Lyon CL QF Post-Match Thread

[bobbyowenquiff]

You can be as dynamic as you want but goals win games. To win games at this level you have be able to nail that one half chance that comes in those big games against class opposition. Sterling cannot do that. The miss tonight was the finest example of a growing collection from him, simply not good enough. You can look at as many pictures perspectives or angles you want.

Here is the fact you still have a bloke who cannot put the ball in the back of the net un obstructed from a few yards out, not acceptable at Sunday league level let alone CL last 8.

Equally Jesus with his miss were it not for Sterling then Jesus would be rightly being pinpointed...These two are simply not good enough to be lead strikers and certainly not good enough to both play at the same time in a CL winning side. 2nd strikers at a push but neither are instinctive finishers.

Yes Pep is tightly being questioned but regardless we had enough chances once again to have won, but due to a complete lack of a clinical strikers, piss poor defending, and slapstick and shite goalkeeping we are quite rightly out....Fuck all to do with VAR or UEFA, and fair play to Lyon who deserved to win, but this failure is down to the manager and the team, can blame nobody else.

I agree with most of this. I think Jesus and Sterling have both been superb this season but at the highest level in games like this you do need a lead striker, someone who is truly world-class at finishing. But they are not easy to find. I spent the whole second half thinking this is the match we really needed a fit Sergio for.

 

[simon23]

Whatever, we had 3 ponderous slow players at the centre of our game. It killed us. We were a bit unluckly and didn't get the breaks but if your coach make such a mistake you deserve to be completely hammered.

spot on

Gundo Rodri fern with garcia and laports - so defensive from pep and so unusual for him......did Pep panic?

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

NO i dont think he was playing in midfield but as part of a central group of players he was very very poor and par tof the slow tempo of our play

Rodri and Gubdogan pairing has been talked about before as well - its not a good paring - we only need one of them andfor me it should be rodri if it has to be one fo them

According to The Athletic Gundogan is there to keep the ball moving with small passes, but he doesn't have the killer pass or movement forward when there is no space for him to float one in. Rodri doesn't move the forward like Fern did for the past few years, and between the two of them there just isn't the final ball forward, leaving Kev to come and collect the ball. Fixing that puzzle, with a press that actually presses, has been a problem all year.

 

[ShaunMCFC]

Tell you what, for a fanbase who alledgedly hate UEFA and all it stands for, regularly state we're not arsed about the CL, we've turned into a right bunch of mard-arsed self-entitled tosspots tonight.

Who actually gives a fuck?

PL or CL? PL all day fucking long.

We can't have it both ways.

Of course we can have it both ways, as much as we as fans don't care for UEFA, the players will want to win the CL. Like it or not it's the most prestigious title in Europe. I don't think it's self entitled to be pissed off that we've fallen out of Europe to arguably a team we should be beating with our best team available out. I suppose the self entitlement you mean is posters (myself included) being pissed off our best team and system was t implemented

 

[blueormy]

Sorry Pep. Love you, but that is on you.

So it's pep's fault Sterling put one over an empty net from 5 yards and ederson spilled a shot that i could of threw my cap on.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Very much looking forward to the more rational, measured, thoughtful posts of next week.

And I include myself in that aspiration.

 

[jay_mcfc]

I genuinely can't believe there are some people exonerating pep of blame because of the stats. The team selection was indefensible and inexcusable. It's actually bonkers that he did that. Our defence looked good v Madrid not because the defence was good but because we defended from the front with high tempo, energy, pace and workrate. Not starting at least one of Foden or Bernardo (preferably both) was madness. To top that off by playing Garcia/Fernaninho/Rodri/Gundo as the spine - well we got what we deserved and by talking about possession, shots, ref, var you are completely missing the point of something that should have been obvious.

 

[bondsman]

How many times has Pep picked a bizarre team only for us to win 5-0 where we're the I told you so comments then?

Poor finishing and gifted goals are not the fault of the Manager.

You don’t do it in the qf of a CL though do you?

 

[Ric]

Unfair imo.

Raz may have missed a sitter but other than that he was fantastic.. he broke though held the ball up loads but options were so few and far between because they were sitting on the bench and we were playing a parker bus.

Pep is to blame.. I think the team that started against Madrid win by 3 or 4 tonight.

Agreed, that sitter aside I thought Sterling was one of our better players tonight. Then again, tends to go missing against the likes of Liverpool and United domestically so not sure you can really call him a "big-game player".

 

[butlerkb]

I think the real negative with playing Garcia was on team moral. How many players would have been trying to process that instead of being positive about their chances against Lyon. How many players would have been thinking how did he get a game before David and Bernardo Silva and Foden , even though it was not their positions, sometimes you have to do the right thing and picking Garcia loved commited city stalwarts was not the way.