The Title Race 2022/23

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paulchapo said:
To have any chance we'd have to find some kind of form and consistency and a way to get Haaland into games. At the moment it's like playing with ten men. We have to also get our main defenders, Stones, Dias and Laporte fit and keep them fit.
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We have been in similar situations in the previous seasons and we managed to raise to the challenges. It's up to the manager and the players, they have proven thier qualities and abilities previously, and if they recall the same desire and performance, they can compete and challenge for the title.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
I can't see it doing any harm. He would certainly bring us closer to goal and earn us our fair share of free-kicks in dangerous positions.

I do think Kev needs to come out of the centre now, most of his best work these days is wide right and his crossing would come in to the box far quicker and from deeper too.

If we have two holders, there is more margin for risk.
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This is my frustration with Mahrez at times. He has the chance to deliver into the box when Haaland has isolated a defender and he'll chop back and play the safe ball. I know that pep won't be telling them to lump it in at every opportunity but some variation in the play makes us less predictable.
 
Remember the lockdown season when we was fucking shite right up until December then all of a sudden something clicked and we never looked back. I feel this is going to happen but of course needs to happen soon.
 
I still feel we could win the league. Arsenal looks like they'll do it in their current form, but they still have a few tricky games and their squad is relatively inexperienced when it comes to winning titles.
 
Blu3m00n91 said:
Remember the lockdown season when we was fucking shite right up until December then all of a sudden something clicked and we never looked back. I feel this is going to happen but of course needs to happen soon.
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Pep stopped playing two deep-lying midfielders after West Brom at home and moved Gundogan further forward.

Whenever we have formations that include three centre backs or two defensive mids, it takes away an attacking creative player from the team.

We are better when we have more creative players on the pitch playing further forward.

At the moment we have nobody playing in the ‘David Silva’ position, I feel like we have a massive hole in the middle of the attack behind Haaland where nobody is playing>>>

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We have lots of the ball out wide but too little centrally.

I thought we looked a bit too much like this against United on Saturday:

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With Bernardo (RCM) dropping next to Rodri (LCM) to get the ball, de Bruyne (RB) playing quite wide and deep, Cancelo (LB) joining in and two wide players (Foden LW, Mahrez RW) with Haaland (ST) surrounded by red shirts and no City players anywhere near him.

And we’re passing too much (not just against United but in general, recently) in a horse-shoe where all our non-Haaland players are just passing sideways and backwards to each other too much.
 
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Psychedelic Casual said:
Pep stopped playing two deep-lying midfielders after West Brom at home and moved Gundogan further forward.

Whenever we have formations that include three centre backs or two defensive mids, it takes away an attacking creative player from the team.

We are better when we have more creative players on the pitch playing further forward.

At the moment we have nobody playing in the ‘David Silva’ position, I feel like we have a massive hole in the middle of the attack behind Haaland where nobody is playing>>>

View attachment 66201

We have lots of the ball out wide but too little centrally.

I thought we looked a bit too much like this against United on Saturday:

View attachment 66202

With Bernardo (RCM) dropping next to Rodri (LCM) to get the ball, de Bruyne (RB) playing quite wide and deep, Cancelo (LB) joining in and two wide players (Foden LW, Mahrez RW) with Haaland (ST) surrounded by red shirts and no City players anywhere near him.

And we’re passing too much (not just against United but in general, recently) in a horse-shoe where all our non-Haaland players are just passing sideways and backwards to each other too much.
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If David Silva was in our team Haaland would have another 20 goals by now
 
Think this team has a huge potential, most key players are young or in their prime years bar Walker and KDB, who are on the wrong side of 30 and we could expect from them more dips in form than in the past. But Ederson, Dias, Stones, Laporte, Akanji, Ake, Cancelo, Rodri, Bernardo, Foden, Alvarez and Haaland are in their prime years or several years before their prime.

What worries me is fatigue from last season(s). Liverpool and West Ham have fallen off a cliff this season, both went far in Europe last season. We are doing much better relative to them, but some of the players may be a bit tired mentally wise. The rivalry with Liverpool over the last seasons was epic but also exhausting. The players are not machines. Also, think they don't perceive Arsenal as big rivals, Arsenal's wins don't motivate our players like Liverpool's wins. What they really want this season is the CL, no doubt about it. Even if we won 5 PL titles in a row, the red media would find ways to play our success down.

Think we can win the PL in spite of all this. Alvarez should be used more often from now on. He's a shy guy off the pitch, but relentless on the pitch. I like this type of players. We need him and Foden to step up. Also, Bernardo and KDB should improve. We need Stones to stay fit for most of the season. His persistent injury problems are problems for the team.
 
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Our points per game so far is 2.166, that is 82-83 if we would close the season with same. No way that is enough imo, so we need to play better and get better results in next 20 games than we did in last 18 for that form needs to improve, we need 1 or two good winning streaks of 4-5 games each at least so we can get some momentum too.

The two Arsenal games can make wonders if we win them but also can completely throw us off if we lose them or even if we just draw them. at the very least we would need a win at home and a draw in Emirates.

issue is if we concede at the back, there could be another conceded in quick succession and top teams smell our panic even if it is only for a 10-15 minutes period usually.

we would also totally need Arse to start dropping points vs the dross teams, and they have excelled so far vs anybody outside the top 7 teams.
Out of of 12 games they played outside City, Chelsea, Pool, Spurs, Newcastle United they won 11 and only drew to Soton away.
they are just not dropping points vs the dross clubs neither the mid level clubs. and the loss they had vs United and recent draw vs Newcastle at home who do have very solid defence this year the balanced it out nicely by collecting 6 points away to Spurs and Chelsea and also beating off Pool at home.
they are almost as consistent as they can get so far. every dropped points (they didnt have many) reaction was straightaway there with winning next 2-3 game.

for us not beating Gerrard's villa from 1-0 up early on, or Lampard's Everton from 1-0 up, or Brentford at all.
thats fucking shit. 5-7 points more we would have got just from these.
 
Before this run of tricky games started, I said to my son that we'd need 7 points from the 3 games against Chelsea, Utd and Spurs in order to have a real good chance. A win v Spurs will give us 6, which is not far short...game on.
 
What I find frustrating of late is that in some games it is clear that our line up or tactics aren’t working, yet we don’t change things up . Now we have Alvarez we have a great plan B , but it needs to happen sooner before we go behind.
Remember how Dechamps made two changes before half time in the WCup final and he was hailed a genius.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
I can't see it doing any harm. He would certainly bring us closer to goal and earn us our fair share of free-kicks in dangerous positions.

I do think Kev needs to come out of the centre now, most of his best work these days is wide right and his crossing would come in to the box far quicker and from deeper too.

If we have two holders, there is more margin for risk.
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It wouldn’t be a bad idea to switch it up a bit and have Foden left, Kev right with licence to cross.

My concern with Jack in the centre would be his work rate, I don’t think he works hard enough for us to play there.
 
g180aj said:
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to switch it up a bit and have Foden left, Kev right with licence to cross.

My concern with Jack in the centre would be his work rate, I don’t think he works hard enough for us to play there.
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i dont think his work is as much of risk if hes got 2 sitters behing him. I think the original post tolmie was commenting on was relating to a more 4231 formation rather than 433. Kind of the free role just behind haaland
 
I'd like to see Grealish in the midfield three, on the left side ahead of Rodri and with De Bruyne on the right hand side. I think we'd see a lot more of Foden in the wide left role there and on the wide right stick with Mahrez/Alvarez.

Grealish wants the ball to feet and he wants to draw players in and either go past them or play into the space they've left. Wide left we lose a lot of his talent. Similarly, Foden isn't going to go past people being wide left. His strength is getting the ball in tight areas and also his movement off it. Jack excels when others are moving ahead of him. He'll either play it into the space or he'll exploit the defender being drawn out of position and attack it. I think there would be a huge improvement in the attacking third with Jack and Phil linking with Haaland on the left and De Bruyne and Mahrez/Alvarez doing the same on the right.

Defensively we can improve, but I think Jack would be more effective defensively being in more central areas. He's got the legs to get back, it's just the positional discipline he lacks but with Rodri and two centre backs behind him he's got more cover. It's worth a try in my opinion.
 
Blu3m00n91 said:
Remember the lockdown season when we was fucking shite right up until December then all of a sudden something clicked and we never looked back. I feel this is going to happen but of course needs to happen soon.
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We had Fernandinho then, admittedly.

He was the one who got the whole team together before that Chelsea game that season and told them we were a pale shadow of ourselves.

I'd have loved Pep to have offered him a role as his number two and the chance to play in the Cups this season if playing was such an issue.

Loved that guy.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Pep stopped playing two deep-lying midfielders after West Brom at home and moved Gundogan further forward.

Whenever we have formations that include three centre halves or two defensive mids, it takes away an attacking creative player from the team.

We are better when we have more creative players on the pitch playing further forward.

At the moment we have nobody playing in the ‘David Silva’ position, I feel like we have a massive hole in the middle of the attack behind Haaland where nobody is playing>>>

View attachment 66201

We have lots of the ball out wide but too little centrally.

I thought we looked a bit too much like this against United on Saturday:

View attachment 66202

With Bernardo dropping next to Rodri to get the ball, de Bruyne playing quite wide where the ‘RB’ is, Cancelo joining in further forward and two wide players with Haaland surrounded by red shirts and no City players anywhere near him.
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Yeah it makes more sense to go back to the 5-5 system. 4 midfielders behind Erling
tolmie's hairdoo said:
We had Fernandinho then, admittedly.

He was the one who got the whole team together before that Chelsea game that season and told them we were a pale shadow of ourselves.

I'd have loved Pep to have offered him a role as his number two and the chance to play in the Cups this season if playing was such an issue.

Loved that guy.
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Sure tho we still have big characters? Dias, Gundogan? From what I’ve seen in the behind scenes stuff these guys are quite vocal in big moments
 
Blu3m00n91 said:
Yeah it makes more sense to go back to the 5-5 system. 4 midfielders behind Erling

Sure tho we still have big characters? Dias, Gundogan? From what I’ve seen in the behind scenes stuff these guys are quite vocal in big moments
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They are, but we also need Ruben fit on the pitch.

Stonesy is the big one for me. The only player willing and able to break the press from deeper.
 
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