City v Chelsea post match

[dannyboy29]

If anyone has a screen shot of the starting position of Kolarov vs Willian for the Willian goal, I'd love to see it. Even with Otamendi going in stupidly on Costa as he did, we should have had ample cover. Kolarov was doing what he does best, ball watching with little or no focus on what's going on around him. Pretty sure he had a 20 metre start on Willian before Willian made his run and Kolarov didn't react until he'd gone past. Fucking clueless defending but an error he has committed several times.

Has to go.

Add that to the fact we don't have a keeper who can bail us out now. We are unbelievably weak to the counter.

 

[OB1]

No idea because it's not just one player missing chances. It's all of them. Personally I think there's an element of this all that is mental. There's too much anxiety in the play in all parts of the pitch but especially in the penalty boxes. Kun and KDB are killers. The chances they've missed this season and the stupid decisions they've made don't bare thinking about. Even on Saturday we miss two tap in goals because KDB and Kun don't square the ball but instead go for glory.

I said for ages and ages now that our biggest problem is mental. We have technical and physical deficiencies that we can all highlight but the team underperforms for the level of technical ability within the squad. The team underperforms despite different managers and tactical etc variations.

Pep will need time to work on things to improve that mentality and create the kinds of virtuous circles that reinforce it. He talked in yesterday's UCL presser about the emotion taking over in the Chelsea game when we went behind so he realises this. Too often, if things don't go swimmingly, the players tense up, imo, and it affects their finishing. They know they are a team that needs to score lots of goals to be sure of winning and it increases the pressure to finish well and then failing to take chances leaves the defence on edge because they have less room for error and we keep getting vicious circles. I'm sure things are now exacerbated against the top sides because in the back of the players' minds will be the knowledge of how crap our record has become against them. City have to break the cycle.

 

[paulchapo]

I found it, the Willian run started well before that. Two defenders on Costa and Kolarov with a good 20 metres on Willian and jogging along ball watching.

The bottom picture isn't the Willian goal as it is already 1-2 it is the Hazard goal.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

Not condoning what Aguero did but interesting photos' on Daily Mail Online website. Pictures shows Aguero's tackle on Luiz's right leg followed by a photo' of Luiz rolling on the ground holding his left leg. Odd?

 

[Eds]

The bottom picture isn't the Willian goal as it is already 1-2 it is the Hazard goal.

Incorrect. It's the Willian goal and probably the replay of it hence why is says 1-2.
Kola actually sees Willian early and points to Clichy to pick him up. I don't think he realises that Clichy gets nowhere near him until its too late and Willian scoots past him. Nico should never have gone to nick the ball, he should have just stood him up and not let him turn. However had he not been incorrectly booked he probably would have gone right through the back of him

 

[Bewar3them00n]

Well, good ammunition for Pep to bring in some reinforcements in Jan, that is it's not too late by then!!!!

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Not condoning what Aguero did but interesting photos' on Daily Mail Online website. Pictures shows Aguero's tackle on Luiz's right leg followed by a photo' of Luiz rolling on the ground holding his left leg. Odd?

If you watch the footage Aguero initially catches his right leg with his foot. But then his body connects on Luiz's left side and you can see his left leg takes the brunt and his knee bends.

So not odd really.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Not condoning what Aguero did but interesting photos' on Daily Mail Online website. Pictures shows Aguero's tackle on Luiz's right leg followed by a photo' of Luiz rolling on the ground holding his left leg. Odd?

I don't think anything Luiz did would have had an effect on the (correct) decision made by the ref, but having his standing leg twisted probably hurt more than being kicked.

 

[the_game_161]

Our defending for those first two goals were embarrassing and likely why we won't win the title. Just not good enough at this level right now

 

[mosssideblue]

The only real major headache I see is that 1 vs 1 Pep's defenders need to be 8/10 every week. Sadly Kolarov and Otamendi are anything but that and therefore much more pressure is brought to bare on the defence as a whole than would be normal.

Having said that Pep isn't going to change the way he sets his team up. He'll just expect players to either improve with him, or move on next summer. It's a season of relative squad transition and part of me is glad that Pep isn't interested in playing to their strengths but rather finding out which players can play to his strengths.

That's a great point you make.