Our attack - what's off?

Watch the highlights of our 3-1 win vs spuds at Wembley with Sterling/Sane/Jesus/Silva. We ripped them apart with two simple things. Pace and width
 
We look clueless right now, getting hard to look at the table with us in 13th and now below Penchester Utd. Why doesn't Pep give Foden full games, the lad is the only real creative spark currently and has to be given a go over Mahrez surely?
 
i was thinking last night after the loss and thought how many goals are in this team this season ?
sterling golden patch maybe over aguero injury hit ? jesus injury hit ? KDB form is shot and mahrez well ?

over the last 4 season most of the forward line and midfield had goals of 10 plus and scored for fun. now am looking and thinking where are the goals ? do we get in the box enough to create chances ? why are we so focus in getting down the wings and looking to go round the back of the defences

the little pass at the edge of the box and looking for the 1/2 or the give and go ball has gone
we are look for a killer pass by KDB from 40 yards out wide ? the magic of david silva is a big big loss. we are looking far to much and banking on KDB to step up and find that killer pass or wonder goal. but sadly kevin of so out of salts and his form is shot to bits its painful watching right now

something is missing and not right ? you don't become a shit team over night. but this season is so chalk and cheese and we don't look like scoring 2 or 3 goals. in fact we look so scared to shoot and we are trying to walk the ball in

pep needs a plan B or C and the premier league teams has worked us out and they know you keep us out for 20 to 30 minutes then the panic starts and we lose our shape and then cough up a goal ? am hating myself for saying this but the need for a big and good in the air striker is needed. something different to use and getting the ball in the box for the big man to fight for ? even if he does not win the ball the 2nd ball in the box when it drops sends panic into defences
 
I don’t think it’s that we need a plan b or c as such, it’s that our plan a has changed from two seasons ago and neither the shape nor the players in it are as good as they used to be.

The issue from it is lack of variety in general.
 
I think one could classify the decision to look for a larger sized no. 6 stemmed from our lack of strength and mistakes at centre half with Otamendi and Stones impacting everything, creating a sense of panic, "Why is this not working?"

Rodri is, yes, Busquets-lite and is what we had hoped he will be, but the truth is also the game has changed. I think for International football Rodi will be a massive success, or in a slower side not focused on high tempo games, even though he can move the ball quickly with deft touches, his recovery pace and size I wonder how one can tactically determine with who we have.

He wasn't even poor at all yesterday, but Fernandinho was everpresent and vital to counter attacks and stopping them.

Look at Spurs yesterday.

They have Ndombele as their no 6 now.

Mourhino previously used much slower more positional no. 6's like Matic and Mikel.

At RM he had Khadira.

At United he went for Fred, used Fellani for similar reasons, although Fred was to be more of a Fernandinho box to box type player.

Kante came to Chelsea after he was gone, but our fans I have constantly read are in love with him but he's not technically good enough if you put things together correctly, IMHO.

In Ndombele he now gets more of that and is a factor for Spurs to get what Mourhino wants in the modern game.

More pace and more technical ability to go along with the changes with pressing and fitness.

Last season Ndombele, we saw from the Amazon documentary that he struggled adapting. He is improving and actually WE PERHAPS SHOULD HAVE SIGNED HIM IF YOU ASK ME WHEN TXIKI TARGETD JORGINHO.

Pep tried hard to bring technical football to England. It worked in many ways, revolutionising the game in England, but Klopp's gegenpress revealed the technical pressing possession system's failings against certain tactics that initially other managers had not discovered.

Years in more and more clubs have figured this out and other factors have undermined growth not mentioned here.

Pep and Txiki arguably have over-reacted to these tactical struggles, hoping to address them signing Rodri, and now we are where we are.

TBF, the issues at Left back are a factor as well because if we had the Mendy we first signed I think we'd be THAT much better.
 
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Our defense. Opposition teams play 11 man defense behind the ball. Which other team has to contend with this mass defense ?

Its been proved successful, if they counter attack with pace when our wingback are caught deep in the opponents half .

Every time a team catch us on the counter it proves that system against us works.

Pep likes possession the opposition fall back condensing their defense in front of their goal. We try to play through the defense and takes shots when there are as many as 21 players in the congested penalty area.

Teams catch us on the break because our pigeon catcher gets caught up field quite often. The same pigeon catcher who has limited effect going forward.

The problem is there for Pep to solve. He hasn`t solved it in the last 47 league games and IMO the problem is getting worse not better.

We have the same problem in the CL.
 
I think one could classify the decision to look for a larger sized no. 6 stemmed from our lack of strength and mistakes at centre half with Otamendi and Stones impacting everything, creating a sense of panic, "Why is this not working?"

Rodri is, yes, Busquets-lite and is what we had hoped he will be, but the truth is also the game has changed. I think for International football Rodi will be a massive success, or in a slower side not focused on high tempo games, even though he can move the ball quickly with deft touches, his recovery pace and size I wonder how one can tactically determine with who we have.

He wasn't even poor at all yesterday, but Fernandinho was everpresent and vital to counter attacks and stopping them.

Look at Spurs yesterday.

They have Ndombele as their no 6 now.

Mourhino previously used much slower more positional no. 6's like Matic and Mikel.

At RM he had Khadira.

At United he went for Fred, used Fellani for similar reasons, although Fred was to be more of a Fernandinho box to box type player.

Kante came to Chelsea after he was gone, but our fans I have constantly read are in love with him but he's not technically good enough if you put things together correctly, IMHO.

In Ndombele he now gets more of that and is a factor for Spurs to get what Mourhino wants in the modern game.

More pace and more technical ability to go along with the changes with pressing and fitness.

Last season Ndombele, we saw from the Amazon documentary that he struggled adapting. He is improving and actually WE PERHAPS SHOULD HAVE SIGNED HIM IF YOU ASK ME WHEN TXIKI TARGETD JORGINHO.

Pep tried hard to bring technical football to England. It worked in many ways, revolutionising the game in England, but Klopp's gegenpress revealed the technical pressing possession system's failings against certain tactics that initially other managers had not discovered.

Years in more and more clubs have figured this out and other factors have undermined growth not mentioned here.

Pep and Txiki arguably have over-reacted to these tactical struggles, hoping to address them signing Rodri, and now we are where we are.

TBF, the issues at Left back are a factor as well because if we had the Mendy we first signed I think we'd be THAT much better.
Just to set things straight, Pep was exposed to gegenpressing and the more direct play in BM, and he overcome it. He adapted and eventually played what was (at that time) a new kind of football. A mix of tiki-taka and more direct, penetrating football. Much like the amazing season he had with city, breaking all records.

The thing was that after three seasons at BM things went down hill. Players wanted to go. Players not really happy. Performance declining.

It seems that the same thing may be happening at city.
 
most of our shots are blocked by defenders, hence keepers hardly have a save to make. Either that or our forwards are running in to a packed box.

we never split defences apart anymore because teams are sat that far back, Fergie knew how to attack a packed defence and so does klopp

pep plays the same against a packed box or a forward team. Teams that sit back against Liverpool get battered with speed and pace, we don't do anything to spread panic and force errors.

I love the passing and possession, the press, but it has been to slow lately, to easy to defend against.

the way we are playing we will win a third of our games, draw the other third, then lose a lot by games like spurs where you look at the stats and think wow we must have battered this team. But lost 2 nil making a donkey like jose look a tactical genius.
 
Our defense. Opposition teams play 11 man defense behind the ball. Which other team has to contend with this mass defense ?

Its been proved successful, if they counter attack with pace when our wingback are caught deep in the opponents half .

Every time a team catch us on the counter it proves that system against us works.

Pep likes possession the opposition fall back condensing their defense in front of their goal. We try to play through the defense and takes shots when there are as many as 21 players in the congested penalty area.

Teams catch us on the break because our pigeon catcher gets caught up field quite often. The same pigeon catcher who has limited effect going forward.

The problem is there for Pep to solve. He hasn`t solved it in the last 47 league games and IMO the problem is getting worse not better.

We have the same problem in the CL.
Agreed, it would be nice if our wingers actually took their man on on the outside with skill and /or pace occasionally just to mix it up a bit and fizz the ball across goal, the odd time we do this, it's panic stations in the oppositions defence.
Instead though, 99% of the time, he just checks back, cuts inside, plays it inside to Bernie (as an example) who then plays it to an (now out of position) overlapping Kyle/left back, who then often plays it inside, the ball's eventually worked in an arc to the other side, rinse and repeat until we lose possession, opposition break etc etc etc.

It seems to me there's an obsession with possession football all over the pitch, which is fine in the first two thirds, but the last third, occasionally/often you need to take the reins off a bit and give the flair players more freedom and less restrictions, it's all a bit too "safe" though much of the time.
 

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