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

 

[Tokyo32]

We have many underperforming players so that means something is wrong with our system. I think we can give a little credit to the opponents because they are able to defend compact with numbers, there usually used to be space that our midfielders used to exploit but teams are very compact now. Maybe it is our fault because we push our defense high push teams back which means the opposition is deep and compact leaving us no space.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

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

I agree that tempo and directness really are an issue. How many times does a player receive the ball and then just passi back either 1 or 2 touch? They are doing this all the time even when there is space to turn and drive against the opposition. It seems like we are just s programmes team to pass for the sake of it

 

[cjn]

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.

I take issue with saying Sane is better than Sterling but the overall point is dead on, we haven't been particularly ambitious in the transfer market and the team has gotten worse because of it. Deciding we just didn't need to bother replacing Vinny last year was an even worse offense than the examples you mentioned also.

 

[Woody135]

People talking about inverted vs wide wingers being the problem are ignoring the fact that liverpools mane and salah are inverted wingers exactly the same as sterling and mahrez are.
Theyre just better.

Our problem is fully down to our speed of play. We are too slow which allows oppositions to get back into shape so they can defend well.

Not only that, because theyre in shape they can then counter attack us because everyone is in the right starting place. Hence we keep getting done.

Rodri is slower than fern. We dont have silva anymore and gundo, bernardo arent the same level and de bruyne isnt picking up the space he used to.

With the players we have, we need a new formation or new style to break the rhythm. Oppositions can plan to play us and the game plays out exactly how they expect it

 

[Craig]

I take issue with saying Sane is better than Sterling but the overall point is dead on, we haven't been particularly ambitious in the transfer market and the team has gotten worse because of it. Deciding we just didn't need to bother replacing Vinny last year was an even worse offense than the examples you mentioned also.

As a left winger i don’t think it’s even a debate. Like yo say though the rest of the post is very clear and for all the debates we have the OP breaks it down very well. So many inferior signings and it has caught up big time.

 

[OrigamiNinja]

I take issue with saying Sane is better than Sterling but the overall point is dead on, we haven't been particularly ambitious in the transfer market and the team has gotten worse because of it. Deciding we just didn't need to bother replacing Vinny last year was an even worse offense than the examples you mentioned also.

If we talk solely about the left-wing position, I doubt many would suggest that Sterling is a better left-winger than Sane. We were certainly a much better side with Sane on the left and Sterling on the right than we are now.

Taking position out of it, on pure footballing ability it is Sane every day and to be honest, I don't think its even that close despite what assist and goals stats may show.

 

[Craig]

People talking about inverted vs wide wingers being the problem are ignoring the fact that liverpools mane and salah are inverted wingers exactly the same as sterling and mahrez are.
Theyre just better.

Our problem is fully down to our speed of play. We are too slow which allows oppositions to get back into shape so they can defend well.

Not only that, because theyre in shape they can then counter attack us because everyone is in the right starting place. Hence we keep getting done.

Rodri is slower than fern. We dont have silva anymore and gundo, bernardo arent the same level and de bruyne isnt picking up the space he used to.

With the players we have, we need a new formation or new style to break the rhythm. Oppositions can plan to play us and the game plays out exactly how they expect it

Agreed their inverted wingers are better. In the case of Salah he’s probably the best in the world in that position (Messi still great but on the decline). Mane so much more comfortable on that side at driving past defenders than Sterling is. The other huge difference however is they have brilliant attacking fullbacks to provide the width so those 2 can drift inside and they still stretch teams. We don’t have that at all so really miss the width of a natural right or left sided attacker. Beyond baffling that Sterling doesn’t return to the right for a spell no matter how averagely he performs on the left or how much we’re struggling to stretch teams.

 

[Goater=Legend]

Liverpool have Robertson and Alex-Arnold bombing on and they're constantly in the penalty box whilst ours are stuck on the wing to make the pitch big

 

[hilts]

People talking about inverted vs wide wingers being the problem are ignoring the fact that liverpools mane and salah are inverted wingers exactly the same as sterling and mahrez are.
Theyre just better.

Our problem is fully down to our speed of play. We are too slow which allows oppositions to get back into shape so they can defend well.

Not only that, because theyre in shape they can then counter attack us because everyone is in the right starting place. Hence we keep getting done.

Rodri is slower than fern. We dont have silva anymore and gundo, bernardo arent the same level and de bruyne isnt picking up the space he used to.

With the players we have, we need a new formation or new style to break the rhythm. Oppositions can plan to play us and the game plays out exactly how they expect it

As mentioned candlepool have better fullbacks

Robertson mane salah trent

Cancelo sterling mahrez Walker

So we could decide to drop the inverted wingers but we don’t have a single left winger just loads of players who prefer the right side(great planning)

We only also have one attacking left back and that’s mendy and Cancelo is the best attacking right back but plays on the left because of Mendy and his problems with fitness and form.

So if we want round pegs in round holes we have

No LW Sterling at RW(wants to play LW)
Mendy Cancelo

Not great really the only option is to play wing backs Mendy(if fit and mentally right) and Cancelo and then try and sort out the left side again in January but moving players is tough.

Hence why I think this is probably the most balanced team

Ederson
Dias rodri laporte
Cancelo Kdb Silva mendy
Foden Jesus Torres

If we could sell zinchenko and mahrez and bring in a attacking LB and LW we could play sterling RW or LW.

We could play ake and walker as full backs with wingers or attacking full backs with inverted wingers or wingbacks.

Plans a,b and c

Summer you would only need to sign a striker. A very expensive one at that.

 

[iceman]

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