Our attack - what's off?

[mccity]

Not having a striker for many games didn't help. And then the 1st game we do have one is against Liverpool, a good team that defend with multiple defensive midfielders.


We're clearly suffering from not having Silva, and De Bruyne has been a bit wasteful with his creativity. But I'd like to see us play a run of games with strike options before I get too concerned.

 

[Blue Til Death]

Sterling is shi*e that’s the problem and 25 min against 36 year old Milner and he doesn’t beat him once says it all.

Sterling has bad games like all players, Sterling being shit??? That comment is so far off the mark, you need the Hubble space telescope to see it....!

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

Sterling is shi*e that’s the problem and 25 min against 36 year old Milner and he doesn’t beat him once says it all.

He is not shite clearly. His fitness is a real worry, he has been invisible for the second half of most of the games this season.

 

[JOGAMIGMOG]

Hoof it up to a big lad, go after the knock downs and second balls. Leg it dead fast, get stuck in and hoof it up once more. It's a simple game.

 

[cityblue123]

I think we over do instead of having a crack at goal. It's quite obvious we are lacking goals. 7 games and only plus 1. The injury to aguero hasn't helped and gabby plus losing silva. Kdb looks jaded and should have been replaced yesterday. Although we made some good signings over the summer I'd have liked to see another striker come in. A centre forward, a replacement for aguero who let's face it is now in his 30s and picking up injuries regular. Not easy though with his record. Another big Big miss fernandinho, again ageing and I ain't sure his replacement is up to it!

 

[1974Blue]

I would like us to try something like this

———————Ederson————————
———Dias———Laporte———Ake———
Walker————————————Cancelo
———————De Bruyne———————
———-Sterling————Bernardo———
————————Foden————————
————————Jesus————————

 

[FCBarca]

Lack of 1v1 quality from what I have seen. The collective play is always there but Pep's teams always coupled this with elite 1v1 individual quality players and that is absent atm

I thought that person might be Sterling but that has not been the case, especially on the left which I still cannot understand why Pep insists on him there

Else, it puts a lot of pressure on the collective play being seamless & clinical in front of goal without an elite standout player to make the difference

Then there are the FBs which remains an issue

 

[MCFC-Carl-88]

Boils down to pace for me, a few have said it in this thread and it seems fairly obvious watching us.
Peps had 3 sides that have all been almost untouchable, his original Barca side, his Bayern side and then our side of 3 years ago.

All had one thing in common, pace to burn in the front 3, Pedro, Messi, Henry, Etoo. Then Bayern he had robben, ribery, Coman. He comes to city who have sterling, he buys sane to add more pace.

If you want to press you need pace so you can do it so fast the oppo can’t handle it! That’s why Liverpool are so good. Salah and mane are pressing you at lightning speed. Then once you lose it the balls gone and in your box before you know what’s happend. City was so fast once we won the ball in the a press a few years ago.

Now we pass sideways or Gundo jogs forward and then plays a one two with the centre back before even considering a forward pass.
We don’t press at speed cause we don’t have the legs then we can’t attack at speed cause we have no runners. If we had Sane or someone with similar pace yesterday we would of beat Liverpool as they wouldn’t of handled it.

The tempo is so slow as the players don’t have anyone with any speed to up it, gundo and Rodri are so so slow and it’s frustrating they are a bit part of the problem but if they had more pace outside they would look twice as good as they would know win it and play in behind the full back at first chance.

Our forward line has been declining for a couple
Of seasons and nothings been done to fix it yet.

We’ve got the defence looking good so hopefully the next part of the plan is to refresh the front line.
I’d take Messi but I wouldn’t put him out wide, I’d play Rodri as DM, KDB box to box and then messi close in behind the striker where he doesn’t have to run as much but can get in the pocket.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

1. Typing "Simple answer, Fernandinho" reads to anyone that you think the answer is current Fernandinho otherwise you would out the caveat of in his prime there.

2. Can't agree on that, they had some dangerous plays but they came to nothing and I think the only real chance they had was a penalty unless you count the Henderson shot that went 10 yards wide. We have had games before where the keeper has made 3 - 4 good saves in their period of dominance or we have just conceded a couple of goals.

3. The Gundogan Rodri midfield has its place such as the win against Madrid last season (I think they also played in most of other big game wins last season). I don't think changing this will magically improve our results when there are issues everywhere in front of the back 5.

4. Your post read that we need current Fernandinho back to sort the issues, that is a delusional opinion.

6. I wasn't in a box, not sure what this is getting at?

The fact that you referred to my “making out that Fernandinho in his prime would magically fix all of our problems....” suggests you understood perfectly well that I did not have the 36 year old version in mind

 

[decmancity]

Lack of goals from anywhere else on the pitch is a worry for me and teams know it. See out Jesus and Sterling and we are unlikely to score. Bernardos threat has dropped off a cliff, Foden is sat on the bench, KDB looks knackered and we just aren't getting enough from Mahrez.

Torres and Gundogan have found some goals in the CL but we need them in the prem and quickly. Defensively we have looked quite strong and we are still creating a few chances but seems like a lot fewer than normal.