Lyon (H) - Post Match Thread

[tolmie's hairdoo]

We look physically and mentally fried. Walker and Fern in particular look well short of the extra gears.

The starting eleven always seemed to suggest we hoped to get away with a win, which has to be on Pep.

I keep thinking some of our early below-par displays will suddenly see us wake up but there is no discernible improvement towards our best level as yet.

Off the top of my head, though, there is a recurring theme in all the games we have got negative results in under Pep (thankfully, they are few and far between) but when Gundogan is starting on the pitch...

Leicester
Celtic (twice)
Burnley
Liverpool Champs League
Wolves
Lyon
United
Palace
Shakhtar

He's a defensive liability because he gravitates towards the number ten role and doesn't have the fitness or desire to get back in and help.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Lyon were bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic than us and we didn’t cope well with that.

We looked old and leggy and had no energy in midfield until Bernardo came inside in the second half.

Some really poor performances!

Leroy was a breath of fresh air when he came on.

Lyon were surprisingly a decent outfit though, I knew absolutely nothing about them before the game.

 

[davymcfc]

You could argue about the tactics and starting 11. Personally I would have started Leroy and played Bernardo in the middle. But individually the team just had a mare.

Sometimes you have matches where everything just clicks and nothing can stop us. We had plenty of those last season.

Sometimes you’ll have 2/3 players that aren’t quite at the races and the performance level will drop and you just have to hope that the other players will carry them through.

And sometimes (although incredibly rarely for us now) every player in the team will have an “off night” and it will lead to a diabolical decision. Last night was one of those nights.

Hopefully this is a wake up call to us that we cannot afford to be complacent. That applies to both pep and the players.

 

[Gabriel]

Win as a team, lose as a team, so there's little point picking out individuals, especially when so many played poorly. Credit to Lyon, but I'd like to see us start Foden and Sane, simply because those two have the energy and drive to take the ball into the opposition.

 

[willipp]

People can bring out the fucking rag comments as per usual, but I comment on what I see and nothing more. No blue-tinted specs, just an assessment of the reality. This team is showing all the hallmarks of the last 2 title defences. It’s literally the same mental qualities on show, but a different way of playing. Ultimately however, the lack of the correct mental approach completely nullifies any tactical gains from having a better manager than the last two attempts to defend our title. People can refuse to acknowledge it, but without a dramatic shift in our players’ application, our outlook this season is the same. There’s no intensity, no tempo, our pressure is sporadic whereas it used to be relentless. Everyone sniggers at people that realise ‘do you know what, Liverpool look good for the title’. They refuse to accept it. But we’re not doing anything to show we want the title more than them. And we don’t look like we believe we can win the Champions League, so we won’t. I really don’t know what it is about these players following success. I feel like we’re in need of a rousing Vinnie speech at the training ground this week, he needs to crack some skulls and make everyone realise we have set ourselves standards that must be kept.

I really thought we lacked any kind of leadership last night. Vinnie would of been Trying to gee us up and get us going, as would KDB, but other than those two we don’t really have many who will get into people who are having a shocker. Something was way off last night and like you say it is very much how we have started the season.

 

[blueincy]

Glad when Peps back can't watch this shit served up by Arteta no motivation or belief given to the team last night should've started Aguero and Sane and ffs what does Foden need to do to get a game?

Delph looked like a Sunday league player with the attempted clearance for the goal...

 

[Blue Maverick]

They targeted Fernandinho they did their homework, Gundogan just doesn’t work in there, until KDB comes back for me Bernardo has to start in the middle, it’s one loss, we will still win the group, the lads just need to pick up the pace, we are only 6 weeks into the season and everyone looks tired, I do worry about matching Liverpool’s energy in a few weeks though.

 

[Brendan110_0]

Lazy performance, players had a day off while Pep was banned. With that attitude we win nowt this season. (aside from Sterling)

 

[bondsman]

People can bring out the fucking rag comments as per usual, but I comment on what I see and nothing more. No blue-tinted specs, just an assessment of the reality. This team is showing all the hallmarks of the last 2 title defences. It’s literally the same mental qualities on show, but a different way of playing. Ultimately however, the lack of the correct mental approach completely nullifies any tactical gains from having a better manager than the last two attempts to defend our title. People can refuse to acknowledge it, but without a dramatic shift in our players’ application, our outlook this season is the same. There’s no intensity, no tempo, our pressure is sporadic whereas it used to be relentless. Everyone sniggers at people that realise ‘do you know what, Liverpool look good for the title’. They refuse to accept it. But we’re not doing anything to show we want the title more than them. And we don’t look like we believe we can win the Champions League, so we won’t. I really don’t know what it is about these players following success. I feel like we’re in need of a rousing Vinnie speech at the training ground this week, he needs to crack some skulls and make everyone realise we have set ourselves standards that must be kept.

I agree with much of that. Especially lack of intensity. A few lads look like they’re posing at the min especially Walker. Need to get that hunger back. That might come from giving the likes of Danilo and Zinchenko as well as Foden game time. The former two played big roles last year. We’ve not strengthened at all at CF or CM and that’s obvious. Mahrez looks poor at min. Quite a bit for Pep to work on. KDB missing is huge but if Leroy has shown anything in the last two games it’s that if he’s fit he has to start.

 

[aguerrrroooooooooooo]

Absolutely imperative we win our next two games in this group, otherwise we could be staring a group stage exit in the face.
To not finish top of this group would be disappointing, an exit at this stage would be a disgrace.