Pep Guardiola - 2019/20 Performances

[sir baconface]

When all the stars are in alignment, we are an object of footballing beauty.

When they aren't, we don’t really know what to do.

 

[blueinsa]

One of the first times I've seen him panic and turn away from his usual game plan and it failed miserably.

His decision to go 3 at the back, defensive and his subs in the game was atrocious.

For me it was one of the worst performances post takeover last night, that bad.

 

[Saddleworth2]

We couldn't retain the ball because he decided to take a man out of midfield and bring on an extra centreback at half time and simply allowed them to come at us for 45 minutes.

Alex reckons we can't go from being an expansive, offense oriented team to being a backs to the wall, deep lying, defensive one in an instant. My question would be why we decided to try it instead of sticking to our principals in the way you'd expect of such a single-minded manager.

Exactly. My view is that we had 4 specialist defenders on the pitch, 1 world class DM/defender, 3 other midfielders Bernie/Rodri/gundogan. Tell me honestly that those players are incapable of keeping shape and maintaining their fundamental principles which is to retain the ball and defend in the opposition half. They are fully capable of doing it but decided that defending deep, like headless chickens was a far better idea. That’s the first game this season I have been genuinely disappointed and angry at a performance. Whichever way you want to look at it it was a shambles.

 

[alexmcity]

I responded to your question before you answered it so forgive me for giving you the courtesy of not copying and pasting a previous comment in response.

But here you go, just for you:



You can argue that the best offence is a good defence but, when you isolate the actual defence, we've not had a solid, organised, cohesive defensive unit since he's arrived.

If you have a different take on it, that's fine. I understand your perspective but disagree. That doesn't mean your view is unfounded.

I responded to your question before you asked it so forgive me for giving you the courtesy of not copying and pasting a previous comment in response.

But here you go, just for you:



You can argue that the best offence is a good defence but, when you isolate the actual defence, we've not had a solid, organised, cohesive defensive unit since he's arrived.

If you have a different take on it, that's fine. I understand your perspective but disagree. That doesn't mean your view is unfounded.

It's not that Pep sees attack as the best defence but that he sees the team defending and attacking as a whole: the defence starts from the forwards and the attack from Ederson. The point of the defensive organisation is to prevent chances and goals at which we excelled for two seasons and were better than Liverpool during the run in. You have a fantastic defensive organisation when you concede just 4 goals over 14 games.

Your complaint is that Pep doesn't organise the defence in a classical manner when the team defends with many players behind the ball. But this is not our way of defending and of playing in general. The important thing is that we had the right balance between both phases of the game which made it possible for us to go well above 90 pts twice.

Last night we couldn't keep possession for the simple reason we were a man down for practically the whole game and aay from home at that, not just for 20 minutes.

 

[Saddleworth2]

One of the first times I've seen him panic and turn away from his usual game plan and it failed miserably.

His decision to go 3 at the back, defensive and his subs in the game was atrocious.

For me it was one of the worst performances post takeover last night, that bad.

Completely agree. It was shambolic. You can normally pick out positives from a loss, there were absolutely none yesterday. Not one.

 

[blueinsa]

Completely agree. It was shambolic. You can normally pick out positives from a loss, there were absolutely none yesterday. Not one.

He sticks to his principles and we get beat ive no issue as ive seen them win so much for us and its given us the best football i have ever seen us play.

To do that last night was abject on his part and his first real sign of pressure and panic and its why i am so scathing of the performance last night because it simply was not City.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

Your complaint is that Pep doesn't organise the defence in a classical manner when the team defends with many players behind the ball.

Not true. My complaint is that he doesn't set a high enough standard of culpability when it comes to the essentials of defending such as holding a defensive line and not needlessly flapping into tackles like a dry fish.

The players who make those basic errors repeatedly are allowed to make those mistakes time and again without allowing others their chance in their place.

 

[Saddleworth2]

He sticks to his principles and we get beat ive no issue as ive seen them win so much for us and its given us the best football i have ever seen us play.

To do that last night was abject on his part and his first real sign of pressure and panic and its why i am so scathing of the performance last night because it simply was not City.

You won’t get an argument from me. It was abject. Everyone. I can’t believe he told them to play like that though. I honestly thought he had brought on Garcia to let Fern move forward alongside Rodri and give us a solid base in midfield. That would have still allowed a front three of Kev, Raz and Bernie. We could have continued to trouble them whilst outnumbering wolves in midfield. In fact we retreated deep played a back 5 and Kevin as a DM where his ball retention was frankly shite.

 

[blueinsa]

You won’t get an argument from me. It was abject. Everyone. I can’t believe he told them to play like that though. I honestly thought he had brought on Garcia to let Fern move forward alongside Rodri and give us a solid base in midfield. That would have still allowed a front three of Kev, Raz and Bernie. We could have continued to trouble them whilst outnumbering wolves in midfield. In fact we retreated deep played a back 5 and Kevin as a DM where his ball retention was frankly shite.

2-0 and a focus on our possession game last night and we win the game even with 10 men.

Pep panicked, the players panicked and we got battered because of it.

 

[alexmcity]

Not true. My complaint is that he doesn't set a high enough standard of culpability when it comes to the essentials of defending such as holding a defensive line and not needlessly flapping into tackles like a dry fish.

The players who make those basic errors repeatedly are allowed to make those mistakes time and again without allowing others their chance in their place.

Why did we have an excellent defensive record last season and an outstanding one in the 2nd half of the season if what you say were true? Do you realise we did much better than Liverpool in the 2nd half of last season and the best in Europe? How would we have fared if those things you are talking about were learnt? 0 goals against in the last 14 games? 13 goals against during the whole season?