The one thing we are missing.......

[Millennium]

Sorry if someone has already posted but I haven't got time atm to search through all posts. But the one thing we lack is PACE, PACE, PACE, PACE , PACE!!!!!

That's it.

I managed to watch Arsenal Vs AC Milan the other day and the difference between us is/was night and day. They have bags of pace in their attack. They were running at Milan and looked likely to score at every opportunity.

We on the other hand, pass, pass and more useless slow passing allowing all teams to get lots of players back into defensive positions and then we have no way through to goal. The speed of transition from defense to attack from City is way way way too slow. I know everyone loves Barcelona for their passing but they do it at speed, it doesn't work as effectively when you are painfully slow. Unless you are Barca, you gotta mix it up and be more direct at times.

Just my take.

I totally agree with you. but in addition i think we also miss the Spirit of the Heroes, it is the same spirit that helped the rags to comeback from a 3 nil to draw against Chelsea at stamford bridge .

and the same spirit that helped the rags to score the winning goal at the extra time against Norwich

If we have that Spirit, believe me we will win the PL, and we still have the chance to prove that we posses that spirit.

 

[Damocles]

By Spirit of Heroes, do you mean Refs giving us two penalties?

 

[ello_jo]

Gareth bale and chamberlaine will do us.

 

[bluetonium]

I don't think we lack it completely, just neglect to use it. Sergio is very quick and Mario is lightning.

Yaya has a great burst of pace and Clichy and Micah are not slow at all. Personally, I woudl have liked to see Silva or Nasri trying the odd through ball yesterday - their CBs pushed up quite high and even took to bringing the ball out. We should have had one of our strikers playing off the shoulder. maybe even bringing on Pizzaro to ping a few balls over the top.

The only position I think we need pace is in a winger / wide player. Usually our quick passing style is enough to unlock a few yards of space, but for occasions where it is not I do think we could do with a fast attacking midfielder who can play wide. I do think that it will be addressed in Summer.

 

[mainestandblu]

We dont have a Bale or Lennon on the wing with lightning speed but we do have plenty of pace in our side. a bale or a lennon would give us an extra outlet when we're struggling to create but i would say our biggest problem is the lack of off the ball movement. Barcelona crush teams not with their passing alone but their movement is first class!
we are far too static when the opposition has parked the bus this makes us v predictable.

 

[acton28.blog]

WANTED, LOST, REWARD.

URGENCY.

 

[FantasyIreland]

we've known this for ages.

Along with the fact our reserve centre halves are not good enough.

 

[PSmyth07]

We have pace we're just very indirect going forward.

 

[TueartsOHK]

We have pace we're just very indirect going forward.

I agree. I think we have the players to attack with pace (remember the goal against Arsenal in the league cup - one of the best goals we've scored all season) but I honestly don't think that Mancini wants to play in this style. He insists on passing the ball out from the back - even when we're chasing the game. I was watching Nasri yesterday and nearly every pass he made was either sideways or backwards and this allows the opposition to get back in numbers while we continue playing tippy tappy football in front of them. This has become the pattern for a lot of our games and we desperately need a rethink on how to break teams down.

 

[1978blue]

i dont get whats gone wrong really,at the start of the season we played fast attacking fluent football away from home and blew teams away good teams at that so why go back to this slow overpass shite we've been playing since december its pretty fucking obvious its not working with the players we have i want to see us go after teams from the first whistle, not waiting till either we go a goal down or the 2nd half.Teams where shit scared of us before now they have a belief that they'll beat us.