That may well be the most disciplined and savvy defence that's played at the Etihad in years. Anybody not giving them credit needs to take the sky blue specs off. We needed to be sharper into the tackle, sharper in our passes, just generally more up for it, for sure. But it's not only on us. They were very fast in transitioning, precise in their passing, often one touch (us almost never!) to get the ball upfield as fast as possible. The very opposite of us in fact. They could have won it — Mykitaryan (or however you spell his name) should have put that ball in the net, from that range, rather than blasting it over the bar. Their defence was completely caught out once, and once only — perfect ball onto Gundo's head. He really should have done better on that. Otherwise they had our number. A few half chances. Phil could have done better.
Nothing disastrous. I'll take it for the time being. That was one of the best teams in the competition, in my view.
I agree.Toughest game we’ve faced for quite some time. Overall think a draw was fair but as the game wore on it seemed clear only a bit of magic would win it and Gundo was stood there with a wand looking at the hat but the fucking rabbit never came out.andHa, you might be right but it was a proper tactical masterclass tonight. Could not help but admire it.
We had 3 very good chances to winThat may well be the most disciplined and savvy defence that's played at the Etihad in years. Anybody not giving them credit needs to take the sky blue specs off. We needed to be sharper into the tackle, sharper in our passes, just generally more up for it, for sure. But it's not only on us. They were very fast in transitioning, precise in their passing, often one touch (us almost never!) to get the ball upfield as fast as possible. The very opposite of us in fact. They could have won it — Mykitaryan (or however you spell his name) should have put that ball in the net, from that range, rather than blasting it over the bar. Their defence was completely caught out once, and once only — perfect ball onto Gundo's head. He really should have done better on that. Otherwise they had our number. A few half chances. Phil could have done better.
Nothing disastrous. I'll take it for the time being. That was one of the best teams in the competition, in my view.
I do think we have to take into account the context of the match. Inter away at the Etihad against arguably the favourites along with Real Madrid.Agreed. I can admire from a distance.
It's like London. I like to see it every now and again, and can appreciate it to some extent, but, fuck me, I don't want to live there.
It’s a shame you missed it pal as it was a real high quality match between two very evenly matched sides.Well that was fucking dreadful. Love to know what our gameplan was tonight as none of the players seemed to know either. We were only ever going to break them down on the flanks where our wingers barely tried to beat a man or supply. We moved the ball slowly and predictably and our pressing out of possession was really poor. Far too easy for Inter to get through and get into attacking positions.
Not as if they put in a defensive masterclass either, they weren't anything out of the ordinary, they just stuck to their task, didnt make mistakes and had a comfortable and relatively trouble free night.
Only positive from that is we didnt lose as we really should have.
We didn't look too clever against Brentford either, we only scored then from a flukey deflection and a long ball from Ederson, we really have to find a way of creating more in games, keeping possession for the sake of it gets us nowhere.
That’s not the cause of transitions or us being played through.The tactics were lethargic. Pep was lethargic. The players were lethargic. It happens, but more concerning for me is how easily teams are playing through our midfield time and time again. Someone in the match thread mentioned it, but it feels like with Haaland up front and him not being ‘built’ to press like Jesus or Alvarez, everyone behind him has to cover more ground, and we don’t have the legs to do that. Rodri, Bernardo, Gundo, Phil, KDB, etc., aren’t ‘ground eaters’ for lack of a better word. The player I think could help in this regard is Nunes, but it seems that Pep doesn’t trust him, so I’m not sure what the solution is. For all of Rice’s downsides, the huge bid we made in the summer makes much sense from a tactical standpoint.
We’re so spoiled at home that a draw feels like a loss, but there’s undoubtedly a lot to work on this week.