Lyon CL QF | Pre-Match Thread

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The Real Madrid game I thought was an outstanding result and a very strong performance for Manchester City. It was a profoundly good night in this strange season, and yet even in a good moment a recurring theme has developed: weakness in both boxes. It might seem churlish to raise this after knocking Real Madrid out over 2 legs but I am sure I was not the only City fan who spent much of the game wondering just how Real Madrid were still in the game, and why weren't City out of sight?

If you listen to Pep he frequently comments about City's lack of efficiency in both boxes and this was most definitely on display against Real Madrid. We created some fantastic attacking moves and yet the final pass, or shot, frequently went astray. Our attacking is almost brilliant but lacks the efficiency of Liverpool. And in the same way after dominating the opening period Benzema was unchallenged in heading home and that kind of summed up our season.

I think the defensive mistakes are down to two aspects:
  1. Absence of an obvious partner for Laporte. If you keep changing the back 2, and you play a 35 midfielder, or an Otamendi, you will make mistakes.
  2. Defensive cover in midfield is not absolute. Good as Gundogan and Rodri are on the ball, off it, they aren't Kante. I am yet to be convinced that Rodri has the mobility to play this role effectively. It was largely OK against Real Madrid as their midfield is pedestrian.
Up front we have fantastic wide forwards, but we don't have a lethal Kane like finisher any more. Aguero is losing mobility. Our final pass often is poor, and we have a tendency to over-pass. Sterling in particular could score a lot more goals. It is a positive in a way that if Sterling could improve his finishing he could go from 25 goals a season to 35 or even 40.

We have to play to our maximum in the remaining games. I feel we'll probably beat Lyon but will fall short in the semi or final because we have this inefficiency to our game.

We are a 100 point squad but we can still improve a lot.

So, you are complaining that City's front 3 are not as efficient as Messi-Suarez-Neymar with Xavi and Iniesta behind them. Because our attack would be comparable to Barca's in 2015 if it were as efficient as you want it to be. 148 goals are not enough, 180 are needed. And scoring 4 goals over 2 legs against the best defence in Europe this season is not enough. 8 goals would have been more like it.

Pep wants from his No 9 much more than just to be a great finisher. Complaining about Jesus for not scoring enough in the CL is an OTT criticism. 6 goals and 3 assists in 500 minutes is quite productive. Only Lewandowski has done better in terms of goals/assist per minutes. But Lewandowski or Kane or whoever great finisher out there can't press and defend from the front half as well as Jesus does.

Btw, we scored 4 goals vs Liverpool from 6 shots on target. Wouldn't be surprised if we score 3 goals with 5 shots on target in the next game(s). That's football. We could have scored more against Real. We may score more against other teams when we may actually need to score more, who knows?
 
This is going to be a tough game...Lyon caused us all sorts of problems when we last played them and we were arguably a better team then. They have lost a few key players since then but that Maxwell Cornet caused our defence nightmares and they have pace upfront which we generally struggle against.

Having said that i dont think KDB played last time either
 
This is going to be a tough game...Lyon caused us all sorts of problems when we last played them and we were arguably a better team then. They have lost a few key players since then but that Maxwell Cornet caused our defence nightmares and they have pace upfront which we generally struggle against.

Having said that i dont think KDB played last time either

We weren't a better team last time when we played them since KDB missed both games, Jesus and Sterling and Foden weren't as good as now, we were complacent in the first game and had serious injury problems in the 2nd to the extent Sterling had to play in CM.
 
This is going to be a tough game...Lyon caused us all sorts of problems when we last played them and we were arguably a better team then. They have lost a few key players since then but that Maxwell Cornet caused our defence nightmares and they have pace upfront which we generally struggle against.

Having said that i dont think KDB played last time either
Thats right KDB missed both games and Pep was in the stands for the home tie.
 
We'll win, they're weaker, we're stronger & Pep will not get caught out again.

Add to that having the full squad which is almost fully fit in training for a couple of months rather than fucking international breaks means we'll be fully in tune and ready for these 3 games coming up.
 
I fear mostly the mental side of the game with Lyon. Unlike the tie with Real, we are big favourites for this one and a loss has big downsides. Previous failures in CL quarters may play on the mind of (some of) the players. Psychologically, it may be a difficult game. Unless we put the game to bed early on and play with freedom. Or the thought of being close to the final inspires us. Much depends on Pep here, no doubt. Go after them with energy and enthusiasm and chances are we win.
 
Last season we had a far better chance to win it against an extremely poor Spurs and a fluke Ajax team. Having two fixtures heavily favours teams that are better. Currently it is a single game knockout tournament. We also have to face Bayern and then PSG if we make it to the final. This is a very hard CL at this point.
Last season City had a PL and an FA Cup to win and knew that any points dropped in the latter stages of the League would prove fatal to the former.

Now they have only one competition to focus on and no distractions are there.

Most of the recent winners and finalists on the CL are out including Real Madrid, Liverpool, Chelsea and Juventus.

Bayern, Barca, and Atletico are left. The semi-final (hopefully City v Bayern/Barca) is likely to provide the ultimate winner.
 
We weren't a better team last time when we played them since KDB missed both games, Jesus and Sterling and Foden weren't as good as now, we were complacent in the first game and had serious injury problems in the 2nd to the extent Sterling had to play in CM.

that season we performed better than this one
 
So, you are complaining that City's front 3 are not as efficient as Messi-Suarez-Neymar with Xavi and Iniesta behind them. Because our attack would be comparable to Barca's in 2015 if it were as efficient as you want it to be. 148 goals are not enough, 180 are needed. And scoring 4 goals over 2 legs against the best defence in Europe this season is not enough. 8 goals would have been more like it.

Pep wants from his No 9 much more than just to be a great finisher. Complaining about Jesus for not scoring enough in the CL is an OTT criticism. 6 goals and 3 assists in 500 minutes is quite productive. Only Lewandowski has done better in terms of goals/assist per minutes. But Lewandowski or Kane or whoever great finisher out there can't press and defend from the front half as well as Jesus does.

Btw, we scored 4 goals vs Liverpool from 6 shots on target. Wouldn't be surprised if we score 3 goals with 5 shots on target in the next game(s). That's football. We could have scored more against Real. We may score more against other teams when we may actually need to score more, who knows?

Why are you bringing up goals scored from shots on target?

Its obviously completely meaningless to the discussion you are having.
 
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