Lack of pace on the wings

[Akira]

We have lacked pace in the wings for awhile, not just this season.

When Sane left, the club opted to bring in Mahrez. In-form for Leicester, but you wouldn't put 'rapid' as one of his outstanding traits.

After Sterling's drop in form, we brought in Grealish. Again, good for Villa, but not fast.

We ended up with Foden who is arguably, the fastest winger we have, and he isn't even really that fast.

Unless Pep had completely zero say in who to bring in, at this point, I'm convinced trading pace for control was intentional from Pep and co.

 

[Akira]

Neither Mancini nor Pellegrini played D Silva as an 8. Both are attacking midfielders and prefer to be 10s, and with limited finishing abilities. Just one cost a lot more.

KdB was also deployed mostly as a winger iirc.

When Pep came, I wondered how he was gonna fit Silva and KdB into the team, especially with Sterling and Sane. He surprised me by putting them both in centre midfield, and it was magnificent. They complemented each other well, and added an industrious side to their game I think most didn't expect.

 

[deano ou812]

This is a great thread that describes perfectly what is going on right now and why we’re quite frankly boring to watch at times. Basically Pep is terrified of risk. Pep is currently one of the most defensive coaches in the game… it’s just that he sees defending totally different to the vast majority. We defend through control, and if you view defence that way we are actually as defensive as a team can get… practically no risk is ever taken. It’s just a totally different way of being pragmatic. We’re not pragmatic by having a back 5 with 3 holding midfielders. We’re pragmatic through having wingers that are picked purely because they can keep possession better than wingers who like to go in behind. We’re pragmatic in that the backwards pass is preferred to any forward pass that has an element of risk attached to it etc. It’s quite an interesting discussion this risk v control trade-off and it’s also interesting how Pep is moving more and more each year towards the extreme control end. There’ll be no more Sane and Sterling days etc. Even Foden is seen as too risky of late.

Great post mate,our wingers now are all about keeping possession of the ball which mahrez and grealish are good at but it’s now hamstringing our play unfortunately,pep has nearly went the opposite to how he had his teams play in a sense controlled possession at all costs regardless..

 

[Tolmie scores]

But no one ever believed we would play him as a left winger when we bought him.

Even so, saw him play a bit at Villa as i have few mates who are ST holders there...he was a talisman as he was a fan of theirs growing up but never looked a complete player....really surprised Pep was interested. Our game was built on triangles, supporting player about 5 - 10 yards from player with the ball...just not Jack's game at all regardless of where on the pitch..to me it just didn't seem right

 

[BrianW]

This is a great thread that describes perfectly what is going on right now and why we’re quite frankly boring to watch at times. Basically Pep is terrified of risk. Pep is currently one of the most defensive coaches in the game… it’s just that he sees defending totally different to the vast majority. We defend through control, and if you view defence that way we are actually as defensive as a team can get… practically no risk is ever taken. It’s just a totally different way of being pragmatic. We’re not pragmatic by having a back 5 with 3 holding midfielders. We’re pragmatic through having wingers that are picked purely because they can keep possession better than wingers who like to go in behind. We’re pragmatic in that the backwards pass is preferred to any forward pass that has an element of risk attached to it etc. It’s quite an interesting discussion this risk v control trade-off and it’s also interesting how Pep is moving more and more each year towards the extreme control end. There’ll be no more Sane and Sterling days etc. Even Foden is seen as too risky of late.

This seems to me to be an extremely acute observation, if I may say so.
It makes perfect sense. We give away very few chances. The snag is, they seem to get taken at a disproportionately high level.

 

[JewelZee]

Which part isn't true? It is certainly the case that as soon as we drop a point, the atmosphere here changes to all kinds of tactical errors raised, problems with players, or problems with the manager. The halcyon Sané days are repeatedly raised, as if we never dropped a point back then, and specific players are scapegoated. Now, we have people who condemned Raheem talking about how we need him!

This is the strangest of seasons, and we have Laporte, Dias, Stones, Cancelo, Walker, Foden, Alvarez and others all missing or played less regularly. We had more players in the World Cup than any other side in world football and more players in the latter stages too. We are also stacked with games in January.

When people were criticising the false 9 set up and hankering for a striker, I pointed out that there was no guarantee that having one would bring us more goals, because we may create less chances with having a player 'up top' rather than in the midfield attacking zone. Haaland is magnificent, of course, but we do have games, and have done for several seasons, when a team sets up to stop us playing, with ten behind the ball, time wasting, niggly fouls and general disruption to our flow of play. It is testament to our quality that we face this a lot. Most times we are able to break through. Sometimes, our opponent breaks through us and it can be incredibly difficult to break them down, pace or not. At Leeds, Jessie Marsch spoke of stopping Haaland by stopping our width, hence Jack and Mahrez had three on them as soon as we had the ball out wide. Defences and coaching are tactically way ahead of where they were and teams are happy to sit and wait for the odd chance. The over-reaction here, at times, is embarrassing, and there is no perfect solution - we dropped points before when blessed with pace, top strikers and our best line-ups, and we will again: it is part of the game and no amount of success guarantees us more success, or entitles us to it.

I personally don't believe Pep is having his best year in terms of getting it right regarding player selections, formations, utilizing subs and such. And the performances even more than the results bear that out. There, I said it, blasphemy! I didn't think the idea of adding Holland as a 9 meant killing all forms of pace and directness out wide. The two concepts are mutually exclusive and the decision to play like robots in slow motion has been made by Pep. For whatever his reasons that's how he's chosen to play it. In the end the results will determine if he made the right calls. But with this roster a failure to return a haul of trophies will be considered a huge failure, make no mistake about that. And no amount of reciting the manager's CV will change that.

As far as entitlements go, the only thing I feel entitled to is we give it our best shot with that day's available best 11 every time we take the field. Everyone has a right to their opinion and mine is that what we saw on Saturday v. Everton was not anywhere near good enough, not least of all by the manager. Just sayin'.

 

[JewelZee]

How do you think he should be utilised and at who's expense?

There's little doubt that he's playing to Peps instructions.

 

[JewelZee]

How do you think he should be utilised and at who's expense?

There's little doubt that he's playing to Peps instructions.

Would it kill us to give him a run in Kevin's spot here and there to see what he can do while giving KDB an occasional break?What if he steps in there and does a job? Now we have more options across the board including regarding transfer decisions, not to mention getting the better return on a huge investment. Maybe I'm nuts, right?

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

But no one ever believed we would play him as a left winger when we bought him.

I did. He was a replacement for Sterling and Sane, we moved earlier because we always felt Raheem would not be resigning, and didn't want to risk it.

It was never about Bernie.

 

[Agueroooo9320]

That is by design though. As I said in an earlier post, this has been coming for the last couple of seasons and is a deliberate slowing of the game by utilising Mahrez and Jack. Its control Pep wants and better management of transitions, not pace. I don't particularly like this version of us as much as those that have gone before but we better learn to live with it unless Pep changes direction completely or leaves. It is pointless us bumping our gums about the lack of pace when that is what our manager has designed into the squad.

And for those calling out Jack as not fitting as a City player. He is fitting because he is playing as the Manager wants. Thats why he is starting almost every game now.

this is spot on though.