The penalty obviously changes things drastically but it’s not an excuse for numerous things today that have to be questioned.
Why the hell did we constantly just stand off them and let them put in cross after cross at will? I’m assuming it was tactical considering the entire team did it for 90 minutes but I’ve no idea what the thinking behind it was.
Everybody on earth knows their biggest weapon is their crossing yet we just stand there and let them pump in balls whenever they want? Leading off that point, we never got into them once, I understood not pressing from the front as it plays into their hands for the ball over the top and counter attack but to not press in our own third too was ridiculous.
everything seemed to be about getting bodies behind the ball but then standing 5 yards off them allowing them to make the pass they wanted making it way too easy for them. I predicted numerous times pre-match we would suffer from back post balls, if it’s obvious to a numpty like me why didn’t Pep do something to try and combat it? In that respect we played right into their hands as well.
Going forward we were meek. We handled their press comfortably as they preferred to get bodies behind the ball but You can’t play at our usual slow often ponderous pace like we did for the majority of that match probing for a gap in a wall of 10 when you’re unwilling to commit as many players forward as usual due to the fear of the counter. Things needed to be played first time with pace and we just didn’t do it at all.
Sterling did his usual disappearing act against them bar 10 minutes despite having TAA on toast whenever he wanted and he’s our only source of real pace in the team. couldn’t get Aguero involved enough and when we did he was isolated, outnumbered and was well off it too with the chances he did get. Bernardo was busy in periods did some good things but was doing things we would expect from the players in the middle not the wide player, he should have partnered kdb in the middle instead of gundogan who was largely anonymous yet again aside from a woeful clearance for their first goal.
The story is obviously the penalty not being given but to boil the game and result down to that I feel Let’s us off the hook somewhat with what was some really poor team tactics today as opposed to individual performances costing us points.