Everton (H) | Post Match Thread

[nellyonthewing]

Watching us recently reminds me of those old Westerns where the Indians ride around the circled wagons making a lot of noise only to get easily picked off ,then the cavalry turn up at the end to win it for the cowboys.

 

[OB1]

Don't know why I bothered but I rewatched the game, and it reinforced the fact that we've actually become pretty boring to watch this season.

Our entire philosophy this season seems to be about keeping the ball but not actually doing anything with it. It's tedious how often Mahrez and Grealish get the ball and pass it sideways.

The fact Pep didn't make changes till so late is either indication that he thinks it's working or he doesn't rate the quality on the bench. Both are a huge concern.

City are not boring but our opponents are.

If you think Pep wants his team to pass without purpose you've not been paying attention. Losing the ball frequently by taking too many risks will cost us more than being patient and picking our moments.

 

[give it to gordon]

I can't be definitive because how much I watch of other sides varies considerably but in all my long years of watching City / football, the parade of bus parkers that City face feels unprecedented. I know in recent times I've bemoaned how teams play against the Scousers compared to us. Of course, Liverpool don't play exactly the same way as us but I felt teams could have made it harder for them.

I don't think pace is really the answer when teams sit deep in large numbers. Running into a brick wall at speed just hurts more ;-) A player with world class trickery and serious pace might open up some more chances but we've seen Sane struggle against teams defending low in numbers.

Playing the ball over the top only really works if your opponent defends high. That said, I do think we need to look for opportunities to knock things over the top for Haaland to chase; teams don't want to let us do that though....

Forwards with pace come into their own when you can counter attack and we really aren't bad at that as we stand: only the Rags have scored more goals on the counter than we have so far this season. We aren't going to sit back though and try to draw teams out.

Dealing with opponents counter-attacking his teams has been a perenial conundrum for Pep and he keeps trying to tune things to reduce it happening but within his way of playing. Yesterday, we had the players there to control the counter Everton scored from but they contrived (and may have been fooled by imcompetence or brilliance on Gray's part) to give him too much space to pick out the top corner.

We've added the big, fast goal machine and he scored (again) yesterday and gave us the lead; notwithstanding we were less than the width of the post from a 2-0 lead, we have to make sure we can win games by 1-0. and that means not errors in the wrong places.

I would like some pace in the team but it has to come with top class technical ability and high football intelligence.

I agree about the parked bus. I watch a few non City games and the games are alot more open. Liverpool, arsenal rags etc dont play against the bus every game. You tend to get a game of football.
Watching City sometimes feels like watching a training game, defence against attacker's. I dont expect teams to go toe to toe with us, but some teams arent interested in winning just not losing. They can write these two games of per season and their fans love to see them take points of us. Their fans see them play like this just against City. For us City fans we see it every fucking week. That's why we get called boring but teams dont want to play football against us.

I think this is why I have grown to like the champions league abit more because these teams on the whole come and have a go. Its refreshing to see a really game of football, we don't always win but its been a good game of football

The premier league is about money and staying in the league. It's not about exciting football and value for money for fans.

I hate to use the word but we are victims of our own success ! Go toe to toe with City theres a good chance we will out score you. Go toe to toe with others in the top 6 you could beat them. Hence City tend to play against the bus more.

 

[City_Sean]

City are not boring but our opponents are.

If you think Pep wants his team to pass without purpose you've not been paying attention. Losing the ball frequently by taking too many risks will cost us more than being patient and picking our moments.

Our opponents like Everton are fighting for their lives. At the moment we are 100% playing without any purpose. Sometimes to win football matches you have to take risks, we are playing far too safe.

 

[flb]

We need Alvarez in this team and real quick , put him right at the expense of Mahrez and we have a chance , he’s Aguero mark two this kid , he’s a title winner staring us in the face

 

[tonea2003]

if arsenal are still 7 pts clear in feb then its time to get worried
they have newcastle, spurs and utd on the spin now

 

[sir baconface]

In the midst of his endless wrangling with his parliaments, in this case the Rump Parliament, if memory serves me correctly, Cromwell is reported to have said “We are English. That is one good fact!”
Well, we are City. That is one good fact.
We are also champions. That is another good fact.

I love this post but can only like it.

 

[flb]

if arsenal are still 7 pts clear in feb then its time to get worried
they have newcastle, spurs and utd on the spin now

It’s laughable mate that people are underestimating Arsenal , they are the real deal this season, if Arteta does it then he’s manager of the season without question, with a young team aswell to boot , can we really say we are better than them so far ? 7 clear , 10 if they dick us ?

 

[jamesha]

This season is proving to be a weird one. We have a player who is on track to break the Premier League scoring record and are top scorers in the league - 44 compared to 40 for Arsenal and 33 for dippers/spurs - but at times look pretty ineffective in the final third.

How we have managed to score so many with such little input in terms of numbers from Mahrez and Grealish is bizarre. Any decent player playing in the wide front three positions should really be scoring and assisting at a rate of one in three or better.

Much of the problem seems to be breaking down defensive teams at home rather than away. Maybe Pep needs to trade some game control for attacking threat and play the likes of Foden and Alvarez more in the second half of the season with Walker brought back to counter counters using his speed.

 

[lonestay]

Well Neverton have shown the other crap useless defenders out there how to get Erling riled up , i expect more defenders to do what they did in the first min or two . I was hoping that he kept a cool head and let his goals do the talking and retribution but alas wasnt to be .