High line and pressing

[Deleted member 52846]

Pelligrini will just have to sort it out. It may take a while but if he is to persevere then he needs to do it soon. Some of our defending has been atrocious and seeing where we have come from then it can only be down to his tactics.

I'm sure we'll be fine but I'm hoping it's sooner rather than later.

We'll know a lot more after the Newcastle game about how we are doing tactically. I've never been one to go looking for answers in pre season. As others have said we defended like clowns in the bobby manc trophy two years ago then went on to win the title and have the best defensive record in the league.

I'm the same Billy, I never read much into anything from pre-season neither positive or negative. I'm certain Pellegrini will have tried a few things out in pre-season expecting them to fail but it's better to make sure just in case. Cover all bases and prepare for all eventualities. This is a new set if players for him, as much as he will have known about the players there will have been a great deal he knew nothing about with them. In the pre-season games we've seen lots of slightly different tactics and personnel for each game. And again, there is nothing like a real competitive game in which he won't be taking an chances. He will set-up the exact right way that we need to set-up against Newcastle.

 

[jauganaut]

It will take some time for the team to get used to the high line but in the long term, The benefits will be great.

Joe also has a huge role to play in this with the "sweeper keeper" role and the Dortmund keeper and the Spurs keeper are both specialists in that department.

Joe Hart sweeper? Lol
I love the man, but most of the time he comes out of his box, he looks like he is no man's land. Someone's always scoring a spectacular goal against him, Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Walcott and fuck me even Aaron "average" Ramsey. Joe Hart is a good keeper but never a sweeper.

 

[BlueAnorak]

Teams aren't fully into full match fitness until a few games in. Doesn't matter how much training or how many pre-season games you play, nothing prepares you for a competitive match until you've played a few competitive matches.

That's a well established fact.

What concerns me is VK saying he/they were tired.
That is a bloody awful excuse as far as I'm concerned.

 

[OB1]

Teams aren't fully into full match fitness until a few games in. Doesn't matter how much training or how many pre-season games you play, nothing prepares you for a competitive match until you've played a few competitive matches.

That's a well established fact.

What concerns me is VK saying he/they were tired.
That is a bloody awful excuse as far as I'm concerned.

It's not an awful excuse at all. The preparation in terms of the intensity of training will be different for a competitive fixture. Given the programme the players seem to have been undertaking, I'd be more disappointed if they were not tired because that would imply that they had not been working hard enough. If the coaching staff have got the pre-season programme right, we'll see the benefits in the season. I do think fitness was an area that City could improve on: I thought that we were one of the fittest teams but some teams appeared a little fitter last season.

 

[Dribble]

Pressing and playing a high line with two DM's doesn't workin my opinion. I long for the day when we revert to having just one DM with a creative midfielder and a creative box to box midfielder just behind the main striker.

With a forward W formation, we would be less reliant on width from the fullbacks and have more players further up the pitch very similar to Chelsea's set-up when Mourinho first came to the Premiership. Obviously I wouldn't want us to be as rigid as Chelsea were, but I've always failed to see the advantage of playing with two DM unless we're playing Barca at the Nou Camp.

I'm also tired of us breaking forward only to find that there's no-one in the box to receive the ball. We are overloaded in midfield and need to thin out the squad in that respect and bring in a specialist left-sided wide player to compliment Navas, Willian would do just fine for us IMHO.

If we completed the mission by letting Garcia, Kolorov, Sinclair and Barry go and pushed the boat out for Coentrao and Pepe, our squad would be complete and I'd be one very happy fella. If yesterday's defeat against Arsenal showed me one thing, it's that teams have now worked out how to negate our narrow possession-based football........ Let us have as much of the ball as we want and just hit us on the break with a long ball over the top. Even football purists Arsenal are playing the long ball over the top against us and getting dividends from it.

 

[Rascal]

Teams aren't fully into full match fitness until a few games in. Doesn't matter how much training or how many pre-season games you play, nothing prepares you for a competitive match until you've played a few competitive matches.

That's a well established fact.

What concerns me is VK saying he/they were tired.
That is a bloody awful excuse as far as I'm concerned.

Why does a fact concern you. To me it says they have been working very very hard in training to be ready for the season. The game against Arsenal was an irrelevance, the result matters not, what matters is a little more sharpness and a good workout which it was.

Why you think somebody needs an excuse for losing an irrelevant match is way beyond me.

 

[Palerider]

Well, I'm another who doesn't like a high line defence. I remember watching Chelsea v Liverpool when AVB was manager and Chelsea were dismantled. AVB got sacked, Chelsea reverted to a standard defence and won the Champions League with a stand in manager. All you need is runners from midfield timing it right and they are through. We simply do not have the personnel for this system. Yaya, Nasri and Silva are great with the ball but crap at getting it back. It's putting square pegs into round holes and will not work. Our strength has been based on solid defence and unless we change personnel wholesale I suggest we stick with what we are good at and improve on those things we not.

 

[ianw16]

Frankly, it's complete bollocks. The one thing that has worked with our team is the defence. Doesn't need fixing. Ain't broken. Leave it alone. Best defence in the PL for the last two seasons. Don't fix what ain't broken. Concentrate on what we don't do well. Breaking teams down. We've signed the players to do that. Why mess with the best defence in England? This will cost us, until we realise there is no need to mess with it. Just concentrate on the areas we weren't so good in. Teams worse than Arsenal will catch us out if we play this unnecessary tactic.

 

[birchwoodgingerste]

Well, I'm another who doesn't like a high line defence. I remember watching Chelsea v Liverpool when AVB was manager and Chelsea were dismantled. AVB got sacked, Chelsea reverted to a standard defence and won the Champions League with a stand in manager. All you need is runners from midfield timing it right and they are through. We simply do not have the personnel for this system. Yaya, Nasri and Silva are great with the ball but crap at getting it back. It's putting square pegs into round holes and will not work. Our strength has been based on solid defence and unless we change personnel wholesale I suggest we stick with what we are good at and improve on those things we not.

We better make you manager if you know better.but im sure pellegrini knows what will work and if we have the right personal to execute his ideas if not he will bring in players who can play a high line.

 

[hilts]

Frankly, it's complete bollocks. The one thing that has worked with our team is the defence. Doesn't need fixing. Ain't broken. Leave it alone. Best defence in the PL for the last two seasons. Don't fix what ain't broken. Concentrate on what we don't do well. Breaking teams down. We've signed the players to do that. Why mess with the best defence in England? This will cost us, until we realise there is no need to mess with it. Just concentrate on the areas we weren't so good in. Teams worse than Arsenal will catch us out if we play this unnecessary tactic.

utter drivel i'm afraid