Spurs (A) - Post-Match Thread

[give it to gordon]

Only thing is it’s not even entertaining anymore.

football in general or City ?

 

[porkchopsaplenty]

Yep, sorry we’re at cross purposes. I don’t want to see FFS in a City shirt ever again, I’m struggling to remember a more cowardly so-called forward player for City since Peter Bodak.
Cut inside, shit yourself, abrogate all personal responsibility and pass it sideways/backwards. Rinse/repeat. The very definition of a fair weather, flat track bully

A few times in the game you could see City players throwing their arms up in the air when he ran down a blind alleys & didn't pass. I'm not a boo boy & the whole team performed badly but its getting to the point when Kev wont pass to him when Mahrez is in a good position on the counter, it unbalances the team, he doesnt trust him.
I sound like a broken record but Foden has to start in Midfield. He gives us goals & intensity.
Even if Foden has a poor game at least he offers the tracking back & tackling aspects.
Mahrez doesnt offer anything unless he attacks well.
He is talented but too inconsistent. I'm convinced if u played him in 38 league games he would have less than 10 games where he contributed something worthwhile like an assist or Goal. Foden & Torres are young & improving they should be starting 9 out of ten games together.
Pep also needs to find a solution to the counter attack it's far too easy. Telling & Foden, Torres & Jesus & Sterling to press from the front would help this as well offer more options in attack.
They are young & have the stamina & legs to do it.
They need a run of games to show this & develop an understanding.
It's worth a Punt.
It's not like the others in the team are showing enough to merit staring over those players.

 

[Craig]

football in general or City ?

You could argue both with so many teams just sitting back but I meant City. The pace and width is gone from our play our players rarely take people on. It’s all sideways and safe too often.

 

[Marvin]

A few times in the game you could see City players throwing their arms up in the air when he ran down a blind alleys & didn't pass. I'm not a boo boy & the whole team performed badly but its getting to the point when Kev wont pass to him when Mahrez is in a good position on the counter, it unbalances the team, he doesnt trust him.
I sound like a broken record but Foden has to start in Midfield. He gives us goals & intensity.
Even if Foden has a poor game at least he offers the tracking back & tackling aspects.
Mahrez doesnt offer anything unless he attacks well.
He is talented but too inconsistent. I'm convinced if u played him in 38 league games he would have less than 10 games where he contributed something worthwhile like an assist or Goal. Foden & Torres are young & improving they should be starting 9 out of ten games together.
Pep also needs to find a solution to the counter attack it's far too easy. Telling & Foden, Torres & Jesus & Sterling to press from the front would help this as well offer more options in attack.
They are young & have the stamina & legs to do it.
They need a run of games to show this & develop an understanding.
It's worth a Punt.
It's not like the others in the team are showing enough to merit staring over those players.

I agree. However it's more than just Mahrez. We're not just one player short. Mahrez has always been that little bit unconvincing. He's playing exactly the same way for us he always has.

The truth is worse. There's nothing inside and that's why Mahrez's lack of directness stands out more to you now. I agree. He needs to drop but so does KDB.

This group is finished I am afraid unless Pep makes some big decisions.

 

[Cityinmud]

Pep's football is entertaining when players play it right. We can't do anything about pep , he is with us to 2 more season. Main focus of this season should be to finish in top 4 comfortably. Then go to the transfer window sell the players that don't fit our team (we have lots of them ) and get some players with energy and pace. And get someone who can score some GOALS!

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Last night was woeful
I turned it off with 10 minutes to go
They bore me.

I'm not bored yet, and I still expect that the 'brand' of footy we employ is deserving of a shedload of goals, but teams are so fuckin' 'lucky', the finishing a millimetre off, refs pickin' up anything that hits any limb, oppo goalies earning the money. We are having some of the most wretched misfortune I've seen for a long time. I've seen these kind of games, well, similar, and we've not had anything like the riches within the squad. We used to say that one of these days a team is gonna get battered. But it looks like they get a battering but come away with the points. Did Haringay have another shot beyond the two goals? It's much easier to defend than to attack, and teams have ridden their luck unbelievably this season. Mind, it doesn't help if a pen goes wide of the post, though!

 

[give it to gordon]

You could argue both with so many teams just sitting back but I meant City. The pace and width is gone from our play our players rarely take people on. It’s all sideways and safe too often.

agree to a point but i think the sideways all the time is due to City always seem to be maked by 2 or 3 players, teams double on Raz for example. its difficult to use pace when there isnt much room to work with. Liverpools front 3 have room to run into because teams dont play deep against them.

It will be interesting if spurs set up 6-5 against liverpool

 

[maurizio]

ok after a not good nights sleep, which i thought i have got out of after a defeat !

it is being said that teams dont fear us any more, if that is true why do they changed their style when playing us ? Do spurs always play a 6-5 formation ? Ever team we play seems to play this style. If teams dont fear us come and play football give the fans a good game not a attack v defence training game.

one thing i did notice was City didnt knock it about in our half we normally when doing that include Eddy to try and draw the team out. I dont remember once City doing this. That said i believe teams now wont be drawn out but will stay within 18 yards of their box like spurs did. Teams now Pep teams will try and play football to score goals perhaps for one game Pep set up like spurs play a 5-6 line up , make the other team play, if the other team wont it will be a bloody boring 90 minutes but a point made ! that City can do a maureen master class to !! Spurs knew City arent in good form yet still went 5-6 formation still didnt think they could out play us at football, spurs played in a scared way against an out of form City. Yet maureen gets praise for not having the bottle to go toe to toe against an out of form City.

i have said before now with no fans in the ground it would be funny if City just kick of by hitting into the other teams half and than set up to defend in the 10yards in front of our box. What would maureen have done if we set up like that ? Would it have been a game of both teams giving the ball back to each other ? would it been seen as a Pep master class of defending ? Both teams sitting deep wanting to counter attack the press would blame City for being anti football.
People moan about this player that player but it cant be much fun playing in these type of games weekly. City could buy the best winger in the world yet when he comes to us he now has 2 or 3 players marking him with no room to run.

I dont know the answer of how to breakdown a deep lying back 11 who wont be pulled out of position,

I dont watch other matches so i dont know if liverpool/utd/spurs etc have to play against teams that park the bus every game, the games i have seen seem to be more open, liverpool forwards have room to run.Why dont teams park the bus against liverpool and just sit deep like teams do against us ? i find it odd, it only seems to be against City.

As much as i love City and i dont think we should win every game i just want to watch a good game of football but Citys games are getting boring now, same every game attack v defence. I know it takes two teams to make a good game but teams just wont play football. I never thought i would say this but the champion league games seem more open as teams in that tend to have a go at City making for a more interesting game.

perhaps its just us City fans who hate the attack v defence games as we have to play it game in game out, a spurs fan will have enjoyed that game but if spurs played that boring for 38 games would he enjoy it ? Spurs use to be a good team to watch or are they selling out to win silverware ? I dont think City play bad i dont think spurs play well, yes spurs played to their game plan well but its not the style of football i like to pay to watch.

Yes our cutting edge is missing but with teams sitting so deep now against us i am not sure even with our cutting edge we would many goals. People say we miss Sane what space would he have had to run in to use his pace ? unless City can pull teams out of shape we have very little room to play, spurs stayed in shape 10 yrds in front of their box most of the game.

my sunday ramble/rant over CTID !

Well said. No other team has to face the parked bus formation week after week. We need a genius goal scorer to make the most of the chances. Beginning to think maybe Messi would be a good player in this team as pace is not required other than in the press. We would have to make up for that in other ways.

 

[balotellishaircut]

Yeah, he must be the only manager in the PL who thinks that football should be an entertaining spectacle and can only be played in an artistic way. The rest just want to gobble up the points no matter how many fuckin' pens they have as retakes.

Agree most people just look at results now, they don’t give 2 fucks about style of play especially when there losing jobs, covid and furlough is dominating most adult lives.

 

[Craig]

agree to a point but i think the sideways all the time is due to City always seem to be maked by 2 or 3 players, teams double on Raz for example. its difficult to use pace when there isnt much room to work with. Liverpools front 3 have room to run into because teams dont play deep against them.

It will be interesting if spurs set up 6-5 against liverpool

I’d be very surprised if the don’t do the same against Liverpool. I agree it‘s hard to use pace when teams are sat deep but this isn’t a new thing. Teams were attempting the same against us 3 years ago. Watch Bayern Munich and every team they face at homes does the same and in Spain against Barca. Pep used to talk about stretching the pitch to create one on one’s and keeping the width. It is now very easy to double mark us as our play is so bloody narrow. He talked about needing to play with width against Marseille and had Sterling on the right (also Watford away at the end of last season where we were very good) but then the next game it’s back to cut inside recycle possession and repeat for 90 minutes.