It's Quiet 16 - Txiki grinders

[Cellarite]

No we didn't. We often think he has,usually he proves he hasn't. On this occasion he had but anyone saying they knew for sure is just wrong.

Nobody knew for sure, that’s obvious. Every blue I know said their hearts sank when they heard the line up.

 

[Cellarite]

No we did not, Saturday when we knew the team and Dias on the bench, most fans were surprised/shocked, but it proved a masterstroke of a decision.

Fern and Rodri were left out for a reason.

But Dias being on the bench didn’t alter formation did it?

 

[blueparrot]

Nobody knew for sure, that’s obvious. Every blue I know said their hearts sank when they heard the line up.

I was very surprised, but I thought we would still win it, and if that team had played to it's potential, if Foden and Mharez had scored from chances you wou expect them to, we would have won it. No point keep going over it anyway now it's gone.

 

[Keeper!]

But Dias being on the bench didn’t alter formation did it?

Before the match putting up Lukaku against Stones or Laporte seemed suicidal.

It was brilliant man management, gave both Stones and Laporte a huge confidence boost and will make Dias up his game even more to get back in the side.

 

[mccity]

I would like this post twice if I could. I hate “Pep overthinks the champions league” even more.

If we’d lost against Chelsea at the weekend the accusation would have been that he “overthought” it by playing stones instead of Dias. But we win, Stones is brimming with confidence and Dias desperate to get back in the team.

nobody knows what goes on behind the scenes or what Pep is thinking. He is brilliant because most of the time it works. Unfortunalty we have been desperately unlucky in the champions league, not because he “overthinks” it or is some kind of tinker man.

Yeah a big issue with discussing Pep is that when people say he got something wrong they usually don't know (or attempt to know) why he did it in the first place.

I'd wager the vast majority of people who weren't happy about neither Rodri or Fernandinho starting the CL final (which is a reasonable thing to feel) couldn't tell you why Pep did it.

 

[Cellarite]

Before the match putting up Lukaku against Stones or Laporte seemed suicidal.

It was brilliant man management, gave both Stones and Laporte a huge confidence boost and will make Dias up his game even more to get back in the side.

I see where you’re coming from but on Saturday, when I saw the teams, I was mildly surprised. On the day of the Champions League final, I was alarmed and instantly concerned that we would lose.

 

[Dobsy]

absolutely , but on here some wont accept he can and did get it wrong . he even threw the FA cup semi ffs.

My point isn't that he can't get it wrong or that he didn't get it wrong in the CL final.

It's with language like "fuck about" (not from you I know) and "threw". There's a big difference between that and "miscalculated" or "made a mistake". It's so dismissive. His record speaks for itself.

There's a reason we keep having 0-1 or 1-0 with Chelsea. Tuchel and that Chelsea squad combined are incredible. It's such fine margins. Overall it's so, so hard what he's trying to achieve, and then people say shit like that.

I guarantee that if he just plays the same team all the time in the CL and we lose the criticism will be "if only he'd tinkered"

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Yeah a big issue with discussing Pep is that when people say he got something wrong they usually don't know (or attempt to know) why he did it in the first place.

I'd wager the vast majority of people who weren't happy about neither Rodri or Fernandinho starting the CL final (which is a reasonable thing to feel) couldn't tell you why Pep did it.

Agree mate and also there's the fact that football has an element of luck to it, whatever happens.

Stones slipped in the first five minutes and if Lakaku had hit it they could well have gone 1-0 up and ended up winning the game. This forum would have been chock a bloc full of people saying Pep "Got it wrong" picking Stones.

Mahrez was inches from equalising in Porto and we would probably have won the cup. If that had happened literally nobody would have said Pep "got it wrong".

Managers make hundreds of decisions, big and small, every single day. They ar e not all "right" or "wrong", they are just decisions. Whether to rest, What drills to do today, who to bollock, who to take aside and encourage, who to leave out, who to pick, where to play them, what to say in the dressing room, what subs to make, It's the sum total of those decisions and their implications which make a manager great( or shit, or average). Pep is unquestionably great because he exercise good judgement overall.

There could be all sorts of reasons why he picked that team in Porto. He could have wanted to strangle the life out of Chelsea like we have done at Stamford Bridge. He could have fallen out with Rodri (who made a massive error in the semi final), he could have though Rodri was cocky or suffers from nerves, he worried about Fernandinho's mobility, he could have been too keen to shoehorn what he saw as our "key" players in the team, it could have been a combination of those things. We'll probably never know. But what I can say 100% is that he has more than enough credit in the bank with me to respect and support that decision, even in retrospect, and not to reduce that game to a binary statement that "he had a brainfart".

 

[Keeper!]

I see where you’re coming from but on Saturday, when I saw the teams, I was mildly surprised. On the day of the Champions League final, I was alarmed and instantly concerned that we would lose.

But as said there may well be reasons we don't see as fans, Rodri was running on fumes towards the end of last season and Fern looked his age, could also have illness issues, Pep picked that team for a reason, that time it did not work, let's be honest he is that good it's one hell of a shock when he does get it wrong.

 

[Sheikh rattle and roll]

No we did not, Saturday when we knew the team and Dias on the bench, most fans were surprised/shocked, but it proved a masterstroke of a decision.

Fern and Rodri were left out for a reason.

I suspect he played Sterling in the Euro final who had been out of form not because he deserved to play and not for his attacking threat
I suspect he played him to help Zinchenko cope with James who has been awesome at wingback marauding forward
Pep is a genius he will be sorely missed when he goes
We will win the Champs soon