Exactly. It's almost unfair to call that a Pep team, with the full backs that were in today. He's using what he's got to the best of his ability. People will say they should have been replaced in the summer but you can't do it all at once.The match thread was unbelievable. I didn't know Bluemoon has so much alarmists onboard. It's perfectly normal to lose to Spurs away, we're only in the beginning of a long, long way. It will take at least 2 transfer windows and 2-3 yrs of training to make a real 'Pep team'. We're on top now, perfect start of the season! This loss will help Pep to address some most urgent issues, so no reason to panic.
As i think most of us have suspected for a while;
Against the real best teams (those who will press us up high with pace and power - spurs, liverpool in particular) we will struggle unless we have our absolute best 11 on the pitch.....If Kolorov fernando, navas and unfortunately zabba are playing against those teams ...and even ottomendi.....the Pep has to change the way he plays or suffer more days like this....
We didnt play badly in the second half...infact we were the better footballing team, but their pace and power coupled with those players mentioned and their use of the ball, speed of thought (and in all those players it isn't good enough) will mean teams who press us will create lots of chances and get lots of space
I think the league is between us, liverpool and spurs and we have have just lost 3 pt to our main rivals (everton will do well as well)....unless we have our best 11 in the reverse fixture and against liverpool we will lose more pts to them
The other thing to consider is that other teams that play against liverpool and spurs won't make it as easy for them as we did today as we played directly into their hands especially in the first half and with the selection of the two fullbacks and fernando.
The fullback positions were a worry in the summer, it needs to be sorted at the earliest opportunity (but I suspect it won't happen till next summer).....
Wanyama showed what fernando should be and is so far away from.
Kolorov doesn't have the engine, pace to play as a pep fullback...he is defensively woeful and that hasn't changed (in the fullback position) with pep coming in and zabba's legs have gone...can still play against the lesser teams but not against high energy teams
Great post, the positive is that our weaknesses are obvious and so relatively easily fixed.As i think most of us have suspected for a while;
Against the real best teams (those who will press us up high with pace and power - spurs, liverpool in particular) we will struggle unless we have our absolute best 11 on the pitch.....If Kolorov fernando, navas and unfortunately zabba are playing against those teams ...and even ottomendi.....the Pep has to change the way he plays or suffer more days like this....
We didnt play badly in the second half...infact we were the better footballing team, but their pace and power coupled with those players mentioned and their use of the ball, speed of thought (and in all those players it isn't good enough) will mean teams who press us will create lots of chances and get lots of space
I think the league is between us, liverpool and spurs and we have have just lost 3 pt to our main rivals (everton will do well as well)....unless we have our best 11 in the reverse fixture and against liverpool we will lose more pts to them
The other thing to consider is that other teams that play against liverpool and spurs won't make it as easy for them as we did today as we played directly into their hands especially in the first half and with the selection of the two fullbacks and fernando.
The fullback positions were a worry in the summer, it needs to be sorted at the earliest opportunity (but I suspect it won't happen till next summer).....
Wanyama showed what fernando should be and is so far away from.
Kolorov doesn't have the engine, pace to play as a pep fullback...he is defensively woeful and that hasn't changed (in the fullback position) with pep coming in and zabba's legs have gone...can still play against the lesser teams but not against high energy teams
Bravo was far from shocking. Made three great saves and calm passing.Spurs were good, but what a brain fart by Pep. Wrong team selection. Subs far too late. I said how Spurs would play (who didn't think they would play like that?) yet Pep thought 4-1-4-1 with Fernando would do the business? (Fernando a player who can't pass forward to save his life as the 1!)
Shocking. Seriously poor from him.
Compounded by 4 shocking player performances.
Kolarov - Back to to normal.
Zaba - Over the hill. Just too slow now.
Otamendi - Went to ground far too often could have seen a red.
Bravo (Penalty save aside) - Far too often he made suicide passes to payers who would be closed down within 1/4 a second of receiving the ball
Teams are going to defend in our half every game now.
To be fair to Spurs, I don't think any team for the rest of the season will put in a better all round performance than that, they were excellent. The big teams always have their best game of the season against us, its been like that for a few years. They know how to beat us. Its about time we came up with a proper plan for these games.
Dirty fucking spuds.
But we are too soft and always penalised for clumsy challenges. Our midfield is lightweight.
Congrats to fleet st. cunts darlings.
Ok so against a decent team Zaba and Kolarov are clearly nowhere near good enough. Same goes for Fernando. They were far better than us in all departments. The Pep honeymoon is over and there is a huge amount of work to be done. Trying to be positive but a lot of the negatives visible last season are still present. I expect us to finish 4th again this season.
To be honest it's not his glaring mistakes that worry me, as you say they can happen to anyone - it's his reluctance to track back, propensity to hoof the ball aimlessly upfield, and constantly get caught out of position that cause greater concern.Kolorov has improved to be fair,yeah,dropped a bollock v Celtic and today,shit happens.
Navas and Fernando out for me.