You can't win sometimes, all last season we went for it, and many were crying out to be more pragmatic, had we turned a few of those defeats into draws who knows what would have happened, now he's doing what people wanted, and it's still wrong.
The only reason we are where we are in the league currently, is that we had a quite difficult start to the season, with no pre-season, and a shit load of injuries. We've lost 1 in 16 games in all competitions, away at the current league leaders - a game we should have won, where we had more than 5x the number of goal attempts than they did, caught out on the break, and due to our own errors at the back.
Yes, but...as they say, “The table doesn’t lie!” Even if we win our game in hand against Villa, we are 6th. If Utd win theirs, 7th!
That’s simply not good enough for this team.
The thoughts I shared with my siblings after the game:
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Well,you nailed your prematch analysis!
Just watched the game and City were bossed through midfield, and Mahrez and Sterling were anonymous!
If Pep isn’t playing on reputation, then he needs to bench them BOTH and start Torres and Foden, and use Bernardo for his energy and industry when not playing two DMs
Thought City were outplayed. Jesus was industrious, especially defensively, but doesn’t look like there’s any killer instinct in a team that’s playing through the motions...A to B to C to B to C to A to D. Lose the ball, get it back. A to B to C to B to C to A to E. Lose the ball....
Cancelo has delusions of being an attacking defender. Sadly, the delusion ends with the EXACT SAME MOVE every time...coming inside on his right foot and having it taken away from him.
Walkers starting position usually puts him on the back foot, making him use his speed to recover, instead of being in a good starting position and coming onto the ball, thus allowing him to use his speed to pull away from the forward in the direction we want him to go.
Ferna and Rodri are doing what Pep wants, but the lack of any game in Sterling and Mahrez means the ball comes straight back. In this game, it meant having United’s midfielders nipping at their heels all game, and the “outlet” being Ederson for a tonk downfield to no-one, because we have LITERALLY no-one who will win a header against even the most average height midfielder or defender.
Look like a team that is in the EXACT right position in the table at the moment, which is not a good thing at all. Need an injection of some creativity, some passion, and some desire to crack one every now and then.
We look like robots running through our pre-programmed sequence and when it gets blunted, we just revert back to the start of the sequence.
Look flat, trying to beat players who are supposed to be lesser players but they’re winning the battles all over the field, making supposed superstars look bang average.
Next game I start Foden..Aguero..Torres across the front, with Bernardo LM, Rodri CM, and KDB RM. Bernardo and KDB can slot the ball inside the full back all day long for Foden and Torres to fight for and run on to. I see almost NOTHING from Sterling & Mahrez in that regard!
CBs look solid, but they don’t get the protection they deserve at times, esp from their FBs.
We need a REAL LB BADLY, unless we can play Ake there regularly and he cuts the mustard behind a left winger.
