People keep repeating this but it is bollocks.
Lyon are the second best team in France, the had a disastrous managerial appointment in Sylvinio who dropped them down to 17th, but as soon as Garcia came in they surged back up the table and if the season hadn't been curtailed by covid, they'd have finished in the top 4 like they always do.
They beat Juventus a week ago and took PSG all the way to penalties a week before that.
They are a good side.
What I did see is when we went to 433 we pulverised them for 20 minutes, equalised and were almost certainly going to go on to win the game until UEFA were gift wrapped the perfect opportunity to get their revenge
Even after that we battered them and would have taken it to extra time but for the miss of the century
I think what started the game last night had been run over for the best part of a week. There will have been input from all corners. I don't think Pep surrounds himself with the kind of folk who would just go along with any crazy idea. The aim would have been to win the game and negate or test whatever strengths Lyon had. The game turned on a couple of incidents - Sterling and the second Lyon goal! Had we had Eddie up front and Kev in goal, Sterling still misses the sitter.There has been a consistent theme of the type of goal we have conceded ever since Garcia became a starter.
They have been lost in foot races or Ederson caught in no man's land as a result.
Out backline is painfully high and slow, further exposing the various levels of pace amongst individual defenders.
You have Garcia and Laporte always trying to play offside and Walker hanging back closer to goal (even though it's his raw pace we rely on to get us off the hook)
Last night is the first time I felt the fans and players weren't bought into what Pep was trying to achieve.
It's a worrying period with little turnaround time until the new season and continued fault lines throughout the defensive midfield and entire back line.
Sadly a bit like Pep's mother club we are a bit of a busted flush at present expect more of the same in the coming weeks.And, to cap it all, we finish with Dave and Gundo together, which is slower than slow, and hasn't worked all season when they've been paired. Therefore, this was the last combo to finish the game with, imho.
I've said it before, Foden is in our strongest team, along with KDB. You can perm any combination of many of the others, but Foden is THAT good, I believe. That was our most important game of the season, because it could have been our last - the fact that it WAS our last is because of the poor selection and the absence of Foden.
When was the last time we win a game after conceding first? It almost feels inevitable. Yet I seem to remember this wasn’t the case in the previous 2 seasons
You forgot to add miss of the season to your list !
This doesnt seem to be picked up but for Lyons second goal when the attacker dummies the ball the ball brushes his foot. Can see above at about 40 seconds. They showed this in the game last night with super closeup. (Has anyone got a clip?)
It doesn't matter now we didnt play well but this was the pivotal moment in the game.
So if he end up shitting himself because he can't play a 433 against Lyon ( who can't afford to buy a 20m player) then, something is wrongWhere does this bollocks come from?
Did you not see the Arsenal game where we got done by a team using exactly Lyons tactics and formation? Did you not see the Norwich game, Wolves, Spurs, United, Southampton?
Lyon are better than all of them. There's every chance we lost just as easily in a 433.
Pep doesn't make these changes for a laugh, he does it because we've got massive weaknesses that good teams have exploited all season.
I cannot understand the deluded arrogance to think we would have been untouchable in a 433 when we have seen its not true all season long.
Maybe but it was a close call and no joke this game has nothing to do with var. Laporte was aweful yesterday and we should have done betterIt’s either a very unnatural bobble at a crucial time or it hits his heel.. it definitely looks like he makes contact.