Looked off the pace from the first minutes with misplaced passes and a general lack of zip. Wasn’t helped by de Bruyne and Gündogan failing to get into space between the lines, however. Don’t even want to see him on the bench for the next two games.
Pep never stops innovating.Actually, they both did that pretty well. What they both did poorly was fail to stay in the middle with Ferny. This gave him few easy passing options. Hence the penchant by Dihno to cough iu the ball today.
That said, it seemed this was by design. And Walker/Danilo were the 2 who were meant to help Dihno in the middle as both played signufasign minutes in that area.
Actually, they both did that pretty well. What they both did poorly was fail to stay in the middle with Ferny. This gave him few easy passing options. Hence the penchant by Dihno to cough iu the ball today.
That said, it seemed this was by design. And Walker/Danilo were the 2 who were meant to help Dihno in the middle as both played signufasign minutes in that area.
Hung out to dry by KDB & Gundogan but still tried to do all the creating & defending on his own.
Ridiculous situation for him to be put into at this stage of the season imo & Pellegrini like management by Pep.
I think Pep had a right to expect more from several players.
Imo, when he saw how fucking useless Gundogan was in the role assigned to him, he should have changed tactic in order to protect Fernandinho & give him an easy game, rather than actually making it into one of his toughest games.
We were 1-0 up & free to do pretty much anything.
I'm not convinced it was one of Dinho's toughest games and I think he made errors that he could have avoided regardless of his team mates but I'd have to watch it again to see if I should have taken an alternative view.
Pep clearly changed some things at HT and it worked; plus Dinho got to come off early.
Kanté is incredible but no Fernandinho. He's too limited.Maybe Kante is unhappy there.