Napoli (H) | CL | Post Match Thread

Kippax Street 1880 said:
Donnarumma, Gvardiol, O'Reilly and Khusanov coming into the back 4 have made such a difference. Dias looks the man of old again. Keep that back 5 all season for me.
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Yes. They will need some rest when we are playing three games a week. It is a very promising back four and Donna is a source of great confidence.
Pep is moulding a new team and nobody is better than him at that. Shout out to the DoF for Khusanov.
Onwards and upwards.
 
TonyM said:
The biggest thing to improve imo is Dias' passing. He gave the ball away too much.

The next thing is Reijnders' decision making.

Also how to get Doku into a more central position more often because he is potentially awesome there so wasted out wide.

And finally how to get the trio of Foden/Khusonov/Bernardo to be a tad more fluid when attacking as a unit. Seems to stutter a bit when there's lots of space available to make and feed runs.

But doing a lot better all over the park. Fingers crossed for Sunday in a game where we might profit from being under pressure with space to counter into for Haaland, Foden and Doku.
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Erm, Dias made the most passes and had a 91.7% pass completion. He has the fourth best pass completion stats in the team for the season so far. Anything over 90% is the benchmark for City’s defenders.

There’s always room for improvement but Dias passing is not a big concern. He achieves high levels of completion and he is very calm on the ball.
 
OB1 said:
Plenty to be pleased about.

Napoli were finished as an attacking force after sending off, not they presented much threat before that, but they were still able to present a difficult obstacle to break down; however, City created plenty of chances.

Defensively, Khus makes a fine RB and he looks like he could present problems with hard low crosses.

Josko being back is a big boost.

Phil being back is an even bigger boost.

Rodri will keep getting closer to his best.

Now we need an even better performance at the Emeticrates.
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Khusanov is very good defensively but he playing it very safe going forward making easy sideways passes.

There will come a time when we are not in control of a game and we need a right back to make an overlapping run. I think Khusanov is a good right back too but his defensive game is much stronger than his attacking game.
 
Georgian Maestro said:
Interesting tactical tweak when we had the ball in the build up Bernardo moved deep effectively playing right back and Khusanov pushed to the right wing.
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What I thought was very obvious is that the coaches have been working with Khus on how he should move going forward in the RB role.

The positional changes with Bernie were pure Pep positional play.

Our Kid couldn’t go to the game so I took a very good friend who is a West Ham fan and last time he came along, he was critical of Khus. He knows his stuff and even has some coaching badges. Last night, he impressed and saying you don’t need a right back…. I still think we do because we need at least one proven specialist RB. However, if Kodir enjoys playing RB, he could develop into a very good one, but I think he will likely always have a defensive orientation i.e. I don’t see him being a wing back or a central mid.
 
It was heartbreaking to see Kevin subbed off so early. We had control from the opening minutes and played solidly even before the red card. Arsenal pose the real challenge, but if we perform well in that match as well, we can be optimistic about this season.
 
Skrastins said:
it is so hard to judge from the last two games
United were just shit
Napoli went man down early

i'm happy that Pep uses O'reilly to widen the pitch and Doku drive inside the center to put more pressure on opponents CBs


when was the last time opposition got a red card?
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It is too early in the season to get carried away positively or negatively. However, you can make performance judgements regardless of the opposition or circumstances. E.g. Phil played two world class and crucial passes that would have been such against any team. Doku tore through and Italian defence and scored a brilliant goal. We know Phil can perform consistently but we are not sure about Doku; however, if Doku can perform consistently as he has done in the last two games, he create havoc for a lot of teams.
 
There’s a lot to like in that performance. Started well and even before the red card we were doing well. Defensively pretty good, bar one corner, but not much to do after the red card.

Gvardiol, Foden, Rodri, Haaland, Doku and Khusanov all great. Reijnders makes great runs- needs to finish better. Bernardo works so hard but offers very little threat. O’Reilly very accomplished performance.

Feels like we’re starting to find our better form, arsenal might be a bit soon for us as we still have a few areas to improve. Think we need to find the right balance between attack and defence against better sides.

Sad to see so little of KDB but he was unfortunate again with a teammate’s red card. Still not sure why there was any controversy with the red card. Even if the defender makes a slight contact with the ball Haaland would still be through on goal until but was taken down.
 
Vic said:
Was torn between "patience, City" and wishing for something more incisive. Then Phil's chip - but I'm not sure Phil meant that chip to do what it did!
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He absolutely meant it there was a close up on highlights
 
Marvin. said:
Khusanov is very good defensively but he playing it very safe going forward making easy sideways passes.

There will come a time when we are not in control of a game and we need a right back to make an overlapping run. I think Khusanov is a good right back too but his defensive game is much stronger than his attacking game.
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He is young and can develop.
 
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