Monaco - Post Match thread.

[Marvin]

Nothing much wrong with the defensive players who were left to it by the midfield. Desperately needed YaYa in the middle as we were just bullied in there and couldn't keep the ball. Our short passing was simply terrible.

Monaco worked very hard and cleverly to close down the passing lines but we made it easy by being sooooo passive and barely moving. Same kind of performance against stoke for me. We don't have the kind of players that can bully and be physical (YaYa is really the only player that can) so we have to move, move, move. If we dont move we are just rubbish. So many times our players were isolated out wide and no one was supporting or overlapping and the team looked knackered.

Poor use of subs. Needed YaYa in the first half and zabba in the 2nd. Disappointed but not surprised

Yaya and Zabba of 3 years ago

Yaya and Zabba would not have been able to live with the pace of Monaco. You must know that. Granted Yaya would probably have used the ball better than KDB and Silva in the 1st half, but we had no way of knowing that KDB and SIlva would play so poorly in the 1st half. We couldn't pass the ball. That's rare. Unfortunately Zab and Toure no longer have the legs for these games which are much much more intense that the usual games we play

 

[sh249]

No problem with the team selection or set-up. Just an utterly gutless performance for 45 minutes.
Not really all that surprising either - piss poor, rabbits-in-the-headlights first halves are actually kind of our norm against any side that presses hard, fast and well. Been like that for five or six years.

 

[lazerblue]

do we have a defensive coach? if so who is it

 

[Warleb]

The players let Pep down. This is not down to Pep.

Disagree, Monaco put to much pressure on us in the first half. Gave is no time. Second half they sat back and we looked better. We lost confidence that's all. We know defense is an issue but we can score goals. But not without confidence. This is what happened tonight.

 

[BAB.DAB]

That's another discussion, but I'd argue without Txiki we wouldn't get Pep.

I can't deny his failure to refresh the squad adequately has been unacceptable, though he has had his hands tied somewhat by the fact no teams want to take our aging, overpaid underperformers that we seek to replace.

Glad to see someone else can see the bigger picture
It's not about tonight it's all about the future and with pep I can't wait to see it

 

[GaudinoMotors]

And that's the problem , it's as much a mentality issue - when was the last time we put in a top drawer away performance in the CL ? Or in the PL for that matter- we consistently underachieve in the big away games , Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal, Spurs, Madrid, Barca, Dortmund, Napoli , Ajax , Monaco - its fucking endless how many times we fucking choke.

Coupled with substandard defenders then it's no surprise.

Scoring 6 and going out is a fucking embarrassment,

Mentally weak.

Couldn't agree more - even our successes have been made far more difficult than they should have been.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Don't forget, Platini's arguably illegal FFP rules have, without doubt, blocked the ambitions of the owner resulting in us buying some players any top half club could have signed. So we have some stellar players and some average to good ones.

 

[BigOscar]

Balance all wrong, but impossible to balance a team right with the personnel we currently have. Having no fullbacks who can offer anything at all going forwards cripples us, so does having no midfielders who can be trusted to do their bit defensively yet still be capable of passing to people on their own team. Meanwhile it's ridiculous that we are at the point where Kolarov is arguably our best CB, he's trying his best but he's nowhere near good enough to be anyones best CB if they want to be competitive.

Shit Kev turned up again today which really doesn't help, absolutely atrocious when he's not on form.

 

[Stoned Rose]

It doesn't work like that fella unfortunately

Like what?

 

[flb]

True, but Vinny, Yaya & Aguero were the central spine, who often pulled something out of the bag in the big games.

This team, with those 3 at their peak, would be far & away better than the previous two teams imo. But now, we have to find new ones & a new Zabba too.

Jesus may be the answer up front, but how the fuck we replace Vinny & Yaya & to a lesser extent Zabba, I have no idea. Gundogan is a top player but he's no yaya & I haven't seen a decent cb anywhere.

The transition is going to take longer than we imagined.