yesterday if we get the penalty we should have had the game changes.
Depending on the mercy of referees is hardly the sign of champions.
We had two decent chances in the first half, Sterling and Silva, with Sterling's poor touch letting us down. Penalty? Not for me. He had already lost control of the ball. Had he chipped the keeper and the onrushing defender the penalty would most likely been given.
Had Silva taken the ball infield or taken the ball away from the keeper, away from goal, something better could have happened then what did. Silva's decision making let him down given the situation. Surely he must have seen the rushing keeper in the corner of his eye? Trying to dribble the entire defense once the situation was over, made things no better.
What worries me is that Pep claimed we created chances in the first half. What chances is he speaking of?
I understand the principle of possession. But when we are slow and immobile in the final third - all that position is for naught. Probing ad nauseaum leads to missed passes, and the counter is on, with our defense completely exposed.
This is what differs us from Barcelona. They have incredible mobility in the final third. Having Messi of course makes things no worse, a player that can make something out of nothing.
Spurs found us out early season and other teams have copied.
Drop deep, stay narrow, wait for the mistake, play into acres of space. With the space we leave open only bottom feeders fail to score.
The problem for me is we never switch it up. Well, except against Barcelona, and we all know how that went.
We expect to dominate possession in every game.
Which is what our opponents let us do.
Scoring goals after all trumps possession. Whether they stem from possession or counter attacks is of no concern to a coach who prefers winning over possession, which I assume all coaches do. Well, almost all.
Given the universes of space we leave in the back - figuring out a tactic against us is hardly worthy of a Noble prize.
Everton 4-0 Manchester City
Possession %
29.5/70.5
Shots On Target
4/5
Shots
6/13
Touches
457/864
Passes
274/674
4 goals out of 4 shots on goal tells its own story. While we had all the possession. Stats don't lie.