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

[Prestwich_Blue]

Never seen a Barca team take this approach so I'm amazed at the amount of people that expect Pep to change his philosophy?

We aren’t Barca though. I like the way we play but it’s a two-leg tie and there has to be a Plan B if Plan A isn’t working. Everyone knows that Liverpool struggle to break down a determined defence. We know that we always concede early against Liverpool. So stop being pig-headed, start conservatively then open up when we’ve shut the crowd up and they’re getting tired and frustrated.

 

[aguerrrroooooooooooo]

And how is 4-3 worse than 3-0 pragmatism with no shots?

We were lucky to get back to 4-3 that game as much as it hurts to say. I
'm not saying pep should park the bus. I believe in our style of play but it is possible to be pragmatic when under pressure. This is the second time where we have self destructed at anfield within 20 minutes. We need to be able to take the sting out of a game and if that means just keeping the ball better or sitting in and weathering the storm for a bit then so be it, conceding 3 goals away from home in Europe is not good enough

 

[Dipsis_LTU_MC]

Yes, but he won't be. Each manager has its own way of playing and they believe in it. Pep is as stuborn as Wenger in terms of the philosophy of how to play football. You could say the same about almost every manager. Klopp is one trick poney as well. He faces oppositions like burnley or crystal palace that park the bus and Liverpool have majority of possesion and then Klopp doesn't know what to do because he hasn't got the players to play possesion based football. Most of the time it's Salah and his individual brilliance that gets Klopp out of the trouble against the likes of burnley etc. Pep will never change his approach. There are 3 solutions: 1. Buy players who are incredibly good on the ball to get out of high pressure, i.e Isco etc. 2. Try to re-create the playing conditions in training , i.e implement high-pressing between each other and drill it repeatedly until each player is capable of resisting that pressure when he's on the ball. 3. Sack Pep

 

[waspish]

No

 

[aguerrrroooooooooooo]

Never seen a Barca team take this approach so I'm amazed at the amount of people that expect Pep to change his philosophy?

We're not at Barca's level I don't think Dan. I'm not saying we should play anti football but we should be able to be defensively competent and not implode within 20 minutes on the biggest stage

 

[daztrueblue91]

We aren’t Barca though. I like the way we play but it’s a two-leg tie and there has to be a Plan B if Plan A isn’t working. Everyone knows that Liverpool struggle to break down a determined defence. We know that we always concede early against Liverpool. So stop being pig-headed, start conservatively then open up when we’ve shut the crowd up and they’re getting tired and frustrated.

Was that not the plan before Sane needlessly gave the ball away and Salah scored?

I've said it already but the defeats to Liverpool this season have been down to our mentality rather than tactics.

 

[aguerrrroooooooooooo]

No

Fair enough lol

 

[daztrueblue91]

Gundogan has all the defensive capability of Yaya five years from now.
Pragmatic means maybe playing with two Dm’s. Maybe Fern and Delph or Danilo, Kev playing deep in between them or just in front of them and playing more like a quarter back. Those three with Silva, Stirling/Bernardo, Sane in front with instructions to keep the ball. Even three at the back and wing backs can be played more defensively. You are right in that if the attitude is lacking it doesn’t really matter what formation you play though.

Three at the back with wing backs is the formation I'd go with on Tuesday.

I'd even consider putting Sterling up front with Kun, if fit, and just go all out. We could even have Danilo RWB and Walker CB, like he did for England, to counter the pace of Mane and Salah.

 

[AFC60]

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.

A really good point. Scoring an away goal (or as many away goals as possible) is extremely important and Guardiola ideally should have prioritised that.
Liverpool played in such a recklessly offensive way, I was shocked. I can imagine the players were also a bit stunned. It's almost a carbon copy of Monaco last year. Just relentless pressing and attacking.
De Bruyne/Sterling/Sane should have been prepped to carve Liverpool open on the counter, which they are easily capable of doing. I think Napoli away was a good template.

 

[Father Paul]

Ermm didn't he just replace Sterling with Gundogan, a move which some would call being pragmatic?

These games are all about mentality and that was sadly lacking last night.

Spot on. If we had played anyway half decent last night we would have got a much better result regardless of how we set up. That said Pep does need to at least think about he is approaching knock out ties in Europe.