Whilst there have been several poor performances this season from City, this game was probably one of the worst performances I've seen in the last few years. We weren't even in the game and it was frustrating considering how blatant Leicester's game plan was and how the whole world knew exactly how they'd turn up and play.
I've said several times that teams will figure Leicester out and they'll struggle. But it's poor management, and also poor performances that are allowing them to keep doing what they're doing. Leicester don't like the ball for more than a few minutes. They like to attack with pace and commit few players forward to ensure defensive solidity. Vardy is one of, if not the quickest player in the league. Mahrez, Albrighton etc also have plenty of pace. So Pellegrini picks Zabaleta, Otamendi, Demichelis and Kolarov as a back four?! That's one of his worst decisions yet. The slowest possible back four he could have managed. I know we've had injuries but at least by having Clichy and Sagna on we'd have some pace in order to better cope with their counter attacks. Instead Pellegrini wanted Fernandinho to cover the centre backs but with their width that left us far too exposed when our full backs were high up the pitch.
It's not just Pellegrini's poor tactics though. The players were abysmal. It left me feeling like we'd just seen the end of an era. We've been talking about whether Silva and Yaya are good enough, Demi is also ready to put his feet up but it actually looked like Yaya and Silva were done at this level. I'm hoping that's not the case with Silva but he was so ineffective. Leicester just muscled him off the ball time and time again. When wide he was too narrow and threatened little, when central Leicester just treated him like he was a little boy. It's the first time I've seen him look human on a football pitch. I'm hoping he just had an off day.
Yaya played one time passes back to our centre backs. When he spread the ball wide to Zabaleta, we had no winger there for an overlap and it was just so easy. We can blame injuries for a lot of it. No De Bruyne or Navas meant we were always going to be fairly lop sided. But we knew how Leicester would set up and we allowed them to do it so easily. We need to be smarter than that.
With Pep he'll expect us to keep the ball so well they never get a chance to counter. And 99 times out of 100 that will be the case. It's how he'd done things with Barca and Bayern. The games where they've been sloppy in possession include that drubbing by Real where they gave the ball away and were picked off as we were on Saturday.
It's a huge game this weekend. Win that and if Arsenal win we're back in it. Plus it's a huge confidence boost. The trouble is, Spurs have a young dynamic midfield and we just can't cope with that at all.
