Does Pep need to be more pragmatic away from home in Europe?

The thing is it's not just City - Pep teams have now lost 4-0, 3-0, 3-1 and 3-0 in 4 of the last 5 Champs League campaigns he has managed. That is a shocking defensive record and is never going to allow a chance of progression against a half way decent team never mind one of the big boys. We have to face it that he is never going to play park the bus defensive tactics or view a draw/low scoring loss as something to be aimed for. That is going to put enormous pressure on any team.
 
Tricky_Trev said:
We had ZERO shots on target but we need to be more pragmatic?

We play an extra midfielder and sacrifice a forward but we need to be more pragmatic?

No. We need to attack more and score away goals.

Be more pragmatic at HOME if we have to, to prevent conceding away goals.
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Our attacking play just wasn't very good. Playing at home isn't the issue as we win every big game we play there, we need to start getting results away from home when it counts (Monaco and Liverpool)
 
siathers said:
The thing is it's not just City - Pep teams have now lost 4-0, 3-0, 3-1 and 3-0 in 4 of the last 5 Champs League campaigns he has managed. That is a shocking defensive record and is never going to allow a chance of progression against a half way decent team never mind one of the big boys. We have to face it that he is never going to play park the bus defensive tactics or view a draw/low scoring loss as something to be aimed for. That is going to put enormous pressure on any team.
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Yes. A truly great coach has to be able to defend when required. It’s relatively easy to play attacking football against teams that are shit scared of you with the talent we, Bayern & Barca have. But sometimes you have to be able to shut up shop for 90 minutes.
 
aguerrrroooooooooooo said:
Our attacking play just wasn't very good. Playing at home isn't the issue as we win every big game we play there, we need to start getting results away from home when it counts (Monaco and Liverpool)
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Yes and it helps if we play our normal game, like our usual 433 at Napoli, with Sané and Sterling, not farting about being “pragmatic” with extra central midfielders.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
Yes. A truly great coach has to be able to defend when required. It’s relatively easy to play attacking football against teams that are shit scared of you with the talent we, Bayern & Barca have. But sometimes you have to be able to shut up shop for 90 minutes.
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The reality is that in both matches at anfield this season we haven't needed to be able to shut up shop for 90 mins. Just the ability to sense a huge swing in momentum and shut up shop for 15 mins until things settle back down. I wouldn't expect or really want Pep to try to shut up shop for an entire game but we need to be good enough defensively to manage really difficult periods against decent teams.
 
Tricky_Trev said:
Yes and it helps if we play our normal game, like our usual 433 at Napoli, with Sané and Sterling, not farting about being “pragmatic” with extra central midfielders.
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Playing our normal game against them lost us 4-3 and should've been 4-1 if they didn't mentally collapse
 
Most of the time I love his philosophy of: “We are City. This is how we play.”

When you repeatedly get turned over by a particular opponent, or type/level of opponent, maybe it’s wise to swallow your pride and adapt a little. It doesn’t mean parking the bus or sacrificing principles.

Tbh, I thought for a while we’ve been flying close to the sun in the PL and might get a rude awakening in the CL. Talk of winning that competition this year never convinced me, particularly when I saw the QF draw. The 5-0 was a freak. The 3-4 was hugely flattering.

It’s been a marvellous season so any minor criticism should be taken in context.
 
Prestwich_Blue said:
Yes. A truly great coach has to be able to defend when required. It’s relatively easy to play attacking football against teams that are shit scared of you with the talent we, Bayern & Barca have. But sometimes you have to be able to shut up shop for 90 minutes.
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Never seen a Barca team take this approach so I'm amazed at the amount of people that expect Pep to change his philosophy?
 
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