QF 1st Leg Post Match Thread

[Sky Blue]

Thanks! Basically win the battle, lose the war.

I know that now :)

 

[Seedy Ron]

This is my first post on this board, so hello everybody. City fan from the US here.

It seems to me that Pep is managing the run in at this point, not just the present game. We have so many matches crunched together that we can't afford a Pyrrhic victory. The lineup that he sent out didn't concede in the first half and dominated the second half outside of a weird mistake as a result of a ball the defenders thought went out. We could have just as easily flipped the scoreline with how the second half went. In which case we would have taken the first leg while resting important players.

Now, it didn't work out that way. But we only conceded one and are very much in this. I don't necessarily think his plan was a bad one. We'll see how it plays out from here. But I have a hard time seeing us conceding at home and not scoring a couple with our A squad. Especially if Kane is out for any length of time. It may be a bit narrow view of Pep's strategy to look at the single game plan without the context of the rest of our fixtures.

Like you say it is all about fine margins mate but it doesn't stop the flappers flapping. WE still hold all the aces in this tie but have to wait till next week to prove that. I confidently predict we will prevail.

 

[NorthamptonBlue]

Eddie probably thought Delph was going to do some defending and got caught out...

I think the reason it beat him was because it was a well hit shot and so close to his body.

Every player in the vicinity seemed to go to sleep for a half second or so...

Unfortunately Son was wide awake.

 

[TheRemainsOfTheDave]

Bet klopp plays his best front 3 every game til end of season though. At best now we may have 2 more games than Liverpool - FA CUP and Champs league finals. They’re defo getting to semi after last night. Time to just go for it I reckon.

3 with the game in hand.

 

[ctid1894]

Personally I don’t understand starting a team so devoid of energy and intensity in a big game against a team who are very strong in those departments. Our whole philosophy is based around possession and winning possession back as quickly as possible when we haven’t got it. Playing Mahrez, Gundogan, Silva and a half fit Aguero nullifies our ability to regain possession. We haven’t got a tackler as such, it relies on numbers and intensity to force mistakes and interceptions, that last night was never going to happen.

I completely understand Bernardo wasn’t available, De Bruyne not 100% but surely Sane should have been in instead of Mahrez and Foden for either one of Silva or Gundogan. Yes I know he lacks experience especially in big games but it was the lack of energy and intensity that killed us.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing I suppose.

 

[shemnel]

Personally I don’t understand starting a team so devoid of energy and intensity in a big game against a team who are very strong in those departments. Our whole philosophy is based around possession and winning possession back as quickly as possible when we haven’t got it. Playing Mahrez, Gundogan, Silva and a half fit Aguero nullifies our ability to regain possession. We haven’t got a tackler as such, it relies on numbers and intensity to force mistakes and interceptions, that last night was never going to happen.

I completely understand Bernardo wasn’t available, De Bruyne not 100% but surely Sane should have been in instead of Mahrez and Foden for either one of Silva or Gundogan. Yes I know he lacks experience especially in big games but it was the lack of energy and intensity that killed us.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing I suppose.

personally i think the gamble was exactly that. Spurs were heavily reliant on energy, hustle and bustle where as we would go out there, pass it about, kill the atmosphere and brings spurs down and away from a hectic encounter into a game of football, our territory. That's the way i see it, and to be fair it's a sound strategy, but Spurs managed to keep on plugging away at a reasonable tempo.

 

[Bill]

Did he fuck express fear. If he truly feared Spurs, he would have started every premium starter he had.

The fact he didn't, gives a real insight into his reasoning.

He hedged his bets, knowing we are more than capable of getting the right outcome after two games, with a home tie to favour.

If anything, his team selection actually showed a degree of well-placed trust for what we can produce and what Spurs can't, even in a lower gear.

It's an absolute fucking disgrace that you and others don't wish to give our manager the benefit of doubt.

What part of last season or this season have people not seen from the best manager in the world?

He's earned it and plenty should know better after all this time.

nice try Tolm. the manager fucked up. everyone, inc himself , know it. many , myself included, feared the worse as soon as the team sheet went up. truth is we were worse than I thought we would be.

 

[Bill]

Personally I don’t understand starting a team so devoid of energy and intensity in a big game against a team who are very strong in those departments. Our whole philosophy is based around possession and winning possession back as quickly as possible when we haven’t got it. Playing Mahrez, Gundogan, Silva and a half fit Aguero nullifies our ability to regain possession. We haven’t got a tackler as such, it relies on numbers and intensity to force mistakes and interceptions, that last night was never going to happen.

I completely understand Bernardo wasn’t available, De Bruyne not 100% but surely Sane should have been in instead of Mahrez and Foden for either one of Silva or Gundogan. Yes I know he lacks experience especially in big games but it was the lack of energy and intensity that killed us.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing I suppose.

nothing to do with hindsight, 99% of the City fan base knew we had the wrong side out before a ball was kicked.

 

[shemnel]

nice try Tolm. the manager fucked up. everyone, inc himself , know it. many , myself included, feared the worse as soon as the team sheet went up. truth is we were worse than I thought we would be.

impossible now i guess, but i'd be interested to know how you would have felt re the team selection if we had come away with a calm 0-1 away win. Would you think the team was wrong but they performed well? just curious. slightly pointless qu really.

 

[manimanc]

I’m guessing you’ about 40 who’s just discovered what GIF’s are and have acquired your football knowledge from moronic pundits. Pep is not exempt from criticism and if he did the opposite of what i stated was wrong with him last night, then we would’ve won the game.

Erm no. I'm nearly 50 and laurel and hardy think your post was piss funny and so do I.
So basically what you're trying to say is you know better than pep?
Excuse me whilst I have a word with Stan and Ollie.

 

[Bluemanc100]

Bet klopp plays his best front 3 every game til end of season though. At best now we may have 2 more games than Liverpool - FA CUP and Champs league finals. They’re defo getting to semi after last night. Time to just go for it I reckon.

Not seen their game, just the Salah challenge.. I think we have to say that they have something on their side, they call it "luck"... we'll never be able to say they got actual help but you don't have to be a genius to see that they are getting an advantage

 

[Chi-town blues]

Son looked offside to me .

 

[Bill]

impossible now i guess, but i'd be interested to know how you would have felt re the team selection if we had come away with a calm 0-1 away win. Would you think the team was wrong but they performed well? just curious. slightly pointless qu really.

had we won 9 nil doesn't alter the fact he picked the wrong 11. had he done so we may have scored 10.

 

[manimanc]

you may well disagree but the poster deserves better

Ok, how about a round of applause?

 

[Bill]

Son looked offside to me .

he was but by like an inch. have to let that go.

 

[manimanc]

Aren’t you hilarious.

No just repeating what 99.9% of your posts say, what's wrong with that?

 

[Mid Wales blue]

Sensible first post. Just googled phyrrhic.

+1

 

[mosssideblue]

We lost because Aguero missed a pen but mainly because our coach, got it wrong in spite of having better players.

You think otherwise?

Yes, I do. He had to rest some of the leading lights at some stage over these next three games and last night was the obvious time. The team he put out could and should have won.

Why do you think he got it wrong?

 

[colorado blue]

personally i think the gamble was exactly that. Spurs were heavily reliant on energy, hustle and bustle where as we would go out there, pass it about, kill the atmosphere and brings spurs down and away from a hectic encounter into a game of football, our territory. That's the way i see it, and to be fair it's a sound strategy, but Spurs managed to keep on plugging away at a reasonable tempo.

Spot on. I thought the game plan was a good approach until they scored. I think the big mistake was not make changes when we started to dominate in second half Pep should have brought at least Sane on for Mahrez and probably Kev for Silva and really gone for the away goal. Not playing Kev was baffling but can only assume he was sick or had a knock we don't know about. If Sergio had scored the game would have been totally different but now we are up against it.

 

[colorado blue]

Son looked offside to me .

Only his arm but that doesn't count.