stonerblue
Well-Known Member
And a big thanks to Rudigger for scoring last goal. 28/1.
And a big thanks to Rudigger for scoring last goal. 28/1.
I think Werner is a good un but struggles to find the net.
I'm not gonna share it but apparently some girl from Chelsea TV was trolling City fans yesterday at the ground and asked an older guy about where's your champions league trophy.
Cunts.
But they beat City :)
In all honesty, Spurs came out firing today, with lots of intensity and an aggressive press. That caught us by surprise I think, as they've usually been a sit back and counter team under Nuno this season. We demolished them in the second half. It could and should have been 5 or 6-0.
He’d fit right in at City, then!I think Werner is a good un but struggles to find the net.
Nuno did the only sane thing against Tuchel's Chelsea which is attempt to score the first goal. Same reason Pep played an extra forward instead of Rodri or Fernandinho in the Champions League Final.
Go behind and you're done, you're not getting through that back eight and Chelsea will break you down on the counter.
You say back 8 but Kante replaced Mount and took up Mount's position on the pitch, he was tasked with pressing from the front, so his role wasn't defensive as such, and one of our wing backs, Alonso, is essentially just an extra attacker out there. He probably spent the most time in the opposition box after Lukaku :)
We're very solid at the back, that's true. I'm just thinking they got a lot of joy out of their approach because it caught us by surprise, and once we adjusted we wrestled the control back.
"Back eight" was a little hyperbolic, I'll admit. But only a little
Kanté was deployed higher up the pitch but his role was still primarily defensive. He also dropped into a more traditional midfield three a lot of the time
Alonso definitely gets forward as often as possible, but still drops back into a back five when you're under pressure
I wouldn't take it as a criticism, it's a very well-drilled and balanced side right now. The impressive thing is the amount of chances and goals the team creates with that many ostensibly defensive players in it
We rarely didn't have the ball after Kante came on, so I'd say Kante and Alonso were occupying attacking positions maybe 90% of the time in the second half.
Alonso is not in the team for his defensive output in all honesty. He isn't great at it. He gets the nod because he is very unique in the way he attacks the box. If he had just a tiny bit more pace, he'd be a world class attacking wing back. He gets exposed in a back 4 though because he is positioned further back and gets asked to defend more than attack. I've always wondered what would happen if a coach one day just said, fuck it I need a striker, I'm sticking him up front.
Another thing is, I don't really consider Jorginho and Kovacic defensive players. They play in that part of the pitch because one of them is a great tempo dictating passer who can control a game like not many others can and the other is the best press resistant dribbler we have. So a deep lying player of sorts and a technically superb dribbler.
Yes when we don't have the ball, we drop into a defensive formation which is a given, but I'd only really consider the 3 centerbacks and Azpilicueta (and Kante when used in his usual role) as outright defensive players in this system. The rest are just midfielders and attackers.