Our attack - what's off?

[simon23]

I think a number of things are off, defence hasn’t been solid which put extra pressure on them to score 2/3 goals a game.
Change in the midfield dynamic has meant build up has been slower.
Teams know what spaces we want to work in and have closed them off.

The big thing for me is that we are so reactive in the transfer windows. We arnt proactive in bringing a top player in just cause he will make us better.

United under Fergie constantly was bringing fresh attacking players in once he felt the old ones had been worked out.
Liverpool this year added Jota and it changed them just a touch which means teams still arnt sure how they will play.

We have let our front line go stale, if anything it’s weaker for Sane leaving. We still havnt replaced Dzeko.
Mahrez is a step below where we should be going. Torres looks great but really he should be brought in slowly and shouldn’t be a first 11 player yet. Silva has left and we are weaker for it.
When did we last buy a top top attacking player that improved us in the final 3rd??
Youv got to change, youv got to keep teams guessing. It creates a buzz around the team when a new player comes in and scores a few.
Sadly we have ignored it the final 3rd and once again we are left chasing our tails.

absolutely spot on

Mahrez is awful and has never fitted in.....that has potentially helped towards costing us Sane, could cost us Braff and will cost us to get rid of him cause no way anyone is paying the amount we paid for him.

We have let our attacking line decline - Jesus is decent, nothing more, Sterling is a great performer but not clinical. torres very young and needs to be brought on slowly.

We always seem to be a step behind in our planning...and Ive little faith we will get the targets we should go for (

we delayed getting a centre half and that cost us.
We STILL havent got a left back (3 seasons now?)

If we delay getting a forward in it will really cost us....As I said Jesus is good but not enough on his own and neither is our attack once Kun is gone.

 

[Musampa 209]

Its not rocket-science...if you replace individuals with inferior ones, you will get worse as a team. Unfortunately, we have become experts in doing this.

Mahrez - Not as good as Sterling
Sterling - Not as good as Sane
Rodri - Not as good as Fern
Jesus (Who I love) / Current Aguero - Not as good as peak Aguero
Whoever - Not as good as Merlin

We have gotten weaker in 5 of the 6 midfield/forward places and the only reason its not a full-house is because KDB is still here. What makes it worse is we have managed to do all of this over a 2 year period, which is a feat in itself.

We had IMO collectively the best midfield/forward 6 in world football and now we don't.

This is bang on

 

[fulabeer]

I would say tempo and fine margins.
No matter how good you think we played in the two winning seasons, we actually didn't play well in every game.

Apart from winning with a fear factor, it was pure relentlessness that wore teams down.
A lot of matches came down to some very small things that won it for us.

If teams are parking the bus, only one touch football or a very tall target man is going to be effective.
We can change one, not the other.

We have too many players that are just slightly off their game at the moment.
Edison seems distracted. He is not thinking correctly for some reason.
DeBruyne isn't firing on all cylinders. His passes are not there.

We have Silva and Mahrez doing a lot of running round with no end product.
Even Laporte isn't 100%

We are all looking at players thinking they are not trying. But that is bullshit.
If we was winning these games in the last ten minutes, people would be praising saying their workrate was producing the goods.
Also Pep would drop any player not giving 100%

It is coming and we will start playing better. How long is anybody's guess!!!

 

[Homar]

Playing with inverted wingers against a low block doesn’t make any sense. However, we don’t have someone to partner Sterling in playing out wide. None of our other options are quick enough. Foden is probably the best choice here, but he doesn’t quite have the blistering pace required.

Both Mahrez and Torres were brought in to play as inverted wingers. Clearly, neither can play effectively in the tight spaces when the opposition defend compactly. Even if they receive the ball level with the opposition’s back line, neither have the strength to hold off the defender or the acceleration required to get goal side.

We should sacrifice one of them to bring in a traditional winger with electric pace. Given that Mahrez just doesn’t fit the team, he should very be the one to make way. We need the option of stretching the pitch again. We need wingers that can beat the opposition’s fullbacks for pace. Add a world-class replacement for Sergio and we’ll have an attack capable of challenging for trophies again.

 

[OrigamiNinja]

Playing with inverted wingers against a low block doesn’t make any sense. However, we don’t have someone to partner Sterling in playing out wide. None of our other options are quick enough. Foden is probably the best choice here, but he doesn’t quite have the blistering pace required.

Both Mahrez and Torres were brought in to play as inverted wingers. Clearly, neither can play effectively in the tight spaces when the opposition defend compactly. Even if they receive the ball level with the opposition’s back line, neither have the strength to hold off the defender or the acceleration required to get goal side.

We should sacrifice one of them to bring in a traditional winger with electric pace. Given that Mahrez just doesn’t fit the team, he should very be the one to make way. We need the option of stretching the pitch again. We need wingers that can beat the opposition’s fullbacks for pace. Add a world-class replacement for Sergio and we’ll have an attack capable of challenging for trophies again.

We can play with inverted wingers but only with the correct personnel to execute against the plan. The opposition have nothing to fear from our inverted wingers because we are so one-dimensional in our play.

Mahrez gets the ball and 99% of the time, its either ending with him passing backwards to Rodri or Walker, or him cutting inside. This is so easy to defend against. When Pep had Messi as an inverted winger, he also had Dani Alvez bombing on past him making the opposition worry about not just the man on the ball. When Mahrez gets it, Walker is usually stood on the halfway line with his finger up his bum. We have the same issue to a lesser extent on the left.

We either abandon the inverted wingers, or we buy better attacking full backs.

 

[supersonicblue]

Pep played with inverted wingers at Barca such as Neymar and Messi, he's tried to do it again ever since Marhez signed but with poorer players and in a league where directness and pace are more effective. Look at son playing on the right allowed them to play directly. Salah whose right-footed plays on the right, Mane whose explosive is good enough to play on the left which sterling is not. I say get Gundo at 6 as he's quicker distributing than Rodri, Bernie and Kev in the middle, Phil on the left and Raz/Torres on the right. By-line every time or even better-making defenders go towards their own goal and pin them in. We were at our best with Leroy and Raz on the left and right. Mahrez was an awful signing and changed the style of our attack.

 

[Goater=Legend]

Full backs coming into midfield instead of overlapping the wingers.

We have a winger on the left that cant/won't use his left foot so just stops and passes it bsck, same on the other side a left footed player that cant/won't use his right foot.

A midfield that is slow and takes about 3 or 4 passes just to go forward

 

[Dirty Harry]

Pep played with inverted wingers at Barca such as Neymar and Messi, he's tried to do it again ever since Marhez signed but with poorer players and in a league where directness and pace are more effective. Look at son playing on the right allowed them to play directly. Salah whose right-footed plays on the right, Mane whose explosive is good enough to play on the left which sterling is not. I say get Gundo at 6 as he's quicker distributing than Rodri, Bernie and Kev in the middle, Phil on the left and Raz/Torres on the right. By-line every time or even better-making defenders go towards their own goal and pin them in. We were at our best with Leroy and Raz on the left and right. Mahrez was an awful signing and changed the style of our attack.

Pretty much agree with that, and I'm someone who was extremely pro sign Mahrez, I could see exactly why we wanted him, he should be a fantastic player for us, but sadly, all too often, he's not.

 

[PrezIke]

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.

Interesting point mate but did Pep beat Klopp’s geggenpress? His record against Klopp is poor I believe. When he pits his tactics head to head his lose. Whenever we play Liverpool we have to find some new tactic to employ or we lose like we did in CL badly and that was peak Pep City football.

Maybe it’s which works better against other sides. English football is different and the PL is rich now there are more challenging sides to play top to bottom.

Dortmund were heavy outsiders and won the league with a lot of your talent. They kept losing their best players so it’s hard to beat the side who takes them over and over again.

I love Pep, don’t get me wrong, and it may be some are tired but I also think the lack of success in the area he is supposedly an expert, CL, problems defensively, lack of respect and love for City like say Liverpool is also a real factor in belief psychologically on the players.

 

[simon23]

I would say tempo and fine margins.
No matter how good you think we played in the two winning seasons, we actually didn't play well in every game.

Apart from winning with a fear factor, it was pure relentlessness that wore teams down.
A lot of matches came down to some very small things that won it for us.

If teams are parking the bus, only one touch football or a very tall target man is going to be effective.
We can change one, not the other.

We have too many players that are just slightly off their game at the moment.
Edison seems distracted. He is not thinking correctly for some reason.
DeBruyne isn't firing on all cylinders. His passes are not there.

We have Silva and Mahrez doing a lot of running round with no end product.
Even Laporte isn't 100%

We are all looking at players thinking they are not trying. But that is bullshit.
If we was winning these games in the last ten minutes, people would be praising saying their workrate was producing the goods.
Also Pep would drop any player not giving 100%

It is coming and we will start playing better. How long is anybody's guess!!!

Tempo i would agree with...and a lot of the other points you make

But its not fine margins...the gap is becoming a chasm and that chasm is in midfield and upfront:

Marhez is not fit for purpose.
Torres Settling in
Sterling looking like he was when he first arrived.
B.Silva - regressing
Jesus -the same as always - lots of effort but not clinical and rarely creates something out of nothing.
KDB - knackered