Sporting CP (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

[madloaf]

The biggest passenger. And anyone who thinks Haaland deserves his place is kidding themselves.

Worst performer in a team of poor performances.

Madness. Absolute madness. Haaland is a gun, and we're asking the team to fix the boiler with it.

 

[awest]

Been coming for ages, maybe it has to happen for Pep to get his head out of his arse and fix the glaring problems. And if it does have to happen, I'd rather it be in this competition where it doesn't matter at this stage than in the league.

So many people are looking in the wrong direction for the problem here though blaming players. It's nothing to do with the players, it's all on pep and his sunday league suicide shape. This will not be fixed until he changes the shape, doesn't matter who plays.

The worrying thing is pep has had weeks upon weeks of us scraping through gametoagainst week opposition to spot and fix it, he hasn't so I've no faith he'll do what's neccesary by the weekend and as a result i fear Brighton will be an ugly bloodbath.

What's the solution?

 

[TinFoilHat]

Let's face it, it's OVER! In a very similar way to all dominant sides before, ours has aged and wilted. We have failed dramatically in our squad planning, and our best players have long gone sour.
KDB, Bernardo, Gundogan, Walker, and even Stones. Everyone of them is either passed it, or cannot play without getting injured.

Across the rest of those who play, there is simply no leadership, defending is an after thought, and the squad is devoid of pace or energy.

Yes there are some eye catchers like Doku and Savinho, but they flatter to deceive and their final product isn't great. Others like Foden and Gvardiol are clearly good players, but get caught up in the mediocrity that surrounds them.

Rico Lewis is not a David Silva replacement, and as much as I admire the energy shown by Nunes, he is a loose canon.

And then there is Haaland, logic cannot sensibly explain to me how any player can score so many goals, but actually be so shit at finishing chances.

All of the above however, are just the symptoms. The actual problem is the management. They have become stale and have failed to adapt the team in good time to avoid this decline.
Sadly it has now gone passed the tinkering stage, and I am not sure Guardiola has the energy or desire to strip this down and rebuild it, and as such I firmly believe he will depart after the World Club Cup next summer.

@Mad Eyed Screamer

Post a Morrissey track to cheer me up after reading that.

 

[willipp]

It could be virtually any player tonight but I thought Akanji was appalling. Having a kid playing his first ever CL game next to him and he hung him out to dry. He was to blame so many times charging into midfield and just leaving huge space behind him for them to attack. He really fucked me off tonight.

 

[The Stockport Iniesta]

I never have a pop at the team but it has to be said that the team currently are phoning it in. Where is the fight? Where is the urgency in our play?

This isn't a one off, we've been like this for weeks, hopefully this is the kick up the arse that's needed.

This team needs a Fernandinho team meeting calling to sort it out but do we have a leader like that anymore?

 

[jaiguruKun]

We'd lasted suspiciously long without the inevitable mini disaster that always happens before January...

Only difference is we don't have Rodri to bail us out this time. Could be a loooong winter.

 

[OB1]

Really angry about that one: utter stupidity.

Three stupid penalties.

Too many wasted opportunities and suicidal defending.

This is all fixable but Pep has now got to do something a little different. We have been far too susceptible to the counter attack and he has to fix it. Of course we need players to be fit. A.S.A.P., he needs to get back to having a big strong defence: Akanji / Stones / Dias / Gvardiol, with Ake alternating in to give some a rest but he also might need to try Gvardiol or Stones as DM and have a couple of them stay deeper.

I think Doku and Savio have lots of potential but they are not producing enough G/A. We need Jack and Kev back. Nunes may be worth keeping on one of the wings (despite being wholly at fault for us conceding a fourth).

Goals will come but we need to start keeping clean sheets but we must buy another striker in January as well as a DM.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Or maybe they know his decision already…

That's what I'm starting to think.

 

[Blu1]

I actually think sporting are the worst team we have played this season lol

 

[Chak19]

Just how do you go from dominating them in the first half to getting thrashed ? well it's called not taking your chances and having an absolutely terrible defensive structure, this has been coming all season, Pep surely has to sort it now, yes there are injuries but it's still unacceptable.