Manchester City - tactical discussion

[ojeme]

Sorry mate cannot agree. Irrespective of what tactics, formations or player selection there will be someone caling him out. We have done pretty good under his management and because we lose a game, these threads start.

Messing about with selections for no apparent reason is a statement made by those who don't necessarily have all the facts as to why. I have no idea why he set us up last night like he did, but I acknowledge he is best placed to do that.

I also suspect that had we put our good chances away last night, this debate wouldn't be happening.

What happened last night was due to poor finishing only.

I know we wasted the handful of chances we had but I wouldn't agree that we had a lot of chances as Juves big men stifled a lot of our attacking impetus which is why I believe we needed that extra creative outlet to take the game beyond them early on since we were in control for much of the game. Its not impossible to have KDB start and still loose 1-2 (I.e. KDB may have started and flopped) but its better to fail trying than to never try. If against Westham we go with: Sterling Nasri Navas because Nasri is 'great' in the hole and KDB still a newbie, I wouldn't complain if we loose, going by some views on here

 

[Crossan da Ball]

Dead right. 2-0 up at least at HT had the finishing been as clinical as Juve's. Nowt to do wi' tactics. When a player stuffs a good chance to put your team ahead, it's got precious little to do with tactics. Had those gone in, and we had won, as we should have done, Pellers would have been applauded on here as having the tactical acumen to have engineered (see what I did there?) the victory! As it is, sloppy finishing as opposed to clinical finishing was the sole difference.

If two goals would have led anyone to applaud THAT performance as one of tactical acumen and engineering we will have to agree to differ.
Two goals would have stifled the debate, not made bad tactics good. The finishing was the difference in the scoreline, but the question is would different tactics have given us better chances? I think they would. If we had our time over again, would we play the same eleven?

 

[K10&S21]

after our match this is what a former premier league player who played for juve had to say about us and it is the elegant truth.

"The Italian teams are better prepared tactically and that makes the difference in the Champions League.City is perhaps the best English team but the Champions League, it is something else.The Premier League is the most interesting championship to watch, but is tactically limited."

 

[Rolee]

after our match this is what a former premier league player who played for juve had to say about us and it is the elegant truth.

"The Italian teams are better prepared tactically and that makes the difference in the Champions League.City is perhaps the best English team but the Champions League, it is something else.The Premier League is the most interesting championship to watch, but is tactically limited."

A former Premier League player eh? How about a scummy rag?

For shame.

 

[blue city199]

after our match this is what a former premier league player who played for juve had to say about us and it is the elegant truth.

"The Italian teams are better prepared tactically and that makes the difference in the Champions League.City is perhaps the best English team but the Champions League, it is something else.The Premier League is the most interesting championship to watch, but is tactically limited."

+1

 

[MadchesterCity]

surprised there is no permanent thread for tactical discussion so decided to start one. in my opinion tactics in modern football overtook the the importance of individual players ever since the victory of italy in 2006 WC and the evolution was complete by pep guardiola in 2009. it was created to thwart the influence of individual player with superior skill simultaneously getting the best of the team. since then no player like the maradonas zidanes and henrys have been able to take over the football field. now u might say messi but even him would not be as effective playing in any other team like his NT form would suggest. in essence the sum has become greater than the sum of the individual parts.
i look forward for the knowledgeable ones in BM to enlighten us rest about what u think of the tactics employed by our team and how effective it is?

Are you Jose Mourinho?

 

[mosssideblue]

If two goals would have led anyone to applaud THAT performance as one of tactical acumen and engineering we will have to agree to differ.
Two goals would have stifled the debate, not made bad tactics good. The finishing was the difference in the scoreline, but the question is would different tactics have given us better chances? I think they would. If we had our time over again, would we play the same eleven?

If we had put our chances away and won comfortably, then in my book the tactics were spot on. saying they could have been better is using hindsight as their friend.

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

I think he put Nasri in because he wanted him moving into the middle to support Bony's hold up play, Bony has to have players running off him and not sitting out wide. If we play too wide it means Bony is isolated against two big centre backs and not to mention Pogba and the like. We get away with it in the league because most teams don't play effectively 4/5/6 centre backs when we are attacking them, they certainly also just cannot cope with the movement of Silva and Aguero. Because we are playing another class of defense you need to support Bony with Nasri in there or they can quite simply man mark Silva and Bony out of the game which they did anyway really but only because their concentration level was outstanding. Most of our chances came when that concentration dropped and we caught them on the break.

Silva had a poor game last night and it was because we just weren't given a single jot of space in the final third leaving the only obvious option to many being out wide but we weren't ever going to stretch the game as they had every man behind the ball. The key was hitting them on the break which is where all of our chances came from - I think putting Navas in instead would of given us a lot more energy on the break but I don't think it really would of crucially changed the game. This was a team that comfortably defended against Real Madrid in last years semi final and probably should of done the same against Barcelona in the final but we all know how good they are, they won the competition after all!

The only thing that could of changed for the better last night was the finishing and that was the crucial difference between winning and losing.

Mate you make many excellent salient points which I totally agree with.

I can see where you are coming explaining ours managers team selection.

However I stand by the fact that the magician we have called David Silva, is best used in the old number 10 role imo.

The selection of Navas on one side and Stirling on the other gives him the option to pass the ball left or right.

When we stick him out on the right wing against a quality side, well I for one don't get it as he is restricted in what he can do for the team.

We'll move on from this defeat I'm sure.

We are going to have a succesful season I bet my cotton socks, and I just hope is that our manager learns from defeats like this.

Anyway onwards and upwards, the Hammers at home so what a chance to put more daylight between us and our rivals. CTID

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

If two goals would have led anyone to applaud THAT performance as one of tactical acumen and engineering we will have to agree to differ.
Two goals would have stifled the debate, not made bad tactics good. The finishing was the difference in the scoreline, but the question is would different tactics have given us better chances? I think they would. If we had our time over again, would we play the same eleven?

Yeah but we did totally boss that first half. Juventus went in at half time with their tail between their legs looking almost embarrased. I think the 2nd half was more equal if not unlucky for city. The stats say we were better, it was Italian Champs lge finalists. I think the tactics were good enough.

 

[Citizen in Pakistan]

Haven't conceded a goal in 5 games in PL, juve got two lucky breaks and our manager becomes tactically naive. Its safe to assume that Debruyne wasnt bought as a cover for nasri, he havent had enough time with the squad and thats why he wasnt started considering he played on the weekend to and its not pellers fault if players squander golden opportunities at this level.