Pep Guardiola - 2019/20 Performances

[Ezzy]

It's not the fact that Guardiola changed the system or the players, it's just that he got it so incredibly wrong from the beginning and then stood there twitching for most of the game while it continued to not work.

What do you think Pep should've done then in your honest opinion?

You saw what happened during the FA Cup when using the 4-3-3 Vs a 5-3-2 / 3-4-4...

Our 9 League defeats also paint the same story.

look at Lyon's 3 midfielders:
Aouar(22)
Guimaraes (22)
Caqueret (20)

all 3 of them are assured in possession/press resistant & have iron lungs to press Intensely for 90 minutes.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

What do you think Pep should've done then in your honest opinion?

look at Lyon's 3 midfielders:
Aouar(22)
Guimaraes (22)
Caqueret (20)

all 3 of them are assured in possession/press resistant & have iron lungs to press Intensely for 90 minutes.

We played an over congested defensive third because we started three natural holding midfielders. Anyone who pushed up out of the defensive line was just adding further density to the double pivot. Swapping out one of Gundogan or Rodri for someone more flexible like Bernardo or Foden would have given us more intensity, more fluidity and provided us with more of a threat when it came to breaking through opposition lines.

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

What do you think Pep should've done then in your honest opinion?

look at Lyon's 3 midfielders:
Aouar(22)
Guimaraes (22)
Caqueret (20)

all 3 of them are assured in possession/press resistant & have iron lungs to press Intensely for 90 minutes.

Unless something drastic is done to that midfield then I fear there's more bad news for the coming season! Klopp would be licking his lips after seeing that analysis. Liverpool press even harder than Lyon, Pep totally fucked up with the Rodri signing, I really hope we find some sort of replacement or maybe try Ake at DM, see how it works, Pep did it with Lahm so maybe Ake could just do a better job there but Rodri in the midfield against the scousers? Rodri in the midfield against any intense pressing team? we would end up winning only the carabao cup.......again.

 

[Ezzy]

We played an over congested defensive third because we started three natural holding midfielders. Anyone who pushed up out of the defensive line was just adding further density to the double pivot. Swapping out one of Gundogan or Rodri for someone more flexible like Bernardo or Foden would have given us more intensity, more fluidity and provided us with more of a threat when it came to breaking through opposition lines.

So going with:

Sterling Jesus
Foden Rodri Kevin

sure it would provide us with more fluidity & threats, But do you think we would be able to control the midfield with only Rodri?

Foden, Bernardo, Kevin cannot help control a midfield to the extent that David or Gundogan can.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

So going with:

Sterling Jesus
Foden Rodri Kevin

sure it would provide us with more fluidity & threats, But do you think we would be able to control the midfield with only Rodri?

Foden, Bernardo, Kevin cannot help control a midfield to the extent that David or Gundogan can.

Do we really need to control the midfield as much as in previous seasons? We need to play to our strengths and there has been an emerging pattern as the season has gone on of us winning games against decent opposition without obliterating them in the possession stats.

I think we need to embrace the fact that some of our best players aren't necessarily built towards dominating the ball.

Winning the game needs to take precedence over dominating the midfield. We've been shown too many times now that those two things aren't synonymous.

 

[Ezzy]

Do we really need to control the midfield as much as in previous seasons? We need to play to our strengths and there has been an emerging pattern as the season has gone on of us winning games against decent opposition without obliterating them in the possession stats.
I think we need to embrace the fact that some of our best players aren't necessarily built towards dominating the ball.

Winning the game needs to take precedence over dominating the midfield. We've been shown too many times now that those two things aren't synonymous.

yes we need to control the midfield, it is imperative.
most of our players aren't exactly built to play Route 1 football either( Or counter-attacking)

How else are we supposed play to our strength?
We tried that against Arsenal in the FA cup and we lost comprehensively 2-0....

against Arsenal in the FA Cup their xG matched their score line.

against Lyon their xG was something like 0.9.

 

[St.Pauli support]

We can go round in circles for ages but we won't find a solution only discussing tactics when first of all when it counts we concede goals due schoolboy defending,
midfield clownery combined with VAR nonsense
and a pub-team howler.

We were crumbling under the pressure on this night, unable to do what we CAN do and our fears came true - David beat Goliath.
It happens everywhere where humans are involved.

No problem if it happens once, it just naturally does.
But we can see a pattern here and that means we have to expect this pattern to appear again. That's our problem. It's deep in Pep's and some player's heads.

Pep and his team and/or the club have to eliminate that pattern.
Pep is aware of that when he says "we have to be ourselves".
Of course he has to help his players "being themselves" and arguably his changed setup didn't.

Best thing now is: reduce pressure, lower your expectations.

We are 2nd in the PL and won the League Cup.
We are nothing special. We should be humble and even happy if other fans talk us down. It's much easier to start glory from there.

In the meantime form a stress resistent team that is able to meet high expectations on a constant level. It's very difficult though.

 

[Charlesfarsbar]

4-3-3
Sterling Jesus Mahrez
David Gundogan Kevin
Mendy Laporte Garcia Walker
Arsenal (H) June 17th --> 3-0 Win
Arsenal 4-3-3


4-3-3
Sterling Jesus Mahrez
David Gundogan Kevin
Mendy Laporte Garcia Walker
Arsenal (A) July 18th --> 2-0 Loss
Arsenal 3-4-3

This is spot on and pinpoints where Guardiola‘s thoughts were going into this game

we also struggled against Chelsea since the lockdown who also played a 343

he’s trying to cover the faults in the squad by matching them up , he just picked the wrong selection of players to acheive it

Ederson

walker stones Laporte

cancelo Rodri de Bruyne mendy

foden Jesus sterling

the side above makes much more sense but he has a lack of trust in some of them

big season coming up , he either needs to commit to extending or we start looking for a new manager and announce it before the season starts

my preference would be to extend for a couple more years but if not I think we should move him aside for the sake of the club going forward

that will never happen though which is a major worry

 

[Ezzy]

This is spot on and pinpoints where Guardiola‘s thoughts were going into this game

we also struggled against Chelsea since the lockdown who also played a 343

he’s trying to cover the faults in the squad by matching them up , he just picked the wrong selection of players to acheive it

Ederson

walker stones Laporte

cancelo Rodri de Bruyne mendy

foden Jesus sterling

the side above makes much more sense but he has a lack of trust in some of them

It's not so much about trust, but about options being limited due to having an un-balance midfield personnel.

walker stones Laporte

cancelo Rodri de Bruyne mendy

foden Jesus sterling

With this line-up we become much more fluid & attacking, but we will end up with the same problem Guardiola was trying to avoid:
us bieng counter-attacked by long balls into the wings Channels

• because when attacking we will need to be a front 4( One of The wing-backs needs to push up), So effectively adopting a 3-3-4 in possession.
• unless Foden/Mahrez/Bernardo drops into the midfield, we will get outnumbered in the middle of the pitch(super dangerous when we lose the ball)
• drop one of the front 3 to midfield, and we are going to need the other wing-back to also push up in order to support the attack (same problem as point 1)
• Rodri & Kevin is not a secure enough Double pivot at this level (yet)

Vs.

Fernandinho Garcia Laporte

Walker Rodri Gundogan Kevin Cancelo

Jesus sterling

with this line up we can adopt the 3-4-3 / 3-3-4 while still being able to prevent long balls into the Channels

With the intention of Using Kevin as the RWB in possession, so that Walker can be part of the midfield.

It makes us more secure from Long balls into the Channels, and allows us to still maintain control, even with only 2 in midfield (Rodri & Gundo)

But unfortunately natural creativity will be few and far between.


no matter which one you picked(3-4-3 / 5-3-2 / 4-3-3)
it had to be a near perfect game from us to be able to break Lyon down.

Our Midfield un-balance is what hindered us.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Had we gone with the same tactics as the Real game would Raheem have tucked that one away, and would Eddie not have dropped his bollock? These incidents are not tactical things - they are the result of micro-second decisions by individual players that go inextricably tits up.