Everton (H) | Post Match Thread

paulchapo said:
We are very flat and predictable at times this season. Although both players had their critics we miss the pace and energy of Jesus and Sterling, not to mention the goals they chipped in with. Mahrez and Grealish are too similar in style and a deep defence are finding them easier to cope with. Alvarez fetches some of that but at the .moment he loses the ball a lot which is why he's being used as an impact sub.

As soon as Rodri gave that ball away I feared the worst. The lack of reaction and desire to close him down was lamentable and a better team on the counter yesterday would have s ored more.

Given our changes to the squad this season I feared it could be a transitional one and it's looking that way. If Haaland gets injured where are the goals coming from? We could of course turn it around but if we lose three more points and Arsenal.win I fear it's over. It would take some collapse for them to lose it from there.
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I’d still like to see Alvarez getting more starts.

I think he can be a big goal threat, and in turn I think that’ll help Haaland even more too. The more goal threats we have, the more their defences have to worry about. Now they just know the goals are mostly Haaland and others chipping in with the odd goal. I think Alvarez could be a 15+ league goals a season player with enough game time.

He looks like a player that defenders could start to worry about playing against.

I like Mahrez and Grealish, I think they get too much stick at times, but at the same time I don’t think defenders are overly worried about coming up against them.
 
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Understandable gloom on here as it’s always worse when we drop points and the Arse win again. Fine margins again yesterday, Stones header six inches left and it’s a routine win.

One positive is that we didn’t commit the same hari-kari as we did in the Brentford game and turn it into zero points.

Arsenal are on a remarkable run, the sort that only ourselves or the dippers have produced in the last 5 years. They will have a dip from their current form, we need to dig in and be ready to take advantage.

I think it will suit us playing these hard games in the next month, less low blocks and more scope for a ‘proper game.’

I also feel that Pep has been trying to manage some of these games, not full strength and it’s worked in 2 of the 3 games. Maybe he thinks lack of games now will see Kyle, Joao, Phil etc see them be good to go to the end of the season. He needs to get back on the full strength team pronto.

Hopefully this result will kickstart a ‘what the fuck’s going on’ chat in the dressing room and we buckle down.

All it will take for a little bit of positivity on here is Newcastle taking something off the Arse next game and we sort out the Chavs.
 
OB1 said:
Opponents have changed how they defend since the season where Sane, Aguero and Sterling were ripping it up.

City may need to rethink things a bit for next season. Maybe the answer lies in what we do about full backs.

Perhaps we have to look to have an FB on either side who can overlap and cross the ball and use Rodri to split the centre backs to provide the back three, and get a box-to-box midfielder alongside him.
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Yep plenty to work on like I'd rather we got Phil settled down inside making the clever passes rather than having to impersonate a winger.
 
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We played alright, but not great, a few players were a bit off their usual standards. Everton put everyone behind the ball and scored a worldy with their first shot. They didn't create much and came to stop us playing, try and time waste and make it scrappy, they are fighting for their lives so I can understand their approach. We had chances to win it and pretty much dominated the game. The ref wasn't great.

We will be thereabouts at the end of the season. Arsenal looking impressive so far though.
 
If it was just this game then I wouldn't be too concerned. However, that's three consecutive home fixtures where City have struggled and it's difficult to escape from the sense that something isn't quite right.

Yes, we can still catch Arsenal, but this feels more like the 19-20 season.
 
Regardless of how or why we have failed to beat Everton or why we dropped points at Brentford. The club will support Pep to the hilt. No fingers will be pointed but a collective approach, holistic if you will -:)

The club’s strength is in the collective and I am sure we are working hard to try and get our season going.

As fans, we get upset and caught up in the moment and vent.

I trust the process and you only have to look at the success during that period.

Bring on the next challenge. It was getting boring winning all the time -:)
 
ono said:
Issue with overlapping full backs is what happens on the counter when one of them crosses and the ball gets cleared? We don’t have any recovery pace in midfield with Rodri, KDB, Silva and Gundogan. Playing with overlapping full backs would be a risk with our current squad profile.
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I'm talking about next season and thinking that one of Bernie and Gundo goes, plus some other changes in the squad.

Regardless of squad composition, you deal with transitions effectively by having players correctly positioned. Positional play is core to all that we do.
 
ono said:
Issue with overlapping full backs is what happens on the counter when one of them crosses and the ball gets cleared? We don’t have any recovery pace in midfield with Rodri, KDB, Silva and Gundogan. Playing with overlapping full backs would be a risk with our current squad profile.
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We are currently playing with a full back in central mid leaving no cover on the right - not sure how it's worse
 
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