Crippled By Control

[abu13]

I miss Mancini !

 

[1961_vintage]

Great post. The fear and caution in our play is palpable. As is the lack of courage and willingness to take a risk. We look over-engineered to the point that we show very little creative spontaneity. I don't blame the manager for that, I blame the players.

 

[jay_mcfc]

I don’t post very often and tend to be someone who supports the team and the manager but the one thing I just don’t get and not just last night is how arguably the best manager in the world doesn’t change things when it’s not working.
I get some of the players might be out of form but we had attacking players on the bench why not go three at the back and bring on an attack minded player or go to one pivot But do something different.
Also read about gradual decline but after the initial lockdown in the main we bartered everyone and scored goals so it really is a pretty significant 10 game decline.

Because in his mind it is working. He wants control and in these past two games we've been in full control.

The sooner fans understand that pep has moulded the team to play like this the better.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

 

[oldhamblue]

I loved Joe Royles throw as many up front as possible philosophy when we needed a goal. I do think Peps intensity has a limited shelf life with players

 

[jrb]

I think Pep was doing an Ian Curtis with the 4th official when he raised the added on time electronic board.

Pep's lost control again.



F***ing brilliant! RIP, Ian Curtis.

 

[jay_mcfc]

Seriously, when was the last time we saw a team blowing out of their arses in the last quarter after we’ve moved them around all game? I think WBA could still be playing. All they had to do was shuffle left and right.
We need to be attacking from deeper with KDB and try to maintain some dynamics with the ball by switching play far more clinically, ie ditch these insipid LVG Us. Make the ball do the work as it used to be called.

Some very good points in your post but this part is especially good. The problem we have that for as long as we're in control he isn't going to change too much. When we're drawing in the second half we never really go for it any more. When was the last time we completely overwhelmed a team, getting runners from deep or wide to get in behind the defence and create chance after chance until we inevitably score? We don't, it's completely disappeared which has made us really easy to defend against. It's why the opposition don't role over and collapse after 70 minutes because playing like this isn't mentally or physically draining for them. The hardest thing to defend is speed, fluidity and movement and playing this robotic rigid crap takes that out of our armour.

 

[samarasra]

One point we could add to the debate is how much the opposition is forcing us into static dead ends.
Last night you could clearly see WBA hold off from competing in several zones, even in their own half, including the two channels leading to the edge of their areas. As the match wore on they just systematically collapsed back into their area as we slowly walked the ball up the pitch. Like we’ve seen so many times.
How many times do our wingers end up totally static on the corner of the their defence? Usually with 4 players blocking any dribble or 1-2. So the ball gets recycled and we all start yelling.
Let’s be clear, I’m not saying teams aren’t playing how we want them to play. There obviously been a lot of time spent refining tactics specifically for us. Good for them.

I have faith in the players. They aren’t shit. But I do think there’s a systemic failure atm. Watching us crawl slowly forward with the ball and team going at the same pace is frustrating and leaves the opposition plenty of time to get organised.
Seriously, when was the last time we saw a team blowing out of their arses in the last quarter after we’ve moved them around all game? I think WBA could still be playing. All they had to do was shuffle left and right.
We need to be attacking from deeper with KDB and try to maintain some dynamics with the ball by switching play far more clinically, ie ditch these insipid LVG Us. Make the ball do the work as it used to be called.

Of all the posts in recent weeks I cannot recall one making the very relevant point you make in your opening paragraph. There has been a non stop litany of criticism, some valid, some constructively critical and more than a few where anger management is advised. It is Pep's fault, the owner's fault, the assistant's fault, Var, Covid, the players, individual targeted players, refs etc. Barely a word about the opposition, like they are only an irrelevance to be swatted away and 3 points in the bag. We do not have a divine right to play how we want, to buy who we want, to win when we want and how we want. The players who formed a team that evolved to be so great as to scare almost all opposition are now part of history and currently opponents are not scared of us.
The better ones will take us on knowing they can beat us but that often plays to our advantage even still. The poorer ones technically are not prepared to do that, they are as fit as us and as athletic as us and know that 90 mins. is a long time to play negatively but almost always they may get 1 or 2 chances, one early and the deflected goal last evening for example. Twisted as it may seem to some, in a way despite all our possession, we controlled the ball but West Brom and previously others, controlled the game. They put up their wall and said we are not moving from here no matter how much you want us to, climb the wall if you want to score. It didn't work perfectly, we did score, we did have enough chances to win comfortably, their keeper one way or another defended his goal, they sneaked a goal but as you correctly say "WBA could still be playing". It was miserable and frustrating to watch for City fans but the wall, despite the leaks, nabbed a point.
" same pace is frustrating and leaves the opposition plenty of time to get organised" a fair point and Kevin playing deeper relevant too, but second half last night how could we play deeper, they were organised to man the wall wherever we were, Ederson could have had a barbecue, our defence were in midfield, ott maybe but how would Kev do much different, when playing deep would have meant him being behind our defenders. West Brom had their goal, their wall and some luck and they had no intention of allowing passes long or short or dribbles penetrate. Your "make the ball do the work" could work if we passed the ball back to Eddie and let him launch a few rockets and hope for a knockdown ,old style, not much else did. There are enough variations on a criticism theme to fill the pages here but it is important to recognise, as you rightly have, that we should apportion some of the blame or credit to our opponents and not adopt the entitled mindset that success is entirely in our control.

 

[bluke]

The players are sh!t scared to do something which isn't in Pep's manual. Absolutely no thinking outside the box.
They seem to be worn out and crippled by playing the same tedious tactical plan all over again. No freedom, no improvisation, no flair.
Once we had a wizard (Silva) and a bulldozer (Yaya) in the midfield - now it's a toiling Kev patching the things up and a couple of erratic wingers and sluggish central midfieldiers.
I've praised Jesus' workrate many times, but running around like mad and closing down the opponets isn't what a striker is supposed to do. When Jesus eventually gets a chance, he's too knackered to finish it properly.
Defensively, City have improved greatly, but the Laporte situation really worries me. Happy for Stones to regain his form, but Laporte is the only central defender who can push forward and play a decent forward pass.

If it's 'the transition season' then I think we are supposed to suffer a little bit, but unless there are some serious squad improvements already lined up, City are on the road to terminal decline.

 

[jay_mcfc]

Wow!

When I wrote this I wasn’t completely convinced that it was definitely the case. I was thinking about various things that had happened over 12-18 months and things started to come together.

I’ve just listened to the Bluemoon podcast and there’s a 2 minute clip in there from Guardiola’s post WBA press conference. He was asked about the attack and why we weren’t scoring more goals. His response was staggering. He just started talking about the control the defense has. Then he talked about how we controlled the game. Then he talked about controlling the possession and their counter attack. And then finally, just when you think he couldn’t talk about control any more he actually said we couldn’t control the left side with Foden and Mendy!

Lads, it’s right there in front of us. It has been for a long time as his actions and words have been telling us. All the things that fans are not happy about are HIS game plan. They are 18 months in the making, they’re not happening by accident, but by design. He is only interested in control. We are not gonna drop the double pivot, our full backs aren’t gonna start rampaging up the wing, Foden is not gonna play in 8, KDB is not gonna play deeper, we’re not gonna play quicker or with a high, intense press. We are methodical, robotic, position and possession based team. Rodri plays because he’s doing EXACTLY what Pep wants him to.

Pep hasn’t just let bad form fester for 18 months without realizing. He’s created what we are. The sooner fans accept this everything else becomes clearer and all the talk of dropping Rodri, moving players, playing quicker etc is completely fruitless.