Pep's Press Conferences - Watford (A) Post Match (Page 129)

[clive manchester]

Have to say his comments about not knowing why we keep conceding has got me concerned. I previously thought that he knew the solution and the problem was getting the players to execute it. But him openly admitting he doesn't have a scooby why we keep conceding goals is a bit shocking.

I admire his honesty. He literally has no idea why it is happening. I read earlier we have conceded 7 times this season from the opposition's first shot on goal.
I think I know why it is happening. We are playing without a goalkeeper and we are making literally dozens of passes in and around our own penalty area with a view to getting the ball to the halfway line at which point we invariably lose it.
If something keeps happening over and over and over again it is not a fluke.
I believe his stubbornness will ultimately be his undoing, which is a real shame. It matters not one fucking iota that we have 70 percent possession in most matches when we cannot defend for the 30 percent of the game when we do not have the ball. He is completely all or nothing. It has to be 50 passes or long ball, he refuses to recognise that there are more ways to play than just this. He has very little respect for the majority of our opponents.

 

[clive manchester]

Why? I am here every day.

I actually expected the problems. It was too easy at the beginning. It takes time to implement a system and, yes, maybe it needs luck and the right players, too. I thought you would struggle at the beginning - but maybe the problem is that it ran so fine at the beginning and the problems came later. The theatre of the press is just the normal run of things. I just cannot stand the-EPL-is-so-special bullocks that it is this difficult league that is the problem. It is not. The problem is not the idea but the execution.

For me Pep's system is the best system - I think the discussions about it, like about the high line - do not make sense as apart from maybe the odd match it is just necessary for his kind of play. The most people just have too less patience. At Bayern and Barcelona he worked with players that got implemented a similar system for seasons or even since their football beginnings. You do not. It might not even be a functioning team - atleast that was what I felt the seasons before. You might be able to mask that with a new coach as long as it is new and there is no problems - but it somewhen will show.

You cannot change Pep. He is fine making adapations - he did enough at Bayern - to adapt to situations. But he will not change his playing philosophies and what he believes in. But it takes time to build big things - to have success for a short time is an easy achievement.

That I cannot remember seeing him in a similar condition in the Bayern years I really meant. He is a bad actor. He lives football 24/7 and the whole theatre and problems right now are getting to him - and it shows. Actually he somehow looks similar to Müller in his recent goal drought - not really knowing what is wrong but like somebody who always had a bit of luck but recently it has turned into misfortune. He is a great tactical coach and teacher - I do not know how good he is with motivation. I do not think that at Bayern he needed to be the big motivator because of the characters in that team.

I am pretty neutral about City - atleast as long they do not directly compete with Bayern. But right now I just want Pep's system to function. And I do not really want Chelsea, Mou or Klopp to have success. Or Arsenal.

Young kids growing up now will have only ever known Bayern winning the league. They monopolise the whole bundesliga. It is absolutely tragic that so many big clubs with huge followings know before the season kicks off that they have zero chance of winning anything whatsoever. On that basis your league is absolute complete bullshit. So the fact you have very little respect for our league makes me all the more suspicious as to what your actual illness might be. Because to read the forum of a random team in a league you have no respect for every single day is buffoonery at best. I'm sure if I did the same on a Dynamo Dresden website the majority of their fans would think I was retarded. At best a buffoon.

 

[clive manchester]

Seriously.....are you taking the piss?

If this was any other manager would you be asking that question? If gary megson was our manager would you be surprised to see him out of a job by easter. My guess would be that you would think Easter is being incredibly optimistic, as would I.

 

[clive manchester]

Joe made the odd blooper but this guy doesn't even attempt to make a save, might as well have a cardboard cutout on the goal line

The law of averages says the cut out would make more saves. How tragic that I can actually write that and be deadly serious.

 

[clive manchester]

He's cracking for sure. That's the worrying sign if I were a City fan. If you were losing but the manager was positive, upbeat saying "we know we can do better" "expect a response" etc etc. Then all is well.


He seems to be devoid of energy in interviews. I don't know. I don't know him as well as you lot do, so my opinion is almost irrelevant. But that's an outsiders view, if it counts for anything

I really liked the part where you said your opinion is completely irrelevant. How many points are Liverpool above city? Is your bespectacled amphetamine addled manager cracking? It's never your fault you know. Always the victim.

 

[clive manchester]

He's a scapegoat, you should know this by now

Can I ask - what are you looking for in a goalkeeper? Do you actually think bravo is being unfairly criticised, hand on heart?

 

[caseball]

I'm not sure he's cracking. I think he looks as confused as his players. He's never had this sort of problem before.
To say that he doesn't know why we concede so easily is embarrassing. He bloody well should do. And if he does, he shouldn't be saying he doesn't.

 

[Metalartin]

I don't know for all the criticism we give players for giving up too easy there's plenty of fans that are worse(nobody likes to lose but we should have some perspective... some try and quantify it with "I could take losing if...." yet they never react well to loss no matter what, which says it all), some were ready to give up on Pep after the 10 game winning streak ended. If and when he turns this around he will have every reason to be as smug as he likes about it, criticism is fine when warranted but there's been a lack of class from so many corners from the press to, opposing fans and our own... not surprised he looks unhappy when you really take a step back but I don't think he's cracking, he'll probably be thinking something along the lines of he who laughs last laughs loudest.

 

[mancity1]

I don't know for all the criticism we give players for giving up to easy most fans are far worse, some were ready to give up on Pep after the 10 game winning streak ended. If and when he turns this around he will have every reason to be as smug as he likes about it, criticism is fine when warranted but there's been a lack of class from so many corners from the press to, opposing fans and our own... not surprised he looks unhappy when you really take a step back but I don't think he's cracking, he'll probably thinking something along the lines of he who laughs last laughs loudest.

The media always want a target and someone to fail and the bigger the better.

We should all ignore the media and starve them of the oxygen they don't deserve.

He deserves to be scrutinised internally if he is failing to meet his objectives.

Get him the players that can buy into what he wants and if he cannot get success then we know what comes next.

The current side is cactus , no manager could get them doing much better than Pep has to date.

 

[Metalartin]

The media always want a target and someone to fail and the bigger the better.

We should all ignore the media and starve them of the oxygen they don't deserve.

He deserves to be scrutinised internally if he is failing to meet his objectives.

Get him the players that can buy into what he wants and if he cannot get success then we know what comes next.

The current side is cactus , no manager could get them doing much better than Pep has to date.

Like I said criticism is fine but some of it has been petty and over the top he's made some mistakes but he's also been let down by the players a few times and there's been no shortage of bad luck/bad refs.

 

[inchy14]

He's got the same problems that Mancini had and Pellegrini had before him, no backbone, fight or stomach in a group of players who are fine when they're allowed to play but who go hiding when the going gets tough.

People can point the finger at Bravo all they want, yes he's not going to be good enough, doesn't fill the goal etc.. but when he's left out to dry on a regular basis by the garbage performances in front of him i'm not surprised he's struggling. Hart isn't coming back so we either play Willy or Gunn, but whoever gets the nod has got to hope the clowns in front of him start performing otherwise we'll be having the same discussion but with a different scapegoat.

Far too many players know their time is almost up and aren't prepared to bust a gut and stand and fight when their needed. None of them should play again, Yaya, Clichy, Kolarov, Zab (yes even Zab) it's time too ditch them, they've all been part of a squad that's now let 3 managers down. Garcia and some of the other kids should be getting a run out from now on, unlikely to happen but it's what i'd prefer.
But, when you add those above to lacklustre displays from Aguero, KDB, Silva isn't there always only going to be one outcome?
(Was Mourinho right about KDB, seems to lose confidence far too easily for a world class player and then goes into hiding.)

Pep's certainly got his work cut out, as have those in recruiting new players, got to get a couple of fresh faces in at the back this month or we'll miss out on top 4 for certain, but he also needs to start being ruthless with those who aren't performing.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Thing is, it's totally normal to concede the amount of shots on goal in a match that we do. Actually, we don't concede many shots at all. Problem is that every single one of them goes in because we're playing without a goalkeeper.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Im sorry but Pep is wrong here even at the start.

he says we created good chances.....but we didnt....sterling had one which should have led to a penalty (ill give him that one) but the silva chance wasn't clear at all...not when you compare it to Lukakus chance or any of their other chances. We didnt create a lot at all...nothing clear cut.......ALL the chances for everton were clear cut cause we are defending in such few numbers whereas opponents are defending in huge numbers......and we are seeing the same result EVERY week

he also recognises that teams are defending with 8-9 men (as he says) and then hitting us on the counter attack......so why not do something to stop that.....stop asking all your players to push so high up the pitch....you are playing right into the opponents hands doing exactly what they want us to do.

He is right when he says the opponents aren't much better......their TACTICS however are much better......we are playing in a suicidal way with the players we have and against the way other teams will clearly set up against us....virtually every team will carry on doing the same thing and results will be similar

I partially agree. Its telling that our best results are against teams that are more open and play us at our own game, and when we get turned over its generally a counter attacking team. Its not like he didn't see this at Barca and Munich though so in the past he has been able to tactically deal with counters. So it has to be the players that are not executing his methods, and he hasn't flexed his tactics to accommodate players of limited quality.

 

[slicky202]

I'm going to take a shot at why we lose. We base our whole game around being able to score more than the opposition and today we conceded in the first half and scored no goals. We're not good enough attackers to play without a defence. We don't have a messi who can win a game out of nothing and do it nearly every game

 

[slicky202]

I'm going to take a shot at why we lose. We base our whole game around being able to score more than the opposition and today we conceded in the first half and scored no goals. We're not good enough attackers to play without a defence. We don't have a messi who can win a game out of nothing and do it nearly every game

I agree with a lot of your points, I mean changing positions of players like kolarov and zab at this stage in their career seems pretty pointless.although we love him Zab was never a world class player at his natural position so why he'd be a great midfielder in his 3o's I'll never know.

 

[CC1]

Well i hope he does cause the average fan on the terraces can see it.

And if he can see it why isn't he doing anything about it....the exact same thing happened against the exact same team at our place.....one chance, one goal....how many times have we heard Pep himself say this...so if he can see it why hasn't he stopped it cause the solution isn't that hard either

What's the solution then?

 

[PragueBlue]

Bravo is obviously a good keeper or he wouldn't have had the career that he has had. He isn't playing well right now which is obvious but then again who is? We usually have more shots than the opposition but not many of them are really clear cut chances rather than half chances, while our opponents shots are more often than not gilt edged opportunities. Bravo (and the rest of the defence) is often left totally exposed and confidence seems low.

We need to start defending more as a team. We'll not a very physically imposing team and a high defensive line with slowish defenders and no pressing is never going to end well.

 

[Mike N]

Regardless of whether Bravo will make it or not, I wouldn't like to be in goal behind that rabble of a defence.

 

[Blue Pete]

Fine margins, had we scored with any of the chances in first half and gone 1-0 up we could have won comfortably.

Our team, and this has been the case for years, is great when confidence is flowing and poor when it's not. West Ham we looked unplayable only after taking the lead, the same can be said in most games. Yes generally we are better than the opposition, yes we do tend to keep the ball more, yes we do move it forward too slowly, yes some of these current players are past it or just not good enough. But that was all the case last year as well.

Pep has not had chance to sort his team out, we are not playing well etc etc but we are 3pts off Second - think about that, we are playing poorly and after half a season we are 3 points of second.

We will get better, We will improve. I get the media etc having a go and being stupid but anyone with a brain can see we are not far. Yep Pep will make mistakes,every manager does, but when the margins are that fine. Let's not go mental when we lose.

Support your team, support your players (even if you think they are not good enough), support Pep.

 

[@BluePhil8]

I'm going to take a shot at why we lose. We base our whole game around being able to score more than the opposition and today we conceded in the first half and scored no goals. We're not good enough attackers to play without a defence. We don't have a messi who can win a game out of nothing and do it nearly every game

Think it was Thierry Henry who said Pep has a very rigid set of instructions for the defence and midfield however in the final third he wants players to innovate and entertain.

That's fine when you have front 3s like Messi, Eto'o, Pedro / Messi, Ibrahimovic, Villa / Messi, Villa, Sanchez / Ribery, Lewendowski, Robben.

Doesn't work so well with a front 3 of Navas, Aguero, Sterling or whoever else we put out.