Spurs (H) | PL | Post Match Thread

noseve said:
Actually, if teams do start to press, and we can leave Erling up, with a single midfielder ready to receive the ball when we win it, that could change the dynamic drastically. His pace and power is worthless, when we're plodding around 30m off their goal-line with no space anywhere.

Obviously it wouldn't satisfy Pep's aesthetics, but might at least make teams second-guess themselves. At the moment, it does feel that opposing coaches have 'worked out' how to play City and are happy to give up the ball and await the inevitable chances.

It's felt like that since Christmas, really. It was never just about old legs in midfield. I think we have huge potential going forward, but you can't paper over defensive cracks for the whole season.
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Yes agree with that possble but the ball could also continue to bounce back at us and Pep doesnt like that.
Fully agree with the not just about old legs comments

Some of this squad is not good enough - Dias, Lewis to name two..big questions over Doku, Sav and Nico G

The inevitable injuries will show the lack of quality squad depth up even more

Said at the start of the transfer window we needed cover for Rodri (If Nico G isnt that player - dont know if he is at present and he does deserve more time), 2 right backs and two left backs - we got one of those

We got shinny toys in Cherki and Reijnders but they dont address the other blatantly obvious problems which have been there for nearly two seasons - they are icing on the cake players but not spines of the team (especially Cherki) - though both could be eventually but there were other areas of the pitch that needed addressing and havent been baring Alt Nouri

Pep is going to have to change the way he sets up as Donarumma doesnt solve the issue and neither does Rodrygo (as good as they both are)
 
hertsblue said:
The game has changed, Pep hasnt. Now teams are so direct, full of running, closing, pace and power. We still have small technical slow players.
We wasted huge money in January after other poor windows. Every team finds scoring v us easy as most shots on target hit our net which says the players and tactics are not good enough. Still no proper RB, a keeper who wants out and a replacement not good enough. Injury prone defence needs overhauling yet we give a underperforming defender a contract extension instead.
Eras come and go and ours has been nothing short of sensational but i feel we are on a downwards spiral and a real fight for 4th spot this season. The Wolves score hugely flattered the performance last week and any team with pace and energy will do what Spurs did today
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Yep. This

Time to move on from the pep era. Im hugely grateful, but im a city fan , not a pep fan.
Too many are pep cult conscripts
 
The main issue with today's performance and result, in my eyes, is that we saw it too many times last season and most of the time we play Spurs. We create opportunities & chances for competent opponents.

Individual errors are there to pick up on, but at what point will Pep realise a top team cannot have an entire back 4 be that slow. RAN getting injured was brutal but you have to view the pace of the whole back line when making a sub. Aké doesn't have his old pace
 
Legal Alien said:
That wasn't in the script and even though we had chances in the first half, Marmoush should've scored from Erling's through ball and Erling should've buried his header, we were outfought and almost bullied and were definitely second best. They knew how to play against us and it worked perfectly.

I like Rico but fuck me, we've conceded that goal at least half a dozen times now!

As for Trafford's fuck up, wow that was brutal!

We never recovered after that, but why didn't we go for it in the second half?
But we never really upped our game, never looked like scoring, yet they looked dangerous every time they attacked.

It's only one loss but it was ugly and there's plenty of work for Pep to do this week.

A few notes:

That we don't have a proper right back is real lack of judgement from the club and we surely need to fix that this week.

As for goalkeeper, if we're going to play out from the back like Pep wants, then we have to keep Ederson or get someone in his mould. I'd keep Trafford and hope he improves this skill throughout the season.

This week, I'd sell Ortega, Akanji, Gundo and Doku.
I would keep Savinho and play him on the left, recall Echeverri and buy a fucking right back!
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The only bit I dsagree on with all of that is Sav - he changes very little about that type of performance (which we saw so much of last year). If he was. on the pitch today the result is the exact same
 
hertsblue said:
The game has changed, Pep hasnt. Now teams are so direct, full of running, closing, pace and power. We still have small technical slow players.
We wasted huge money in January after other poor windows. Every team finds scoring v us easy as most shots on target hit our net which says the players and tactics are not good enough. Still no proper RB, a keeper who wants out and a replacement not good enough. Injury prone defence needs overhauling yet we give a underperforming defender a contract extension instead.
Eras come and go and ours has been nothing short of sensational but i feel we are on a downwards spiral and a real fight for 4th spot this season. The Wolves score hugely flattered the performance last week and any team with pace and energy will do what Spurs did today
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Fully agree
 
nmc said:
We desperately need a right back who can overlap
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I can't be the only one who, when we're linked with a 'full-back' of whom I've never heard, is disappointed to yet again find that every highlight reel consists solely of clips of him in the opposition's third, looking like yet another bloody midfielder.

We need a pair of full-backs who know how to defend. Natural defensive positional sense is not easily taught, in fact having watched football since the 1960s I can't think of a single player who has developed into a quality full-back if they weren't already one the first time I watched them. Plenty have made the opposite transition, but that initial defensive movement needs to be second nature.

The speed of the modern game means that a single step in the wrong direction gives everybody else a 5-10m head start.

I can't see that we have a single natural full-back in the entire squad.
 
Legal Alien said:
That wasn't in the script and even though we had chances in the first half, Marmoush should've scored from Erling's through ball and Erling should've buried his header, we were outfought and almost bullied and were definitely second best. They knew how to play against us and it worked perfectly.

I like Rico but fuck me, we've conceded that goal at least half a dozen times now!

As for Trafford's fuck up, wow that was brutal!

We never recovered after that, but why didn't we go for it in the second half?
But we never really upped our game, never looked like scoring, yet they looked dangerous every time they attacked.

It's only one loss but it was ugly and there's plenty of work for Pep to do this week.

A few notes:

That we don't have a proper right back is real lack of judgement from the club and we surely need to fix that this week.

As for goalkeeper, if we're going to play out from the back like Pep wants, then we have to keep Ederson or get someone in his mould. I'd keep Trafford and hope he improves this skill throughout the season.

This week, I'd sell Ortega, Akanji, Gundo and Doku.
I would keep Savinho and play him on the left, recall Echeverri and buy a fucking right back!
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On the subject of the goalkeepers. Before the game City played a little montage of Joe Hart. Pep punted Joe because he wasn’t good with his feet and his distribution wasn’t good enough. Now the Club has signed James Trafford who is definitely more Joe Hart than Ederson.

Very strange.
 
chaddblue said:
Not having the excuse that we haven’t had a pre season

Didn’t seem to bother us last weekend and certainly didn’t bother Chelsea last night who have had even less time to prepare
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Some of the excuses have been as shit as the performance, and agree that pre season one is no exception.
 
OntarioBlue said:
On the subject of the goalkeepers. Before the game City played a little montage of Joe Hart. Pep punted Joe because he wasn’t good with his feet and his distribution wasn’t good enough. Now the Club has signed James Trafford who is definitely more Joe Hart than Ederson.

Very strange.
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More Joe Hart than Joe Hart.
 
Pep should have gone after four in a row. I think he wants to stay until this FFP shite is sorted and he’s shown great loyalty but he looks frazzled. It could be years before it’s sorted, and we can’t afford to just drift into mediocrity. Hopefully the club are planning ahead and have candidates lined up.
 
burning blue soul said:
The answer is -Yes

Rags have had a torrid time with their keepers for years, and the media have highlighted it.
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Liverpool? Allison makes a mistake and absolutely nothing. Ramsdale made mistakes for fun and nothing.

But hard for them to not mention Rags when that clown is making a mistake every week.
 
BurnCK said:
He created his own pressure after that awful pass that lead to the 2nd goal. The decision making after that was terrible and he got away with it a couple of times
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He can only pass to the players that are in front of him. If Nico isn't trying to lose his market and Dias and stones are barely moving, what's he suppose to do? He can't smash it long as he's obviously been told not to buy Pep
 
simon23 said:
The only bit I dsagree on with all of that is Sav - he changes very little about that type of performance (which we saw so much of last year). If he was. on the pitch today the result is the exact same
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Well, if he plays on the left at least he can attack the fullback and get to the by line to put in a cross.
Marmoush is wasted on the left and teams know that Doku wants to get onto his right so they double up on him and try and force him wide, so he's really no threat from there.

If we sell Savinho and buy Rodrygo he'll want to play on the left, so why not at least give Savinho a run there.
 
Norbert D said:
Pep should have gone after four in a row. I think he wants to stay until this FFP shite is sorted and he’s shown great loyalty but he looks frazzled. It could be years before it’s sorted, and we can’t afford to just drift into mediocrity. Hopefully the club are planning ahead and have candidates lined up.
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Russell Martin will be available soon
 
chaddblue said:
Not having the excuse that we haven’t had a pre season

Didn’t seem to bother us last weekend and certainly didn’t bother Chelsea last night who have had even less time to prepare
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Chelsea had 100 players in a squad winning the CWC and another 100 player squad back at home doing the pre season
 
Was driving home from hols so didn't see or listen to game. When stopped and saw team sheet wasn't surprised at the result.

That team bar one or two, is essentially an average mid table team.
 
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