Champions League Final | Post-Match Thread

[City_Sean]

Nah he shit the bed again. Rather than trusting his team that beat PSG he became more concerned and scared of Chelsea.

I think playing no holding midfielder shows he wasn't scared of Chelsea. He wanted to score early. I don't think any of the front five performed anywhere near their level.

 

[inbetween]

It’s just their manager being willing to be pragmatic then.

Against us, when they know we will attack and are very good on the ball, they sit back and get their chances another way (on the break), and very good chances at that because of our high line.
Against Leicester, Chelsea didn’t do that, they were the City in that match and Leicester did it to them.

Liverpool did it against us back then too, soaked it up and hit us with Salah and Mane’s pace.

Rashford, Vardy, Pulisic, Aubameyang, Son, Zzzzzzz.......

We’re always going to have to play teams that can beat the press and attack quickly. We just can’t play into their hands, like they’ve learnt not to play into ours.

That's probably Peps biggest downfall. He knows only one way of playing and well if that doesn't work we are stuffed. I'm not complaining because it's given us our biggest trophy haul in our history but sometimes we'll just have to accept that it will kill us when it matters.

Arsenal did it to us in the cup semi last year, Spurs did the same in the champions league quarters the year before and Liverpool have done it to us a few times. Even United had us figured out this year.

Is there a manager or team I'd rather be though, nah, would I rather be Chelsea or anyone else who have to turn up to defend, nah. At this rate we'll win a champions league final eventually because we are constantly winning everything else.

To put it into perspective though, it's just a double won this year.... I can remember playing Gillingham 20 years ago in Division 2, then Spurs 10 years ago in that top 4 game just to qualify for the champions league.... Now we are in champions league finals where we are the odds on favourite to win. We've come quite far really!

 

[kwm1988]

What a weird defeat, it's still getting worse with the passage of time.

I’m struggling to shake it off , just so frustrating.

Whe the team was leaked about 5 minutes before it officially came out, this forum were thinking it was a hoax as Sterling starting and no Rodri or Fernandinho seemed inexplicable at the time.
That selection deserves to be on "Ripleys believe it or not"

if you would have told me pep would pick that team beforehand I wouldn’t have believed you .

gundogan not played as 6 all season possibly not for a couple seasons , Sterling hasn’t been in our best 11 for at least 3 months .

He’s shit the bed again worrying about the opposition , all the talk in the week of “you won’t believe how confident I am in my team” was bollocks , he clearly didn’t think our best team this season , the team that beat psg Dortmund could beat Chelsea.

It’s ironic also the last 3 times we’ve won the league we’ve been knocked out of the champions league by English teams .
Liverpool , Spurs, now Chelsea .
That really annoys me .

Chelsea are a good side , but the frustrating thing is the last 3 games against them we’ve not had a chance to see our best team play .

On a personal level I’m gutted for Fernandinho aswell , he deserved to start that game , was brilliant against psg .
Possibly his last chance at a champions league also .

just a nightmare all round tbh and one that’s gonna be hard to shake .

 

[colinthewindowcleaner]

Shout out to Zinchenko, he was, if not more emotional, than anyone.

 

[jaiguruKun]

I keep thinking if that early chance from Ederson's long ball had fallen to Foden on the left instead of Sterling he'd have taken it in his stride and buried it. Sterling delayed whilst trying to get it on to his right as usual. Not blaming Sterling for the defeat, however why did Pep suddenly trust him after months of leaving him out? Foden offers as much as Sterling does on the left and more. Why change the entire balance of the team to accomodate him?! I bet you the players were as mystified as the rest of us.

 

[salfordbluetrue]

Maybe but what on earth possesed Pep to think that Sterling would deliver?

He’s not had a good game since before Christmas. In fact he appears to have lost the ability to perform basic skills!!

Him being in the team was a disaster waiting to happen and he needs to be moved on so he’s somebody else’s problem to solve

Said a couple of years ago that Sterling is not a left winger, but it was not just Sterling that was poor Gundogan who has been shit for weeks yet still started, even when he was playing well he was crap up until the 60th minute when everybody slowed to his pace.

 

[bluemoon32]

Just had a right good Belly laugh.

Reading the sports supplements

"Sterling said to be considering his future after the Final defeat " bwhaaaaaaaaaaa

Fuck quick !!!!!!!!!............lets offer him £300,000 a week.

I hope he stays at the club but no way should we be giving him KDB type wages

 

[Blue Maverick]

We need to still respect Chelsea, Tuchel got to a final with PSG last year and lost. He got Chelsea to two cup finals this year and indeed lost one but he knows how to get far in these competitions. I said it yesterday, Tuchel took a massive risk in taking off Mount etc with 20 minutes to go but he did it because they had a plan and he could settle on 1-0. There's no way we could of gone 1-0 up and settled.

Pep probably wasn't overthinking it, he looked at the last two games against them and probably thought it didn't work then so why now? We'd of probably stood a big chance with two defensive midfielders on to control the ball and at least then the holes would be closed and Chelsea would struggle to score but that isn't the Pep way.

Some teams are our worst nightmare because they play in a way where we need to massively change how we play. That team was Liverpool a couple of years ago and this year it's Chelsea. Unfortunately it's just been total pot luck that we always seem to end up playing these teams at the worst possible time. If Chelsea had cocked up and been beaten by Madrid like they were beaten by Villa last week then we'd probably be European champions now.

I don't think the selection or anything mattered that much because we play how we play, they had 1 chance and scored it, we had a few and didn't, end of really.

Those two games we lost we didn’t have Bernardo, Foden and Gundogan supporting either KDB or Rodri in the middle that’s why they lost the battle against Kante and Mount. Ask yourself this if we had played our normal staring 11 in the fa cup and league do you think Chelsea would’ve beaten us? I don’t think so, Peps selection and stage fright got to some players.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

A great post, and I agree with it all, except the bit about the emission of Fern or Rodri. Fern would be my choice.
That was the most important position on the pitch, we allowed Kante to dominate the midfield, totally un challenged, he chose the tempo, he controlled the game, he drove them forward and helped in defence, the exact job that Fern does for us, they played one of the best covering midfielders in the world and we didn't.

Nocturnal?

 

[StillBluessinceHydeRoad]

Split hairs all you like, we all know what our strongest lineup & formation was, & that would include Rodri or Fernandinho. The goal we conceded came from a pass right where either Fern or Rodri would have been.

We played with a CDM vs Dortmund & PSG, so why not against an equally strong Chelsea in the final? It boggles the mind & beggars belief. Simple.

"we all know what our strongest lineup & formation was..." is the last refuge of those who don't like the result and decide to take it out on the manager. You aren't, and no-one on this thread is in any way qualified to sit in judgement on Pep. The sad fact is that it doesn't matter who had started on Saturday night would have made little difference, whether it had been Ferna or Rodri or both. I'm afraid that from the very first minutes it was evident that the occasion was simply too big and that the team were leaden legged and too slow in thought and execution so that basic ball control was missing, passes were misplaced and we hardly won a single second ball. Ferna actually made no difference when he came on and Chelsea continued to cause havoc with simple through balls straight down the middle. This was because Stones showed an uncertainty and nerviness not seen all season, Dias showed he is a long way from being Vinnie on the biggest of occasions and Zinchenko had a turbulent evening, most notably when failing to follow Havertz. Ferna is a great player and leader but he isn't a miracle worker. Nor does he solve the problem we had up front where we did have our "strongest line up". Jesus and Aguero made little impact basically because we had no idea what we were doing. Sterling got nothing out of James and his touch was heavy and passing poor and Mahrez was kept wide so that he never posed any problems for Chilwell. Rarely did we get into their area and even more rarely did we have anyone in there to take advantage if we had. The problem on Saturday night was that no-one on that field performed anything like up to standard, nowhere near, and the idea that Ferna or Rodri would have turned that onto a winning performance is quite frankly a massive delusion. In my opinion those lads were not ready to carry the weight of the almost Messianic belief that these were the lads who were going to lead City out of the desert after a ten year journey to the paradise of champions league glory and they choked. This is one we can put down to experience. And my consolation is that next year "our best line up" will be a little different but much more experienced and there'll be no mistake.