Lyon CL QF Post-Match Thread

[Silva_Spell]

tbh Bayern would have bent us over and spunked us into the 15th dimension anyway...

 

[Cityseagull]

Not good enough City...

Fernandinho at the back didn’t look good...

should have been changed at half time but wasn’t...

only ourselves to blame...

 

[Neville Kneville]

Second goal was absolute bollocks. Ref gave every single dive for Lyon. Why do British players feel the need to jump up after every tackle. You don't get the card if you do.

Also I think pep let us down. We're a better team than Lyon so why not pick out best players. I think we played a team that neither put pressure on them nor defending competently.

This has to be one of our worst defeats in the last 3/4 years

Walker, Stones, Laporte, Mendy, is our best back 4, whether we like it or not.

Gundogan is not in our best team.

We keep trying something else.

 

[Homar]

You can say what you want, but our season was crippled from the very start by the transfer window. We might be able to mask our miserable defense in the league against mediocre sides, but not against half-decent opposition. I didn't expect to get to the final. I thought we might beat Lyon, but I'm honestly not surprised in the slightest that we failed. Lyon are a much more balanced side. Their defense is a thousand times better than ours. They played us off the pitch. We were worse than them defensively even though we sacrificed the midfield (our one real strength) to reinforce the car crash back-line.

Even though I think Pep made a mistake with his formation, I don't blame him in the slightest. He has to work with the players at his disposal. He believed that we couldn't beat Lyon playing four at the back and he might have been right. You can't progress in a knock-out competition like this without a solid defense. That has been proven time and again. If we fail to seriously strengthen defensively then we'll embarrass ourselves again next season.

The last thing that I take from this game is that Gundogan-Rodri as a partnership is a disaster. It lacks any sort of energy. It offers the defense zero protection whilst starving the attack of chances. Gundogan needed to leave at the end of last season. There is no sense keeping him around. I will never understand Pep's obsession with him. He is absolutely garbage and my opinion on him is only reinforced with every game I watch him play.

 

[buckshot]

How can you set up to play for a 0-0 draw against a 7th place Ligue 1 side but take it to RM who won La Liga? This was easily the most preventable loss in a big match since the takeover.

 

[VOOMER]

Is it Pep’s fault Sterling misses from 3 years out? If that had gone in I think we would have won. Thought Sterling overall played well.

We still haven't filled the Yaya gap. KDB is awesome but YET AGAIN, we look disjointed as a team and squad.

 

[bluealf]

On that sad note David Silva's last competitive game for us.

 

[yankblue]

Some of you need to calm down and sign off.

It's okay to be upset with the tactics tonight - I think Pep got them wrong too. It's a valid criticism, and it's a worrying trend that he seems to out think himself once we hit the knockout stages. I'm not debating that at all.

But to suggest Pep should be fired, or insinuate we'd be better off without him so is so fucking insane and childish I don't even know where to begin.

Pep is one of the best - if not the best - managers in the world. We have a fantastic squad, infrastructure, and owners willing to invest to keep it that way. We are so incredibly lucky.

Mistakes were made, and we were outplayed. It's frustrating but it happens. Let's see how that is addressed in the coming weeks. On to next season.

 

[Jamiblue]

Terrible by Pep. Why didn’t he throw on Bernardo and Phil? He had nothing to lose.

I simply don’t understand why he would only use two of the five available subs.

It’s like he had a mental freeze.

 

[Rhapsody in Blue]

Hate to say it....but Pep's record in the CL with us has been an absolute embarrassment. Not even a CL semi-final in 4 years. Think about that.....

We have not been in the top 4 European sides for a single time under Pep. Even Pellegrini managed it with us, once.

Apart from Liverpool, we’ve had very favourable QF draws as well (maybe Monaco can be debated)