Olympiacos (A) - CL | Post-Match Thread

[shemnel]

was alright, i dont think these midweek away euro trips hold any love with the squads and managers at the moment, all the matches have a feel of 'getting in the way' at the moment, in fact it feels like all the games up to Feb feel like they're 'getting in the way'. So, from a qualification perspective that was good, we dominated and did the job. no it wasnt sparkling (again) but i retain faith we'll start finding the net a bit more soon.

 

[Marvin]

i have to say i think he is offside in the world of VAR, but there we have it.

 

[chaddblue]

I've no idea with the new rules is his head shoulder offside or not?

the Olympiacos players foot is keeping him onside

 

[Blue Maverick]

Surprised he didn’t trip over the line

 

[TheCentralScrutinizer]

Whether it was offside or not it was dealt with in seconds,that would have taken about 5 minutes to decide at weekend

 

[Marvin]

Whether it was offside or not it was dealt with in seconds,that would have taken about 5 minutes to decide at weekend

VAR doesn't work in the CL or PL. Think back a bit to other City games in Europe!

 

[Great Kompany]

Nobody can possibly be happy with this team.


Some players are too comfortable about their position in the club. Sterling and Mahrez are perfect examples of that.
Agüero are on clear decline as injuries are coming regularly. Rodri is too slow in midfield and we have no one except De Bruyne who can be creative. I had hopes Bernardo would help him in that department but doesn’t look like it.

I honestly don’t know what is needed. Maybe Peps tactics are not really working all that well anymore. Not too long ago Mourinhos defensive tactics became obscelete but prior to that, he was one of the most successful in Europe.

I know it’s a win but who are the opponents... Not good enough by any standards.

That's the only thing that worried me in an overall decent game. They are stacked up at the end of their goal with a double parked bus and let's be honest it worked for them to a certain extend. The score was 1-0 and one mistake on our part and it could have been 1-1.
Replace this opposition with spurs and two good players in Son and Kane and they could have nicked a goal or two.
As far as I think it's not wasteful but a more of a problem breaking down teams now. Kloop team's can still score goals against a parked bus but Pep teams lately are unable to do so.
There was a time in the first half where they were 7 opposition players where inside the penalty and every single ball we were throwing inside was being defended away with Sterling Foden and Jesus not getting an inch of space.
Is there a way to break such teams ?
How were we able to do that before these two seasons?
Well I am not paid north of 20 mil to think about that so I will leave that in the safe hands of Josep Guardiola!

 

[Saddleworth2]

VAR doesn't work in the CL or PL. Think back a bit to other City games in Europe!

It works fine. Its just its applied differently in some games than others.

 

[daflanger]

Well for me I saw the same kind of game we played against Spurs except that Olympiacos did not punish us on the counter. This could have easy gone the other way if they scored an equalizer or even scored first

We have a major problem in the final third and teams know exactly how to deal with us now. We are unable to score but we can skip keep 70% possession!

Mendy had some really good crosses into the box but no one was there to meet them or if they did meet them, they were fumbled. Same with Cancelo and I remember one with Bernardo that just needed a tap in!

What happened to our final touch in the box?! Suddenly all our players are stuck in 2nd gear and hovering around the mid field area. Even Aguero had to come back and take the ball from the half line and even defend!!!

I dunno what it is but our players forgot how to score! And buying new players is NOT going to help us. We need to get the players to learn how to score again. We should have won this game 5-0. The result was bad for all the control we had!

 

[Woody13]

It was a comfortable performance and quite a few of the positives we can take from this game I suppose are largely down to the ineptitude of the opposition. That’s not to sound pessimistic. Some of the areas we have been struggling has been stopping sides from countering on us so easily and getting some width down the wings (especially on the left) but they were less of an issue in this game as Olympiacos showed little ambition in which to counter us in numbers and didn’t have the requisite quality in which to do so anyway.

We got some much needed width down the left thanks to Mendy giving us that but he was given little to nothing to think about in terms of defending so almost had a free run down there.

Dias, Stones and Ederson didn’t put a foot wrong between them, in the minimal amount of work they had to do. I thought Rodri was decent again, but Olympiacos really didn’t pull him around and play around him like a lot of other sides have managed to do.

Ultimately, we got three points and a clean sheets away from home and progression to the last 16. Professional job done. We got minutes into the likes of Mendy, Stones, Fernandinho, Aguero, more development and joy for Foden and also rested KDB and Walker who were in dire need of a break. In a mixed season, this should be considered a decent evening, no all our problems are not solved, but we have achieved the first objective in the Champs Lge - qualification.