FIFA Club World Cup 2025 | Knockout Stage

[bluemoon32]

And Bayern.

And Chelsea ha

 

[jimharri]

Only if PSG weren't in it

And Al Hilal.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

I wonder will the PSG performance have any effect on Peps thinking.
Speed of thought and speed of feet is how PSG play and liverpool to a lesser extent
Plod, side pass, plod , side pass is our current style.

 

[AirbagsOptionalTheReturn]

I wonder will the PSG performance have any effect on Peps thinking.
Speed of thought and speed of feet is how PSG play and liverpool to a lesser extent
Plod, side pass, plod , side pass is our current style.

He must be looking at ways to evolve, the time of solely possession based football has passed IMO, teams have a way to counteract it, now we need Pep to pull a rabbit from his hat and reinvent us

 

[KentBlue]

I wonder how many other Prem managers saw PSG last night and thought they'd try and get their team to play the same way...before realising they don't have the players for it. A few spring to mind.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

I wonder how many other Prem managers saw PSG last night and thought they'd try and get their team to play the same way...before realising they don't have the players for it. A few spring to mind.

There are a good few teams that could play that way, its a question of replacing the older players with the faster ones. liverpool played a fast game last season
Obviously the PSG players are top quality and a class apart at the moment.
One thing I have noticed is that the keepers at this tournament are shot stopper and not ball players.
As soon as Courtois or Donnarumma get the ball, they get rid of it as quickly as possible.
The defenders know they can get caught out occasionally as there is a good chance their keepers will bail them out.

 

[mexico1970]

I wonder how many other Prem managers saw PSG last night and thought they'd try and get their team to play the same way...before realising they don't have the players for it. A few spring to mind.

It seriously makes you wonder how Palace and Brentford would do against PSG, none of that fancy dribbling and trickery just full blown fast players bombarding the defence with pace?

 

[Paul1970]

Ye but Pep knows different, allegedly!

We wil know by October I would imagine

 

[jimharri]

I wonder how many other Prem managers saw PSG last night and thought they'd try and get their team to play the same way...before realising they don't have the players for it. A few spring to mind.

Would some of them possibly play in red? With a large number of fans based in London and the general south east area of England?

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

I wonder will the PSG performance have any effect on Peps thinking.
Speed of thought and speed of feet is how PSG play and liverpool to a lesser extent
Plod, side pass, plod , side pass is our current style.

I think that we need more speed in one of our CB positions, and at whichever/both FB is playing far forward.

Our press though is different than PSG's. Whereas PSG attack the man with the ball and press the nearest man, we begin our press by pressing the man with the ball but instead of covering the nearest man, we cut off passing lanes. This sort of press doesn't require as much speed to be effective as does the man-to-man style press.

As for plod, side pass - we're much more direct already, especially with both Reijnders and Cherki in our side - most of our attackers are capable dribblers able of beating defenders one-on-one, plus we're much more deadly, IMO, and more willing to use, direct attacks from goal kicks/long balls and in transition than we previously were.

 

[Blue Maverick]

I think that we need more speed in one of our CB positions, and at whichever/both FB is playing far forward.

Our press though is different than PSG's. Whereas PSG attack the man with the ball and press the nearest man, we begin our press by pressing the man with the ball but instead of covering the nearest man, we cut off passing lanes. This sort of press doesn't require as much speed to be effective as does the man-to-man style press.

As for plod, side pass - we're much more direct already, especially with both Reijnders and Cherki in our side - most of our attackers are capable dribblers able of beating defenders one-on-one, plus we're much more deadly, IMO, and more willing to use, direct attacks from goal kicks/long balls and in transition than we previously were.

That’s if Pep lets them do that, look at what happened to Grealish.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

That’s if Pep lets them do that, look at what happened to Grealish.

The Grealish transfer I think is on management/ownership - why did we sign him in the first place? Did Pep want him in our squad?

It strikes me that Grealish is an attacking midfielder - but for whatever reason we signed him - and Pep has primarily played him at LW.

The signing of Grealish in the first place bespeaks a less than ideal communication between Pep and the director of football (or whoever is in charge of signing players).

 

[half & half derby scarf]

Alonso got his work cut out. He knows he needs to get rid of deadwood like Mbappe, Vinicius and Bellingham in order to replace them with proper team players.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

Alonso got his work cut out. He knows he needs to get rid of deadwood like Mbappe, Vinicius and Bellingham in order to replace them with proper team players.

Agree.

It's the culture at Real Madrid that is off. That is very hard to fix.

 

[KentBlue]

Alonso got his work cut out. He knows he needs to get rid of deadwood like Mbappe, Vinicius and Bellingham in order to replace them with proper team players.

Like the rags, some of their players are a luxury they can ill afford to carry. Their costs, the wages they'd be on, who would want or afford them?

 

[jimharri]

Alonso got his work cut out. He knows he needs to get rid of deadwood like Mbappe, Vinicius and Bellingham in order to replace them with proper team players.

Spot on. Look at PSG now they've got rid of the galacticos (what's French for that, by the way?). When they had Neymar, Mbappe and Messi, they were a bunch of individuals. Now? They're a team. Madrid need to take note.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

Alonso got his work cut out. He knows he needs to get rid of deadwood like Mbappe, Vinicius and Bellingham in order to replace them with proper team players.

Every one of those players are world class - but they're not team players. Alonso faces an impossible task IMO - likely every one of those players can complain to management above Alonso's level and for Alonso to give them what they want.

 

[blueparrot]

I wonder will the PSG performance have any effect on Peps thinking.
Speed of thought and speed of feet is how PSG play and liverpool to a lesser extent
Plod, side pass, plod , side pass is our current style.

It was last season but mainly down to circumstances. How PSG play isn't very different to how we played a few years ago. There are plenty of signs we are moving back towards that, from the CWC and from the players and coaches we have brought in.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

It was last season but mainly down to circumstances. How PSG play isn't very different to how we played a few years ago. There are plenty of signs we are moving back towards that, from the CWC and from the players and coaches we have Tthe current PSG side is very different than how we played.

How PSG plays is very different, IMO, than how we played, because our press styles are so different; press man-to-man versus cut off passing lanes.

That in turn dictates the profile of players that PSG signs - everyone has pace because pressing the man requires this. Our pressing style doesn't require a lot of pace to simply cut off passing lanes - and we have numerous players in our squad that lack pace. So much so that our cut-off-passing lanes press - while a good tactic - fails - because we mistakenly have players very high up the pitch (fullbacks) and as last man (typically CBs) who lack pace and we're screwed because of a long ball over the top of our defense.

Our main problem - isn't our pressing style per se - it's the lack of pace to defend long balls over the top of our defense - which PSG's pressing style automatically takes care of - no pace, then you're disqualified from a press-the-man style press.

IMO we need pace at one or both CB's and we need excellent defenders plus pace at whichever (or both) of our fullbacks advance far forward.

 

[mexico1970]

I enjoyed the game last night and expect a bit of a thriller in the final, now I know I will get some stick for this and it's probably deserve but I would like to see the chavs win it.