Do you agree with Pep that this season we are not very good in the boxes?

Marvin

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 Jan 2006
Messages
46,683
Listening to Pep and his comments about City's Champions League prospects he says that we are not good this season in both boxes. I was a bit puzzled by this. He says we need to improve in both.

Defending I agree - although it is a simplification that defending is down to the the central defenders. We defend as a team. I think we are vulnerable at set-pieces, and to crosses.

I don't think City's attacking game has dipped. Perhaps Pep does not want to put pressure on our defenders or single individuals out?

If you look at the League table after 9 games and compare it to previous seasons, this suggests our scoring is as good as ever, and the big problem is defending as a team.

Season......Goals conceded......Goals scored......Points
2017-18.......32..........................4................25
2018-19.......26..........................3................23
2018-19.......29..........................9................19

I know this is all pretty obvious as we know we've been without both central defenders and hence a dip is to be expected in our defending. I am just a little surprised that Pep is questioning our offensive game. The only game we have struggled offensively is Wolves and we know why. I am regarding that as a one-off because of the injuries, illness and team selection.
 
Listening to Pep and his comments about City's Champions League prospects he says that we are not good this season in both boxes. I was a bit puzzled by this. He says we need to improve in both.

Defending I agree - although it is a simplification that defending is down to the the central defenders. We defend as a team. I think we are vulnerable at set-pieces, and to crosses.

I don't think City's attacking game has dipped. Perhaps Pep does not want to put pressure on our defenders or single individuals out?

If you look at the League table after 9 games and compare it to previous seasons, this suggests our scoring is as good as ever, and the big problem is defending as a team.

Season......Goals conceded......Goals scored......Points
2017-18.......32..........................4................25
2018-19.......26..........................3................23
2018-19.......29..........................9................19

I know this is all pretty obvious as we know we've been without both central defenders and hence a dip is to be expected in our defending. I am just a little surprised that Pep is questioning our offensive game. The only game we have struggled offensively is Wolves and we know why. I am regarding that as a one-off because of the injuries, illness and team selection.

Spurs, Palace and Dinamo we were woeful too. Our shots on target conversion rate to all but guarantee a win is 40% and we've regularly dipped below it.

Yes, we've been fragile defensively but we conceded 7 of those goals in 3 games and a number of them were very poor individual errors.

When we have 10 shots on target, more than 2 have to go in for us to reach the levels of previous seasons. They're are a number of times each season we get away with lower, but with no Laporte and a current over-dependence on Ederson we need to be more clinical, more often.

When you have a fundamental weakness you just have to paper over, the rest of the side has to step up to compensate.
 
Spurs, Palace and Dinamo we were woeful too. Our shots on target conversion rate to all but guarantee a win is 40% and we've regularly dipped below it.

Yes, we've been fragile defensively but we conceded 7 of those goals in 3 games and a number of them were very poor individual errors.

When we have 10 shots on target, more than 2 have to go in for us to reach the levels of previous seasons. They're are a number of times each season we get away with lower, but with no Laporte and a current over-dependence on Ederson we need to be more clinical, more often.

When you have a fundamental weakness you just have to paper over, the rest of the side has to step up to compensate.
Perhaps that's what Pep was getting at.

We were 2-0 up against Palace and I thought our attacking play was excellent at times. We were creating chances at will. That was a million miles away from Wolves where we couldn't even get the ball to Aguero in the box. I agree though that the finishing against Palace was poor and we were indebted to Ederson otherwise the game could have changed (as it did against SPurs at home). I don't think this is any different though to past seasons.

If you are Pep then you have to demand more from your side, but if I look at how City have changed from this season to last I see uncertainty in central defence. I don't see an offensive problem.
 
I think in addition to conversion rate it is also a reference to goals for and against at set pieces. Maybe its a perception but it feels like we have been poor at both ends of the pitch in this regard. Maybe one of the stattos has got the data?
 
The game against Palace must have been infuriating to Pep. Total domination yet we are an Ederson wonder save from going back to 2-1 and all to play for. We need to be more clinical when the defence is struggling as we are always prone to an error or two. Need to tighten up from corners.

Much better performance Saturday though. The wolves performance was dreadful and Norwich wasn’t much better. We have to be on it against those type of sides.

Liverpool have had the harder fixtures on paper so far so it’s vital we keep our foot on the gas
 
Last edited:
i thought Raz had a good game at Palace but with his standing. England team regular valued in excess of £150 Mill plus His finishing is woeful and totally frustrating It prevents him being a 30 goal a seasom man and stops us finishing teams off
 
I don’t think so. We create the most chances so naturally we’ll score the most but also miss the most. We’re averaging 3.22 goals a game in the league, which is by far and away the highest in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Can’t win every game 5-0.
Bayern 2nd with 2.75
Atalanta(!) 3rd with 2.63

Defensively there’s obviously been a drop off, but even then we still face the lowest amount of shots in the league. The issue we’ve had with Pep in these 3 years is that we always seem to concede with every shot on target when we lose/draw.

Just this season:

Spurs, 2 shots on target, 2 conceded.
Norwich, 3 shots on target, 3 conceded.
Wolves, 2 shots on target, 2 conceded.
 
I think in addition to conversion rate it is also a reference to goals for and against at set pieces. Maybe its a perception but it feels like we have been poor at both ends of the pitch in this regard. Maybe one of the stattos has got the data?

I have the data for corners.


Domenec Torrent was Pep's main man for organising corners. It looks like we really miss him.

In Pep's 3 seasons in Munich, Bayern conceded 7 goals from 470 corners. So, one goal against every 67 corners. That is impressive in isolation but there was progression as well:

2013/2014 - 5 conceded.
2014/2015 - 2 conceded
2015/2016 - 0 conceded.

City last 4 seasons:

15/16 - 8 from 165 corners, 1 conceded every 21 corners (Pelle last season)
16/17 - 4 from 130, 1 every 33 corners
17/18 - 2 from 103, 1 every 52 corners (Torrent's last season and also only 2 conceded from set pieces)

18/19 - 5 from 82, 1 every 16 corners
19/20 - 2 from 22 so 1 every 11 corners (and without the help of ederson very nearly 3 from 22 for conceding a goal 1 in 7)

So, when Torrent was the corner man there was clear and excellent progression in 1st 3 years at both Bayern and City.
We have gone to rat shit since. Arteta out :)
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.