Champions League Final | Post-Match Thread

[northstandgiveusasong]

Way too many fluffy "we dream of winning the Chumps League" player interviews in the build up to the match. KdB mimicking his manager with his dramatic "If we lose, we are failures." statement to the media. Players leaving the hotel to board the coach towards the stadium like they were on their way to facing a firing squad.

Pep and the backroom staff living the good life in Porto "throw another shrimp on the barbie."

I've never seen a Manager kissing a Chumps losers medal either, ho hum.

Good point about the players, the body language on some wasn't great albeit with or without masks, especially on arrival at the stadium I thought.

 

[yerwot?]

i confess, i am one of those that confidently looked forward to seeing City lift the Cup. Having dined on a rich diet of win after win for weeks on end, dealing with Psg and Dortmund on the way, why wouldn't i be ? Entitled ? no just confident.
It made the result, and especially the non-performance that much harder to take. It panned out the way a lot of us suspected it would. The salt in the wound is that we will never know the logic behind the team selection, players in postions they have not excelled in previously. Coming on top of previous 'blips'' it is little wonder there are murmurings of discontent in forums such as BM. It's a bitter pill to swallow, a very winnable trophy seemingly frittered away.....

 

[argyle]

It seems to me that a lot of our supporters don't learn. 10 out of the last 15 domestic trophies won and cup defeats this season in an FAC semi and the UCL final (our only defeat in that competition) shows that Pep learns plenty.

Also, what people miss is that Pep did need to make changes for the Chelsea game; hard to deny that he got them wrong but also hard to deny that whatever he had done, the player might well have failed on the day.

However, the tinkering if that is how you want to describe it is what leads to Pep continually improving the team and learning about them and the game.

He will almost certainly tinker next time we play Chelsea and the chances of him getting it right will have improved.

I suppose it will be fourth time lucky.

I disagree that he needed to make any changes for this Chelsea game. No guarantee we would have won but we would have a least tried to have stopped Chelsea sauntering through midfield at will.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

This ‘tinker’ nonsense has to be hit on the head. He picks as a team to win a game. He always has and he always will. More often than not (evidentially) he will succeed with those selections but he will fail IN THE SAME WAY ALL MANAGERS ULTIMATELY DO. Name one manager that will win more honours with City than Pep...

There isnt one

 

[Jesus2020]

Always felt to me one of those teams we sometimes play against where their manager says we can't beat these playing football so we will stop them. That's the entire game plan. And if the team is good enough it works. Then we have the choice to do the same. Which we don't really tend to do. And these managers know this.

Always against this team with this manager going to be a case of if they get that lucky goal on the break they will win. That's what happened. Frustrating but I'm not sure how you go about avoiding it.

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

We could, and should, have best them in that final. Weve got the superior players, we are a better team than them. We were set up to fail by not playing to their strengths by not having the set up that saw them become that great side. We play on instinct and that was taken away l. We should have just played our way and let them come and see if they can handle it

 

[bondsman]

We could, and should, have best them in that final. Weve got the superior players, we are a better team than them. We were set up to fail by not playing to their strengths by not having the set up that saw them become that great side. We play on instinct and that was taken away l. We should have just played our way and let them come and see if they can handle it

Exactly right it’s sad that Pep didn’t back us to beat them playing our normal game.

 

[northstandgiveusasong]

This ‘tinker’ nonsense has to be hit on the head. He picks as a team to win a game. He always has and he always will. More often than not (evidentially) he will succeed with those selections but he will fail IN THE SAME WAY ALL MANAGERS ULTIMATELY DO. Name one manager that will win more honours with City than Pep...

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and maybe "tinker" is a word a tad overused. That said, his picking of the team "to win a game" left a lot to be desired. We'll never know though!

 

[D'Silva]

Way too many fluffy "we dream of winning the Chumps League" player interviews in the build up to the match. KdB mimicking his manager with his dramatic "If we lose, we are failures." statement to the media. Players leaving the hotel to board the coach towards the stadium like they were on their way to facing a firing squad.

Pep and the backroom staff living the good life in Porto "throw another shrimp on the barbie."

I've never seen a Manager kissing a Chumps losers medal either, ho hum.

A bit overdramatic I have to say although as a fan that prefers the league to CL, I could never understand the hold of that overhyped competition. Only a few weeks ago it was almost deem irrelevant had City not lead in pulling out of the ESL. It is a nice competition to win but it shouldn't be put up in a pedestal especially compared to the PL. Now that they've got the final experience, I'm expecting a better and more professional performance the next time they show up there. And please no more cringy and over the top promotions next time.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

The great fallacy of your post is that there is a line up that won 23 on the bounce. If you look at the teams in that run just about the only nearly consistent choice is Dias and Stones together - both of whom played last night. That apart we hade to cope with covid epidemics, injuries and losses of form and Pep made on average 5 or 6 changes for each match. So we're back to the old choice - which starting line up are you talking: the 23 which had Pep declared a genius or the one which lost last night?

Perhaps I didn't word my post so well. The genius that is Pep is far and away the best coach on the planet - he is different, he is brave enough to do things differently and that's what makes him what he is. Obviously, we didn't have the same line up on the pitch game after game. Last night's line up was only slightly different to what we expected. During a substantial proportion of the 23 wins on the bounce, we had Phil occupying the position on the left where Raheem played and Rodri was on the bench. Phil carries out that role with precision. Raheem on the other hand follows Pep's instruction to the letter. Look at Pep's method of attacking teams all the way through his coaching career when up against a low block - keep the ball on one side of the pitch, loads of five and ten yard passes until the opposition come looking for the ball and lose their shape, 60 yard diagonal to the opposite flank - wide player running at the less congested side of the opposing defence. Raheem does the five and ten yard passes thing exceptionally well, but is out of form, lacking confidence which is maybe affecting his touch. One change to what we expected last night and it made a massive difference. Eddie's ball to Raheem - he controls it but only into James' stride. Two years ago, Raheem controls that ball and scores. Win the game and its genius. That's all I'm saying.