Spurs (A) - Post-Match Thread

[OB1]

I don't think the overall performance was as bad as people are making out. We dominated Spurs and had our attacking players been something other than the inconsistent clowns they've been for too long now, we'd have won comfortably.

Too much analysis of what feels like a straight forward problem for me. The 'attack' has gotten complacent since the 18/19 season. Far too many players playing within themselves or playing for themselves. Even KDB's decision making, and cutting edge has been massively blunted.

I said it back then, and it's worth repeating now. Those players (who won 198 points over two seasons) needed a BIG shake up after 18/19. They need fresh blood, competition, and new solutions. Torres was brought in a year too late. I suspect that there'll be a rebuild akin to 2017 next summer.

This season is now officially in the 'transitional' basket.

I've banged the transitional phase drum for ages but we should still be doing better than we are. I do firmly consider the players a bigger issue than the manager and it does look like a bigger shake-up of playing staff than we have had is required.

The best shake-up we could have for this season would be to pull off the coup of getting Messi in January - I won't stick me head in a bucket of water to await that happening. Of course that could be a spectacular flop if it happened but the reverse is more likely: one spark could start a fire.

 

[give it to gordon]

Deluded if you think Jose wouldn't know what to do. I'm not advocating it for one moment and it wouldn't happen but if you gave Jose this City team, he'd win trophies and he wouldn't do it by sitting back all the time.

If City did play by sitting back constantly, there's no guarantee that they wouldn't make crucial errors and concede goals.

i am not saying maureen plays park the bus every week he clearly doesnt, but if Pep had set out that way yesterday it would have taken spurs by surprise and played into our hand, instead we did what maureen was expecting and we played into their hands. In the time it took spurs to change their game plan, might not have picked his team to be more attacking. I guess at the end of the day i just wish Pep wasnt so predicable ( forgetting the Lyon game where he wasnt predicable lol )

 

[Eoiyflem]

they say don’t look at the table until 10 games have gone

after 10 games we’ll be at least 2 points ahead of them.. maybe more

No we wont

 

[Stevieatlasblue]

Pep the clueless one on here. Crap manager needs to go he’s lost the plot. What a load of utter drivel from a lot of posters on here. Get a grip.

 

[give it to gordon]

Bogey mate, lol

boogie sounds better lol

 

[The slaughtered lamb]

The Lyon game wasn’t that long ago. Pep set the team up to match their defensive formation, and then was slaughtered for not playing to our strengths.

He’ll make the odd changes here and there, but it doesn’t amount to a plan b. The way we play is broadly the same and aimed at squeezing the space, retaining possession, then playing that killer pass to create a good chance. We’re lacking the player to consistently do that at the moment, but it looks like we’re going to persevere down this road until we get him.

 

[Eoiyflem]

I've had some time to calm down and reflect and to be honest it hasn't changed anything in my mind. The players are a fucking disgrace. Ederson is a shambles in 2020, we can't score goals, we are MINUS FUCKING 1 after a quarter of the season. It's bollocks. No doubt somebody will remind me wE uSeD tO bE iN lEaGuE oNe

 

[Tokyo32]

I think debruyne is good but overated, he



Taking the first game out of the equation we have scored 7 goals in 7! That is a scary stat considering players at our disposal! Relegation form! Kdb aguero sterling etc...what is going so badly wrong?


KDB has always been overrated. He's a good player, has a good cross and pass but doesn't influence a team like yaya or D.SIlva did. He always looks over-stretched in his work. Silva had that cold efficiency even in the tightest of spaces and unlike Gundo, always looked to be offensive not simply the square pass

Ok. Didn’t expect that, so all our players are overrated then if you are saying kdb is overrated cause no one is stepping up.

 

[OB1]

Moureen has made a career out of sitting back, and telling his players to use the dark arts. Pep isn't going to ruin his reputation doing that he has more class.

Pep isn't going to play like Jose and I wouldn't want him to. I love how Pep wants his teams to play. I'm not one of those who thinks Pep is the problem.

 

[GBrannan]

I think your lack of pace, energy and enthusiasm is a result of the issue I outlined. Yesterday you started off brightly but because we could comfortably keep our shape you couldn't get into our box or get in good shooting positions around it and there is no point in crossing to Jesus from wide against a busy box.

The longer the game went on the more your pace, energy and enthusiasm waned because nothing was changing.

Whenever I have watched Aguero pull defences around you create good chances, even when you don't score the more chances you create the more enthusiasm there is because it is working. The goals then become almost inevitable

Aguero isn’t quite the player he was though. He’s still very good but he’s lost a yard and is progressively out injured more each year. I don’t think the result would’ve been any different with the 2019/2020 version of Aguero, particularly because he’d still have picked Mahrez to ensure our attacks break down on a regular basis.

Besides a top striker we’re massively short in central midfield. Rodri can’t move the ball quick enough to isolate our creative players in 1v1s. He also can’t run as evidenced by him chasing Kane yesterday. I think Gundogan is our best 6 for attacking play but he’s not ideal either because he runs back slower than Rodri.

The secondary midfield player is also a worry. I’m hoping with a run in the team Bernardo can grow there but he was poor yesterday. Add to that we haven’t had a proper fit left back for about 4 years and there’s big holes for us to fix.

On the plus side Dias has seemingly solved the giant hole on the right side of the defence and Foden and Torres should progressively get more minutes and continue to improve.

Mourinho has you well set up against attacking teams like ours if yesterday is anything to go by. It’s how that translates when you have to commit more men forward that will define how you go because I don’t really rate your defence when it doesn’t have 6 men in it... and then you need to keep Kane fit, who was excellent yesterday.

 

[grant1977]

Seemingly our bogey team. We were the better side just didn’t score end of (why mahrez starts is a mystery though)

 

[doobyedoobye]

There is a serious over reaction to our poor performances during these unprecedented times.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

Well you know it's getting bad because it's taken over sixteen hours for people to start claiming that everything is fine and that everyone is overreacting.

 

[OB1]

i am not saying maureen plays park the bus every week he clearly doesnt, but if Pep had set out that way yesterday it would have taken spurs by surprise and played into our hand, instead we did what maureen was expecting and we played into their hands. In the time it took spurs to change their game plan, might not have picked his team to be more attacking. I guess at the end of the day i just wish Pep wasnt so predicable ( forgetting the Lyon game where he wasnt predicable lol )

I'm sure it would have taken Jose by surprise but unless it drew Spurs out and had them commit players forward recklessly, what would it have achieved? Also, Jose may well have given his team instructions on what to do if City sat back at any stage. He's also capable of figuring out changes during a game. But I don't want to be bigging him up.

City having a way of playing may appear to make them predictable but that actually isn't the big issue IMO, it's about how you execute the game plan.

 

[the_tevez_wiggle]

Have you never heard of paragraphs

Have you heard of full stops? I was waiting for more too be said.
Thank you for critique though, much appreciated and it added plenty to the forum content.

 

[OB1]

Well you know it's getting bad because it's taken over sixteen hours for people to start claiming that everything is fine and that everyone is overreacting.

If you don't think people overreact to poor football results on a regular basis!

Quite clearly the team has an ongoing issue and has now made things quite difficult for itself in terms of mounting a title challenge this season.

I hope the relevant people at the club can smell the roses and do something to improve the squad in January but we cannot rely on that and Pep has got to do what he can to get a consistently higher level of performance out of what remains a very talented squad.

The situation is hugely frustrating.

 

[blueinsa]

Did PiGMOB think Dean did such a great job last year that it was safe to ensure the outcome again with him?

 

[MillisleBlue]

I think your lack of pace, energy and enthusiasm is a result of the issue I outlined. Yesterday you started off brightly but because we could comfortably keep our shape you couldn't get into our box or get in good shooting positions around it and there is no point in crossing to Jesus from wide against a busy box.

The longer the game went on the more your pace, energy and enthusiasm waned because nothing was changing.

Whenever I have watched Aguero pull defences around you create good chances, even when you don't score the more chances you create the more enthusiasm there is because it is working. The goals then become almost inevitable

Mourinho asked Pep to find a way round the parked bus issue again yesterday and I'm sure couldn't believe his luck when Pep did his predictable lemming-like routine of playing right into Mourinho's hands. Trash-talking in the media, perfect well executed game-plan, 3 points and job done for Jose. Best of luck to Spurs for the remainder of the season - hopefully we'll not be as dire and entirely predictable when you come to our place.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

If you don't think people overreact to poor football results on a regular basis!

Of course, but we're not talking about standalone performances, this is so consistent that it's become our standard, not an anomaly.

I also think there's something to be said for those who will repeatedly fail to see the major issues because they're constantly fixated on the silver lining.

But I agree with everything you've said there. Incredibly frustrating.

 

[NoApologiesForBeingSpurs]

Aguero isn’t quite the player he was though. He’s still very good but he’s lost a yard and is progressively out injured more each year. I don’t think the result would’ve been any different with the 2019/2020 version of Aguero, particularly because he’d still have picked Mahrez to ensure our attacks break down on a regular basis.
...
Mourinho has you well set up against attacking teams like ours if yesterday is anything to go by. It’s how that translates when you have to commit more men forward that will define how you go because I don’t really rate your defence when it doesn’t have 6 men in it... and then you need to keep Kane fit, who was excellent yesterday.

Agree with the first paragraph, my point was that you need a player that does what a fit Aguero used to do, but even with the drop in pace defenders still worry about him. I've thought for 2/3 seasons you have needed that player though so that you have proper cover when Aguero is injured, for rotation or to play with him as the closest thing you will come to a plan B under Pep.

From what I've seen I completely agree with the majority on here about Mahrez, I was astounded that you paid that much for him when you did and I've been perplexed at the number of starts he gets for you. Either he is amazing in training or he's got compromising photos of Pep. If you are going to keep playing him then he needs Walker to make overlapping runs to give him space to come inside (walker has rarely achieved much with overlapping runs but it does make space for others), but that needs Rodri to learn how to cover at right back

Our defence has been much improved lately as Dier has settled in to the unfamiliar left CB position and formed a good partnership with Toby. Our 6 games before yesterday were all against 'inferior' teams where we were mostly attacking (and for 80 minutes against West Ham the match before that, the last 10 I won't comment on! Toby's injury yesterday may really set us back as Sanchez is still erratic, Rodon is untested at this level, Tanganga is just coming back from injury and Davies is only comfortable at LCB in a 3