-back width needed when a team has inverted wingers. Walker never gets forward and on the off-chance he puts a good ball in the box, it's steamed in at 100mph. We rely on his pace to get us out the shit too much for him to be getting forward hence Mahrez being so isolated on the wing and essentially ineffective.

I remember reading an article where it says we resort to pumping crosses into the box when things aren't working - that's plain for everybody to see but since reading it, it's depressing to see that's our only(!) 'plan B' and it seems to start early on. Like we've given up trying to play fast through the middle. The thinking was that eventually a loose ball would appear and we'd score - like Walker's winner against Southampton last season. It doesn't happen enough, though, and never will work consistently given how often we resort to it.

Something needs to change and it needs to change quick. We need pace on the wings with right footers playing on the right and a left footer playing on the left - we don't have that since Sane has gone so put Torres there who seems more comfortable using his left or buy a left back who can overlap and offer the width a right-footer playing at LW can't. Pace in the middle (I like Rodri but he can't play the role we need/are asking him to) and a fucker who can put the ball in the net when we need them to and not need 3/4 chances to (Sterling, Jesus).
 
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