My two cents:
Haaland missing chances. And when he does, its never good.
When we don't score first, we're trash.
As for the players: Walker. Bin him. He's done.
The lineup: questions. Savinho on right? Didn't work. Gundo as 6? If that's where he was playing? Didn't stop counters. Rico on right but it looked like he was tucked in the whole game. Same as Foden. That left Walker playing as a winger? No.
here's my take. And I've said it before and I'll say it again. Teams have adapted to us. It is no issue for teams to drop 4-5 back or play a double 6 and absorb pressure. Because they know we will be careful with the ball rather than risk a 20 yard shot or a swinger into the box. We just don't do that. But this is also the origin of our 2nd problem which is - counter attacks. If we lose possession, then we commit to possesssion inside an opponents inside 30, we are a shambles in trying to get back. We have no one to stop a counter.
Finally - we never counter attack. Never. Not once in this game. Yes, teams leave players back, but we have shown that we do not utilize any pace we may have - even if we're down. We were down 0-2 today and not once did we try a quick counter. Its foreign to Pep.
So while we have the skill, we don't use it. We have to adjust our style and we need to find a 6 that will shore up against counters. We have to play with URGENCY. The days of us picking apart defenses and wearing them out are
g-o-n-e.
Haaland missing chances. And when he does, its never good.
When we don't score first, we're trash.
As for the players: Walker. Bin him. He's done.
The lineup: questions. Savinho on right? Didn't work. Gundo as 6? If that's where he was playing? Didn't stop counters. Rico on right but it looked like he was tucked in the whole game. Same as Foden. That left Walker playing as a winger? No.
here's my take. And I've said it before and I'll say it again. Teams have adapted to us. It is no issue for teams to drop 4-5 back or play a double 6 and absorb pressure. Because they know we will be careful with the ball rather than risk a 20 yard shot or a swinger into the box. We just don't do that. But this is also the origin of our 2nd problem which is - counter attacks. If we lose possession, then we commit to possesssion inside an opponents inside 30, we are a shambles in trying to get back. We have no one to stop a counter.
Finally - we never counter attack. Never. Not once in this game. Yes, teams leave players back, but we have shown that we do not utilize any pace we may have - even if we're down. We were down 0-2 today and not once did we try a quick counter. Its foreign to Pep.
So while we have the skill, we don't use it. We have to adjust our style and we need to find a 6 that will shore up against counters. We have to play with URGENCY. The days of us picking apart defenses and wearing them out are
g-o-n-e.