Problem with Otamendi is he loses his head after a couple mistakes or we conceed. I thought he was one of our best players in the first half , as soon as Costa scored he lost the plot and was nowhere to be seen
All of this also means his partnering centre back either has to be absolute lightning to cover the space left open, or an absolute leader who marshalls Otamendi and stops him from diving in. A back "three" involving Otamendi and Kolarov is suicide. On top of the issues with Otamendi as per your summary, you have a player who just switches off completely and makes no real attempt to tackle of win the ball. A player that isn't aware positionally and isn't quick enough to cover the ground. You're then left with a young English ball playing centre back who is learning the game and still prone to the odd error of judgement themselves. But you're trying to teach them the game in a defence full of issues.
We still don't have a solid defensive "style" of play. Passing out from the back is fine if positionally everyone knows where their place is on the pitch. Barca play an obvious game, keeper has the ball, centre backs go wide of the box, Busquets goes towards the box, in the centre of the pitch and the full backs keep wide. Passing is accurate, touch is on point and it works 90% of the time. With pressing they're still prone to errors as we saw in our two games against them.
We've still not nailed this. A lot of it is down to constant change at the back but that's all part of Pep seeing who can do what. He's still much more focussed on overall style of play and seeing what works best. He knows errors will occur but is looking at the bigger picture for now.
People point to the need to invest in full backs. I don't question that, but I think fundamentally a good full back under Pep just has to be quick to cover ground up and down the pitch and be a presence at the back. Defending isn't the main priority. Alves is a prime example. Not the best defender but rarely needed to be because of Barcelona's strategy of keeping the ball and pressing the opposition. When they did get in behind, he could cover ground and get back.
I think we still need two centre backs. Or we need to give more time to the likes of Tosin. Stones for me has the attributes to make it. I think we need another two of similar ilk. Stones could play a role similar to Luiz, and I think we need someone with some pace in the back too.
Confidence and familiarity are two crucial elements of a defence though. Maybe we're over analysing and just keeping the same defence for a while, getting a few clean sheets and gaining that familiarity will solve the issues?!
I think Pep, & the club, have a plan. I'd be absolutely gobsmacked if Pep hasn't got cbs in mind as part of it, but I don't think any panic buying is on the agenda, so unless one who is on the list becomes available in Jan, we will just work with what we have, until the players who suit 'the plan' can be brought in.
I recon, if this was Barca, he'd just move someone like Fernandinho to cb & he'd get away with it.
The aerial threat, in particular of the Premier League, is probably putting him off that idea.
Otamendi has no right to be as shit as he was v Chelsea & is capable of much better imo. I think we just have to hope he produces better for a decent percentage of the season.
But the latest worry for me re that way of thinking, was seeing a recording of the Celtic game & hearing Richard Dunne assess Otameni pre game, & basically he could have posted on here the very same stuff I posted almost word for word, but it was actually a worse assessment, as if he thinks thats what Otamendi is full stop, & we just need to getrid of him & to sign a new one, rather than suggesting possible room for improvement.
He really did seem to suggest that Otamendi is, well basically shite at everything & has no idea how to do the job.
The upside of this, for me, is that having a completely inept cb next to a young kid & a sloth v Chelsea, probably the best team we will face in the Prem, was not enough to prevent us tactically opening them up, & we should have actually won that game, easily & in past years would have done, with about 5 goals.
So I recon the answer is, make the best of it at the back for now, accept we will get turned over sometimes, but ffs, put the ball in the net at the other end. Then we are in with a shout.
I think Pep, & the club, have a plan. I'd be absolutely gobsmacked if Pep hasn't got cbs in mind as part of it, but I don't think any panic buying is on the agenda, so unless one who is on the list becomes available in Jan, we will just work with what we have, until the players who suit 'the plan' can be brought in.
I recon, if this was Barca, he'd just move someone like Fernandinho to cb & he'd get away with it.
The aerial threat, in particular of the Premier League, is probably putting him off that idea.
Otamendi has no right to be as shit as he was v Chelsea & is capable of much better imo. I think we just have to hope he produces better for a decent percentage of the season.
But the latest worry for me re that way of thinking, was seeing a recording of the Celtic game & hearing Richard Dunne assess Otameni pre game, & basically he could have posted on here the very same stuff I posted almost word for word, but it was actually a worse assessment, as if he thinks thats what Otamendi is full stop, & we just need to getrid of him & to sign a new one, rather than suggesting possible room for improvement.
He really did seem to suggest that Otamendi is, well basically shite at everything & has no idea how to do the job.
The upside of this, for me, is that having a completely inept cb next to a young kid & a sloth v Chelsea, probably the best team we will face in the Prem, was not enough to prevent us tactically opening them up, & we should have actually won that game, easily & in past years would have done, with about 5 goals.
So I recon the answer is, make the best of it at the back for now, accept we will get turned over sometimes, but ffs, put the ball in the net at the other end. Then we are in with a shout.
Although in the end Otamendi was a big contributing factor in the loss its not games against the like of Chelsea that worry me so much. Teams like Chelsea come and play and we will always create chances against teams like this, if as you say we had taken our chances his mistakes wouldn't have mattered. Its games like Boro that worry me where they put 11 behind the ball and we struggle to break them down. In this situation we may be relying on winning the game 1-0 but I dont trust Otamendi to marshall the defence to victory. In fact I am sure that managers bringing their sides to the Etihad must now say something along the lines of "Lets keep it tight, let them have the ball and I guarantee they will give us at least one great chance". We have seen this play out time and time again.
Yes, but that you missed the point that his problem was partly his own doing by being a fanny and letting Costa get the better of him.
I think Pep, & the club, have a plan. I'd be absolutely gobsmacked if Pep hasn't got cbs in mind as part of it, but I don't think any panic buying is on the agenda, so unless one who is on the list becomes available in Jan, we will just work with what we have, until the players who suit 'the plan' can be brought in.
I recon, if this was Barca, he'd just move someone like Fernandinho to cb & he'd get away with it.
The aerial threat, in particular of the Premier League, is probably putting him off that idea.
Otamendi has no right to be as shit as he was v Chelsea & is capable of much better imo. I think we just have to hope he produces better for a decent percentage of the season.
But the latest worry for me re that way of thinking, was seeing a recording of the Celtic game & hearing Richard Dunne assess Otameni pre game, & basically he could have posted on here the very same stuff I posted almost word for word, but it was actually a worse assessment, as if he thinks thats what Otamendi is full stop, & we just need to getrid of him & to sign a new one, rather than suggesting possible room for improvement.
He really did seem to suggest that Otamendi is, well basically shite at everything & has no idea how to do the job.
The upside of this, for me, is that having a completely inept cb next to a young kid & a sloth v Chelsea, probably the best team we will face in the Prem, was not enough to prevent us tactically opening them up, & we should have actually won that game, easily & in past years would have done, with about 5 goals.
So I recon the answer is, make the best of it at the back for now, accept we will get turned over sometimes, but ffs, put the ball in the net at the other end. Then we are in with a shout.
Totally agree. He was sorley missed yesterday and would have at least attemted to thwart their play as opposed to the non tackling Stones and Kolarov.I think from Pep's POV our defense is complete shit and there isn't anything he can do to 'sort it out' so he's fine with Otamendi's hyper aggressive/high variance style. We missed him out there today. If we going to play three at the back vs a deadly counter attacking team you need nico out there to make those wild/hyper aggressive/last ditch effort tackles IMO. Nico gets more stick than Stones and AK but he's easily the most valuable. Call me crazy but I think he's the most important player on the squad. We've picked up 3 points in the 5 matches he's missed and we were lucky to get 3 points v sunderland.