Is Pep a defensive genius?

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Good article this. Far better than the nonsense from a typical pundit.
I heard ex Liverpool player saying our defence can be exploited. Well that’s not what the stats say. Get a load of this!

https://www.skysports.com/football/...nchester-city-are-the-best-defensive-team-too

Every defence can be exploited - yer just have to have the attacking talent, notwithstanding yer defence not dropping the odd bollock!

 

[domalino]

I think pep has had the best defence everywhere he has been,does someone have the stats from spain and bayern that showed it please

Yeah it's mentioned in the article. He's had the best defensive record in the league 8/9 seasons as a top tier manager.

 

[Tom_mcfc]

I can't believe anyone who's watched us for the last season and a half actually believes this to be true.

9/10 teams who press us get absolutely battered. Liverpool have had some success, and the occasional other side when we don't turn up.

Well put it this way, teams who attack us have a lot more joy than teams who sit back.

 

[blueparrot]

Our defence can be exploited. Throw any stats you want out there but if you are playing in a possession based team then you are obviously going to concede less chances leading to less goals being conceded. We are far from bad at the back but we have seen whenever a team presses us we have mistakes in us.

It never mentioned the best defence. It says Peps teams are consistently the best defensive team whatever league he plays in. If that's by conceding less chances it's just as valid as a team sitting back with a solid back 4. More than one way to skin a cat. So when it says his teams are the best defensive teams in the league it's because they are.

 

[KCblue]

Six clean sheets in our last seven across all competitions.

*knocks on wood*

 

[kaz7]

Yeah it's mentioned in the article. He's had the best defensive record in the league 8/9 seasons as a top tier manager.

Thanks,thought so,this whole they can be got at really irks me,2 teams play and get at each other that's football

 

[born2bblu]

Maybe we should have waited on this thread until we play Tottenham today. ;-)

 

[Shaelumstash]

There's more to defending than the defence though. Take our pressing for example. It's not random, headless chicken stuff. You see players closing down the angles, forcing players to play a particular ball, which the rest of the team are then ready for. That kind of thing is an example of his brilliant defensive coaching and tactics. Most of the time, our defending is done before it gets anywhere near our defence.

Great post and I totally agree.

I think Pep is on record at saying his coaching has been influenced basketball. I've recently got back in to watching basketball, and if you watch the way the teams are organised, you can see the influence is blatant.

The cutting off of passing lanes, the high press, the structure in the build up, the re-cycling of the ball until you have a 2v1, the surprise fast break / counter attack, there are loads of similarities.

 

[cptaidan88]

I think our defence has improved (as a result of balance of the team) but I don't think we will ever be a side where you could be confident of keeping a clean sheet away from home in the Champions League knock out stages if we needed to. Attack is still the best form of defence for us.

 

[taleofbluehalves]

There's more to defending than the defence though. Take our pressing for example. It's not random, headless chicken stuff. You see players closing down the angles, forcing players to play a particular ball, which the rest of the team are then ready for. That kind of thing is an example of his brilliant defensive coaching and tactics. Most of the time, our defending is done before it gets anywhere near our defence.

My point was lazy pundits like Warnock who don’t look at what we do or the stats. Good article.