chesterbells
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Porto (A) - CL | Post-Match Thread
- Thread starter SebastianBlue
- Start date
I agree with you on this, he was our best player the season KDB was out injured & we won the league, hopefully Pep can get them both to shine as those 2 on form together could form as an effective partnership as David & KDB.Two games where he had a decent performance were all without KDB in the field and in the free role.
Horlocksleftpeg
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- 12 Jul 2008
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- 800
Yep. There’s been games where playing a false 9 we look class but we look toothless most of the time now.Aye, I don't mean to be cynical. I don't think this was our strongest team, and it played out like two teams who needed a draw for different reasons. We've come a long way from the city side that used to struggle with the first round of the CL! Fair play to the lads doing it, but we look like a different team when we have a striker on the pitch (shockingly). Hopefully get a goal scoring grove going again on Saturday in time for the derby!
let’s get a win vs Fulham, give everyone a rest midweek (where hopefully united still need to put their first team out) and have a fresh squad ready to spank that lot at weekend
I thought the midfield 3 were an interesting combination. With Rodri around, I suspect Fernandinho is never going to be Pep's 1st choice DM, regardless of how we feel. Rodri plays the neat little passing game that Pep likes there and Fernandinho doesn't quite do that.
Bernardo has the energy and skill to be a truly dynamic midfielder. We haven't seen it for a while, but today there were signs of something of old. He lacks a bit of creativity, but has such good technique normally that he only needs to see the odd thing to make it work (like his pass for the counter attack that was offside, or his cross for the disallowed goal, or any of his dribbles).
Fernandinho in the middle was a snug fit. It wasn't too dissimilar to how Sarri used Kanté but Fernandinho is actually better with the ball. He still gets about well, defends very intelligently and aggressively, plus given that he's playing with Bernardo and Rodri he actually has the licence to be more creative. There were a lot of promising passes from him and it was he's only just back from injury. It's coming back to me now but I recall he upped his attacking game and creativity when De Bruyne was out in 18/19. Basically this trio allowed him to be more direct like he likes to be.
I'm not sure how much we'll see of this specific trio in the future, but I thought it worked well. Especially in the 2nd half but the last 15 of the 1st half too.
Bernardo has the energy and skill to be a truly dynamic midfielder. We haven't seen it for a while, but today there were signs of something of old. He lacks a bit of creativity, but has such good technique normally that he only needs to see the odd thing to make it work (like his pass for the counter attack that was offside, or his cross for the disallowed goal, or any of his dribbles).
Fernandinho in the middle was a snug fit. It wasn't too dissimilar to how Sarri used Kanté but Fernandinho is actually better with the ball. He still gets about well, defends very intelligently and aggressively, plus given that he's playing with Bernardo and Rodri he actually has the licence to be more creative. There were a lot of promising passes from him and it was he's only just back from injury. It's coming back to me now but I recall he upped his attacking game and creativity when De Bruyne was out in 18/19. Basically this trio allowed him to be more direct like he likes to be.
I'm not sure how much we'll see of this specific trio in the future, but I thought it worked well. Especially in the 2nd half but the last 15 of the 1st half too.
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Rochdale Blue
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Think Foden had him on a fast spin.Did say to the wife thought he was a washing machine, lol
No team in the history of ever has solved the bus parking. There's too many players in the box to make it viable. Your best bets are to have a solid defence, play your normal game and then hope your attackers have a good day. Or get lucky.Still not solved the bus parking, but good enough.
The only two unique ways you can reasonably get at teams who sit ridiculously deep is to cram excess numbers in the box or sit deep and hope to draw them out. The problem is though the former leaves you vulnerable to counters which teams are better than ever at, and the latter doesn't work because teams don't take the bait anymore (eg FA Cup semi final).
Truth is, there are plenty of times where we play against packed defences and are only let down by bad finishing or sloppy play. Tactically it's less of an issue than people think. We keep teams pinned back, make high turnovers, and generally create chances.
Just tonight, Sterling and Torres could have scored from that one chance. Torres could have scored had he not been offside and finished better for that counter. Dias and Torres could have scored a chance had it not been for comedy goalscoring and great keeping. Sterling had one off the line. Garcia fluffed two chances. Jesus had a goal narrowly ruled out. He also missed a header. That's 8 great chances, enough to validate the tactics. I've probably missed some too.
Edit: Sterling was second to a great Fern pass just before he had one off of the line. That's 9.
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Barcon
Well-Known Member
I'm just watching it now and so far, after 23 mins, two penalties have been missed and the usual diving by the pork chops has settled in nicely.