Real Madrid (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

waspish said:
With pep we know he will think everything through and he believed that team would get a result. Think pep didn’t expect how Madrid played plus the individual mistakes pep can’t do anything about that!
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I agree with that.

Sometimes the team has a very bad day at the office and things go against you. Details like O'Reilly for the 1st goal or the deflection off Dias for their 2nd decide games.

Valverde won't have another such game in his life. We weren't prepared for his role, they surprised us there.

The thing we could have done much better is create more chances. We didn't create enough, and that has a lot to do with leaving Cherki on the bench for 70 minutes.
 
BlueNomad said:
When your midfield is a left back, 2 wingers, Bernardo and Rodri…and the left back is getting skinned while the two wingers don’t hav a defensive bone in either of their bodies, you’re going to get mullered at a place like Real Madrid!

We TRIED to play a 3-5-2 transitioning to a 3-3-1-3, but the opposition wasn’t having any of it, once they figured it out!

Everything was going down our left, so the double and even triple team was employed, so he had to turn back and play it back, so Madrid were always playing in front of themselves…whereas City defensively were always chasing back to try to even the numbers and cover the runners…unsuccessfully, as it turned out, which is to no-one’s surprise!

If Madrid were for the taking, then they could have been taken…but why not wait until you know that from the patterns of the game, rather than betting the farm that we were going to score early and often?!

A much more resilient 4-4–1-1 was called for, but our wingers can’t play the wide midfield role unless we are playing a team with a 4-5-1/5-4-1 set up! That then frees the full backs to move forward and the wide midfielders/wingers to join the two strikers (1-1) for a 2-4-1-3/2-3-3-1.

Had we scored from the first few forays forward, in fact if we had scored TWICE from those Doku crosses, I still don’t think Pep would have tried to be a little more pragmatic and shot up shop a bit, which is why we allow shit teams to come back against us!

He might be/have been a tactical genius, but EVERYONE sees what we do, how pedestrian it can be, and how to blunt it. Last night, Plan A wasn’t working after 20 mins, so there was no Plan B, only Plan A2, A3, and the like!

Taking Bernardo and Savinho off and putting on RAN, moving O’Reilly into Bernardo’s spot and Semenyo into Savinho’s spot IS NOT PLAN B! IT IS JUST DIFFERENT PERSONNEL EXECUTING THE FAILED PLAN A…and to little effect!

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what the best City team is at the moment, as I want it to have Khusanov in it, Rodri, Gigi, Cherki, but then I start to struggle to see who is performing at the highest level! Sure, Nunes has had a few good games, but he’s no world class RB! NOR has done OK in midfield and scored a couple, but how many times has he coughed up the ball or simply just run into trouble?

I’m sure there are different permutations for different opponents, but on current form, I’m not sure even WHU will be searing us this weekend!
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Good post, but I would say
Rodri is miles off it and should be nowhere near our current best 11
O’Reilly isn’t a left back and has been caught out too many times playing here
Nunes may not be world class, but has been one of our better and most consistent performers this season

We needed legs in midfield last night and had none
 
Dodge said:
To all the Haaland haters.

He got fuck all service tonight. Nothing. Nada. Jack fucking shit.

Making runs and not being found. In the box and no cross coming in. There for pull backs from the bye-line, no pull backs.

56 CL goals in 57 CL games. The absolute beast. Fucking clueless some people.
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I dont hate Erling, or any City player, but if, imho, they deserve criticism then they should get it the same as praise.

His performances for the last 4 months or so,
aside from one v Newcastle PL, deserve a level of criticism his return has been 4 goals and 2 of those being penalties is nowhere near good enough for an elite striker.

Making excuses for him of not getting the service is wrong as our other strikers have managed with the same service to score more than him. Take the balls across the area close to the goal line, we seem to do it a lot at the moment, for me he should be realising this and change the runs he's making instead of expecting the perfect pass exactly where he wants it, its become to look lazy?

I dont see the first two seasons Erling anymore, and its up to him to change that, he seems so passive at the moment. He doesnt deserve to start games maybe, he needs to be benched to give him the kick up the arse he appears to require
 
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Eaststander1 said:
Well I certainly expected Real Madrid to play that way, so I'm curious as to why Pep wouldn't.....the game was more or less a replica of our game there the other year when Mbappe lobbed over our keeper as part of his City demolition act !!

Once again their pace caught us out, when we know only too well they rely on it ... the fact that our defending was absolutely abysmal only added to the torture.
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Yeah maybe Pep thought they wouldn’t actually park the bus like this did and mainly defend so well as a team! Honestly I didn’t think Madrid had that performance in them!
 
alexmcity said:
Bayern ran 123 km at Atalanta despite deciding the tie in the 1st half and have practically won the Bundesliga. Arsenal wouldn't be as fresh as them or PSG.

Plus, lots of surprises happen. Before the game last night the chance for Real to win 3:0 with a hat-trick by Valverde was probably 1 in 1000.
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Yeah, we’re se
Citi-leaks said:
You can argue formations and tactics till the cows come home. What I saw last night was Real Madrid players that were a level above their opposition. O'Reilly and Guehi were like children learning how to swim, in shark infested waters. Khusanov versus Vinicius jr was is a laughable mis-match. Listen, when you buy players from Palace, Wolves, Bournemouth and Usbekistan. Don't expect them to rock up to the Bernabeu and play like prime Barcelona. Pep's a good manager, but he's not THAT good.

I'm not sure what has happened with the transfer policy, because it looks like a stockpile of players that like to finish and stick the ball in the back of the net, but not much good at all the other stuff, like tackling, tracking back, creating chances for teammates. Getting involved in the general play, making a few short passes, playing 1-2's, running into space or playing as a team. It's me me me football.
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Formations and tactics will be talked about after that debacle as they were the main factor in us getting hammered. Example of terrible team organisation was what lead to their penalty. League 1 sides would be better set up than that and it wasn’t a one off either. Very similar to the scum’s first goal against us during another shitshow
 
ArniArason said:
Can we open the home leg pre-match thread early? We need to just put this thread to bed now. Last night was truly awful and we played abysmal, we all agree on that. However, Real played the game of their season and a player not known for his goal scoring prowess had the game of his life doing just that.

It's highly unlikely that Real will play as good or we will play as bad at our place. If the atmosphere is there from the off, we go at them and get an early goal, who knows what could happen.

It's in these sorts of circumstances that big teams show they are big teams, so the negativity has been done, now we have to be positive minded.
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Well i generally agree with you there, we do need positive thinking ..... but we will be the ones playing the pressurised game, and sweating buckets under the Etihad floodlights to do it .... Real Madrid can just keep every player back in their defensive zone , bar one player maybe providing an outlet upfield, safe in the knowledge that they don't even need to score and we have to net at least three !

If we get an early break in the 2nd leg then anything is possible, but the longer it stays goalless the wider the grins will get on Real Madrid faces.
 
It was a hugely disappointing night but I’m going to sign off here for a bit and remember the great journey we had to Istanbul; the tiny hotel room; the drinks beforehand - even if there were no facilities for fans - and even the chaos at the end to get a taxi back to the hotel

We won and the singing after was superb. A great night to add to our many superb memories that far outweigh the odd bad night
 
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