The more I think about the game the more I reckon Pep should have started Zinchenko or Ake instead, or at least put one of them out there when it became obvious that Spurs were always going to have that spare man down their right, whether it was Emerson or Kulusevski. We do always seem to struggle against teams who go with 3-4-3 and I'm not sure why he didn't anticipate it sooner. Their disallowed goal came from Kulusevski getting into a good position on the right and being found with a long ball, then their winner eventually came from basically the same move. And whenever the ball bounced to Kane, Rodri was always distracted by something else. Rodri's our pacemaker and he lost his head after 5 mins yesterday, never to get it back.
Bad day all round for all our defensive players.
And for all the talk that "we need a striker for games like this", I don't even think we created a range of good enough chances for a striker to convert. I lost count of how many times Foden, Cancelo, or De Bruyne (whoever really) picked the ball up and couldn't work an angle. Spurs were happy for us to knock it back to Kevin because they always had enough men back to deal with it, and that was the story of the second half. It's why I was a bit disappointed when Sterling was taken off because he was the only lad trying something different - and it paid off with Gundogna's equaliser. Delap might have been worth a go in the last 10 minutes but Pep wanted control first and foremost, so I can understand why another substitute never came.
Our biggest problem, though, I thought, was how often we gave possession back after winning it high up the pitch. We'd all seize upon the ball in a really good area, but then proceed to play the pass without checking whether the player receiving it was even looking. Cancelo would nick it off one of theirs, and then rush a through ball to Sterling before Sterling was even on a run. Spurs would then nick it back, force it to Kane, and get going from there. All it said to me is that we were properly rattled by the first goal and couldn't calm down. Normally Gundogan acts as a calming influence but even he was on one. People have a go at Grealish for being too slow but he does such a terrific job of keeping the tempo at a simmer and prevents it from boiling over, as it did during the Spurs game.
But we move on. Liverpool will drop points between now and the end of the season - they've got Arsenal, West Ham, United, and a bunch of other tricky games coming up. They have to come to the Etihad and beat us, we all knew it was going to come down to that game anyway. We need 9 wins from 12 games to win the league, Liverpool will need to be almost perfect between now and the season's end. Let's see.
Bad day all round for all our defensive players.
And for all the talk that "we need a striker for games like this", I don't even think we created a range of good enough chances for a striker to convert. I lost count of how many times Foden, Cancelo, or De Bruyne (whoever really) picked the ball up and couldn't work an angle. Spurs were happy for us to knock it back to Kevin because they always had enough men back to deal with it, and that was the story of the second half. It's why I was a bit disappointed when Sterling was taken off because he was the only lad trying something different - and it paid off with Gundogna's equaliser. Delap might have been worth a go in the last 10 minutes but Pep wanted control first and foremost, so I can understand why another substitute never came.
Our biggest problem, though, I thought, was how often we gave possession back after winning it high up the pitch. We'd all seize upon the ball in a really good area, but then proceed to play the pass without checking whether the player receiving it was even looking. Cancelo would nick it off one of theirs, and then rush a through ball to Sterling before Sterling was even on a run. Spurs would then nick it back, force it to Kane, and get going from there. All it said to me is that we were properly rattled by the first goal and couldn't calm down. Normally Gundogan acts as a calming influence but even he was on one. People have a go at Grealish for being too slow but he does such a terrific job of keeping the tempo at a simmer and prevents it from boiling over, as it did during the Spurs game.
But we move on. Liverpool will drop points between now and the end of the season - they've got Arsenal, West Ham, United, and a bunch of other tricky games coming up. They have to come to the Etihad and beat us, we all knew it was going to come down to that game anyway. We need 9 wins from 12 games to win the league, Liverpool will need to be almost perfect between now and the season's end. Let's see.
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