Therein lies the problem. Ya Ya cops most of the flak for his half arsed approach to tracking back and closing down, but as you suggest he's far from alone. Both Silva and De Bruyne are habitual offenders, with Kun something of a dilettante as well. KDB covers a lot of miles during games, but he jogs towards the man in possession and frequently gives up altogether once an opponent goes past him. The knock effect is Fernandinho and/or the centre halves getting sucked out of position to cover, with oceans of space then left in front of our back four centrally. The number of times yesterday that Watford players were able to pass the ball to a team mate stood barely 25 yards from our goal and no City player within 10 yards of them was nobody's business. Stark contrast then with our attacking players at the other end of the pitch, who were closed down and hassled the instant they received the ball. And a knock on effect of that is how much harder and riskier it makes our offside trap, when passes can be hit short distances through large gaps without fear of the ball rolling out of play for a goal kick.
We all looked forward to Dave, Kun, KDB, Ya Ya and Sterling in the same team, but it comes at too high a price IMO. There's a fair few City players, who are going to have to up their commitment levels significantly if they're going to have a future when Pep arrives in town. What we do in the meantime though I don't know, but if Pellers can't eke greater defensive discipline out of players like KDB and Silva, and also persuade Ya Ya and Sterling not to fall down looking for soft free kicks all the time whilst the opposition steams back upfield with the ball, then perhaps we might be better off going totally gung ho! At the moment Fernandinho and Hart are just about keeping our title winning chances intact. It's the toughest season ever in terms of the number of decent teams about, but we should be doing better nonetheless.
