It's Quiet - a new dawn

[domalino]

Teams will change by the month.

No way that XI will play week in week out or individually be consistently in form.

More importantly they'll change by opposition, that's essentially what Pep is trying to build, a squad like one of those card games where he can look at the opposition and just pick the XI which will exploit all their weaknesses..

We weren't exactly winning any prizes for how solid we looked though, which is kind of the point. Any 3 man midfield with Kev and Dave in it is pretty lightweight, but hopefully Gundogan comes back and we play him instead of one of the creative two in the tougher games (preferably Kev as he got completely overwhelmed playing in the middle in some of those games)

Sorry but I think that's just plain wrong.

All our best performances came in that formation, all our most solid and our most controlling, and adding a proper defensive machine who can cover ground as well - like Fabinho - as well as two fullbacks who can cut out counter attacks would make it absolutley fantastic.

It's a formation we've won the most games in and kept most of our clean sheets with. Our improved defensive form came when we switched back to 4141 after the Spurs 2-2.

 

[domalino]

It's not even June, five days since the season is over and already the transfer stuff on here is full on blossomed. My mate said this.

1000% sure no one will be "announced tomorrow". Not one major outlet has said we are even remotely close to a player AND club to be able to announce something. This stuff is already sprung up in the media regardless of their consistency or lack of.

I don't think anything is happening tomorrow either, but the media don't know shit.

When we named stones in our CL squad, the media responded by laughing at us, the press was full of stories mocking them for naming a player we didn't own and if we'd get in trouble for it.

...An hour later.."oh we now understand john Stones signed for Manchester City yesterday..."

 

[BigOscar]

Sorry but I think that's just rubbish.

All our best performances came in that formation, all our most solid and our most controlling, and adding a proper defensive machine who can cover ground as well - like Fabinho - as well as two fullbacks who can cut out counter attacks would make it fantastic.

Who did we beat who was any good playing with that? I can only think of the Monaco first leg, in which we let in 3 and could easily have let in a lot more. It worked pretty well against most of the lesser teams, but not at all against the better sides

 

[SiMCFC]

How can you possibly arrive at that conclusion? How?! We won dozens with KDB, Silva and Fernandinho, or KDB silva and Yaya, and Fabinho is more defensive than both of them.

When playing with wingers rather than 3 forwards...

 

[domalino]

When playing with wingers rather than 3 forwards...

What does that even mean? You think Sanchez is going to put less of a defensive shift in than Sterling or Sané? Of course not, they'll all be putting in a massive shift without the ball.

 

[domalino]

Who did we beat who was any good playing with that? I can only think of the Monaco first leg, in which we let in 3 and could easily have let in a lot more. It worked pretty well against most of the lesser teams, but not at all against the better sides

It's our most used formation by a mile...most of our victories came with it, and the main reason we lost some games with it was because we got stung with Yaya's lack of mobility when losing the ball, Fabinho addresses that.

 

[SiMCFC]

What does that even mean? You think Sanchez is going to put less of a defensive shift in than Sterling or Sané? Of course not, they'll all be putting in a massive shift without the ball.

Completely different players in a completely different position but you've made your mind up already :) I personally think we will get beaten more often with that midfield, far too attacking.

 

[domalino]

Completely different players in a completely different position but you've made your mind up already :) I personally think we will get beaten more often with that midfield, far too attacking.

Sorry, you're now saying 433 with that midfield and Sterling is fine, but add in Sanchez and we're fucked.

I honestly do wonder how people arrive at conclusions like that.

 

[Serg10Aguero]

Sorry, you're now saying 433 with that midfield and Sterling is fine, but add in Sanchez and we're fucked.

I honestly do wonder how people arrive at conclusions like that.

He probably means we're better defensively with the 4141 with wingers deeper

 

[domalino]

He probably means we're better defensively with the 4141 with wingers deeper

Yeah, but 4141 and 433 are the same thing. 4141 is just a nicer way of writing it so we know it's got 1 defensive midfielder.

he seems to be operating under the assumption that Sanchez is some tactically indisciplined idiot who Guardiola can't control and won't be able to play like a proper winger anymore.

There is no loss of defensive solidarity by swapping Sanchez and Sterling, Sanchez will work his bollocks off and do it in the exact same role if that's what Pep asks.