West Brom (h) post-match thread

Groke said:
Bernardo can't get back in form of he doesn't get played. This was the ideal game for him to come in centrally, but no, it's Gundo and Rodri.
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I don't know why Pep didn't change it. Whilst we did create enough to win the game with those two De Bruyne crosses late on, from about 50 minutes you could see their gameplan was to just hold on and maybe try to get something from a counter. Rodri wasn't needed. We could have been much more creative with Bernardo on to draw people in and find space for others. Torres should have come on as well, he's been the only player that's consistently played well and scored.

You can count on one hand the number of players in our squad who have been consistently good and so surely fatigue must have taken its toll on the players. So many are playing poorly. Poor passes, poor first touch, poor decision making and poor finishing. The amount of times De Bruyne failed to control the ball cleanly was unbelievable. Gundogan was the only guy nailing that first touch and making something happen.
 
We aren't creating the same chances, you can see that in the way that the ball is being moved. Sane and Dave were huge weapons, where Dave continuously orchestrated the play in a positive way, we don't have the same person any more, and Sane was the destructive side of that who just wanted to get in at all costs. Kevin is a hybrid, but he is much better when he has a foil which allows him to do what he does best, but Bernardo has fallen off a cliff and its clear that Foden isn't there yet and Gundo (as good as he was last night) isn't at the same level as Dave either. We knew there was a weakness there and we know the names that were available that we passed on.
Torres is a good player and potentially great player, but we probably needed another body in there as well thats more similar to Sane.
Another issue is the double pivot, i don't think it works on its own and there is literally no need for it at home against a team who have (rightly) no desire to attack. How the fuck does Rodri complete 90 mins last night? What was the point? Pep might think that the key is just that we are missing chances, we are but we have always done that in his time here, but the key is the QUALITY of chances we are creating. That has dipped a lot and it was beginning to creep in last season as well.
 
Just the the email to access the 'extended highlights'. Pay rise for whoever edited extended highlights from that dross!
 
The manager isn't getting the best out of these players.

18 goals from 12 Premier League games is an absolutely woeful return. He has Mahrez, De Bruyne, Sterling, Aguero, Foden, Torres and Jesus at his disposal. He needs to be coming up with a better system to give these guys more chances.
 
Tricky_Trev said:
Because some people said he was the next Busquets and we are obsessed with trying to be Barca. We’re even copying their decline into nothingness, that’s how much we admire them.
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This exactly.
The last few seasons have unravelled what a blunt force Barcelona has been. They had their lucky version of class of 1992 and a GOAT player falling on their lap. And that's it. The mismanagement that seeps through that club and the kind of awful transfers that do. Well we did copy them in that at least. 250 million spend on craps like Mahrez and Rodri.
The only thing that pisses me of more than our slow dense style of play , is the comfortable position Pep finds himself in around this club. No question asked, no deadline or ultimatum given just vibes and same drivel every post match conference.
I was reading an article by Sid Lowe about Zidane getting ultimatum after their current predicaments. Imagine this, a guy who was a generational player and as a manager won three CL's in a row. If this would have won so much we would have gone all Alan Pardew giving Pep a 15 years contract and a dozen statues all around the Etihad.
It's on the manager.
There is no way Southampton's 11 is better than Arsenal's 11. Hasenhüttl is just the better manager than Arteta.
It's on the manager.
 
City_Sean said:
The manager isn't getting the best out of these players.

18 goals from 12 Premier League games is an absolutely woeful return. He has Mahrez, De Bruyne, Sterling, Aguero, Foden, Torres and Jesus at his disposal. He needs to be coming up with a better system to give these guys more chances.
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we had 26 shots yesterday.
 
HelloCity said:
Is Rodri even better than Javi Garcia?

Id probably have him above Fernando and that’s about it.
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Rodri is terrible and the person who scouted him as Fernandinho's replacement. wants sacking. We need a highly mobile fast and tenacious DM to fit in with our style of play and he is a million miles away from being that.

We are where we are now because the players we brought in to be the next generation when Kompany, Fernandinho, Silva and Aguero moved on just haven't been a patch on the originals. Step forward Bernardo, Stones, Rodri and Jesus, although Stones seems to show promise on occasion but it rarely lasts. Foden is the same, flashes of what talent he has but not consistent enough yet, but he is young and there is hope there

A lot of our squad although contributing to our recent success just haven't delivered enough and some have been here years now. Major surgery is needed but getting rid of some of them and getting the right players in is going to be tough. At the moment we are a bang average top ten side.
 
We’ve failed to replace legends with like for like quality (hard I know). Each one we kept until their body couldn’t give any more which gave us ample time to replace. The same thing is happening with Sergio. The way I look at it is if you gave any of our competitors a free hit at taking any of our current crop who would they take to improve what they’ve got. After Kev I’m not so sure. Don’t want to dig the lads out because this is a strange season for everyone but it’s clear that there’s plenty not good enough for where we want to be
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
It's sub-standard from so many players.

I'm pleased for Gundo, I have given him pelters for so many performances in recent seasons but it is now abundantly clear he isn't the problem, it's that big lump next to him.

Gundo is the only risk taker in the team outside of Kev, with arguably more end product this season.

He looks leaner than I have seen him before and has been out best player this season.

You can see why Pep continues to rotate Foden, he doesn't impact games half as much starting, same goes for Jesus.

I'm just frustrated as in the half-time matchday forum I said the obvious was to take Mendy off and put Walker in, yet Pep left it too late.

For me, to countenance that City have paid £230m for Mendy, Cancelo, Rodri and Mahrez, is a failure that cannot be easily excused.

Still confident we will be there at the business end but a striker in January wouldn't go amiss!
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If we are going to build a team with the aggression and tenacity of the old guards and possibly push for at least one or two ucl finals within the next five years, then we have to start now. Currently we are blessed with the best CB pairings we have ever had and I feel like we might miss a trick here if we don't apply some ruthless decision making. We need to get players who are ready to make an impact right now, any player that has had enough game time but still hasn't "come good" needs to be moved on quickly. Yaya, Silva, Kompany and Aguero were all winners but somehow I feel like we didn't get the best out of their prime years because we didn't go all out to get the best defenders out there, right now we have a similar situation only this time its our great defensive pairings that we risk wasting! Yes, Dias is still young but Stones, Walker and Laporte are all in the 26-29 years age bracket, if we intend to build a winning team with these players at the heart of the defence then we have to start now!

We need to revert to a working system and spend money on like for like replacement players.

-Get a Zakaria/Ndidi type player for Dinho.

-Give the Rodri project a couple more months, if he doesn't improve by the end of the season, cut our losses and get Luiz in. I would have suggested we play him as a CB but what's the point? we are already stacked in that position unless the management plans to get rid of Ake.

-Leone Bailey in as a replacement for Sane. Form is temporary, Class is permanent, he has found his form back in Leverkusen and is ripping the league up at the moment.

-FFS Out.

-Aouar/Bennacer in for Gundogan.

-Get Theo Hernandez, Mendy can fuck off.

-Find the closest thing to Kun in the transfer market. Haaland? Daka? Lautaro? Mbappe? Time to make a decision and go all out for that player.

-Sign players based on their ability in their natural position! find an attacker that can attack, a wing who totally dominates and forces chances from the wing, a defender that can actually defend (done this already). The ability to complete 1000 passes in a game is great but that shouldn't be what we look for when signing certain players especially in key positions like the wings and in the dm position. We have relied on this lately and it hasn't proven successful. A decent pass conversation rate would do.

-Sell Garcia, no room for nationalistic sentiment .

-No more Girona/CFG signings, No more freebies for "sister clubs", we have enough of them already! Enough of the random 16-18 year old signings, get players that are ready RIGHT NOW to bring in a flurry of trophies for the next 4-5 years.

-Play Torres more or loan him out until Pep has confidence in him, no need to waste him on the bench, we don't want to see another Leroy situation.
 
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sandiegoblue said:
Well that would be a bit silly, wouldn’t it? To get some perspective, we certainly weren’t at the top of our game and the majority of players were below the high standards that most of us expect. We played a team that parked the bus and performed well and their manager got his tactics right. Their goalie made some crucial stops, any of which could have gone in. The goal against us was a deflection that some would consider fortunate for them, but they took the shot and it paid off. Give them credit and recognize that we could have won but for some good saves, missed opportunities and an own goal.
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But every week it’s the same thing. If this was a freak result it’s fine but we’re consistently failing to improve right now. Other teams are dropping points and we can’t even take advantage by beating WEST BROM like come off it
 
Father Paul said:
Splashing the cash is not the answer or even an option. The entire globe is on the verge of an economic meltdown and nobody is immune from that reality. We are not in good shape currently and the short term prospects are somewhat concerning but getting out the cheque book is not really feasible or desirable.
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We have a collective loss of form and ideas. We should be demanding accountability at the end of the season, not bailing out big egos with a bottomless bank account.

If we can’t show significant improvement with the resources already available, we should recruit someone who can.
 
Father Paul said:
Splashing the cash is not the answer or even an option. The entire globe is on the verge of an economic meltdown and nobody is immune from that reality. We are not in good shape currently and the short term prospects are somewhat concerning but getting out the cheque book is not really feasible or desirable.
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Bollocks. We purposely try being famous by not breaking our record transfer fee of 65 million, regardless of Covid. We dream of players like Haaland etc but we will bauk at the price, for what?
If we don't want to spend cash then we need to show faith in our youth policy, but we have a manager that doesn't seem to even have faith in his bench.
Sterling Rodri etc starting every game for him even though its clear they are the cause of our dismise
And dont even dare say there's no dismise cos this team is going fucking backwards.
 
gorton guvnor said:
We’ve failed to replace legends with like for like quality (hard I know). Each one we kept until their body couldn’t give any more which gave us ample time to replace. The same thing is happening with Sergio. The way I look at it is if you gave any of our competitors a free hit at taking any of our current crop who would they take to improve what they’ve got. After Kev I’m not so sure. Don’t want to dig the lads out because this is a strange season for everyone but it’s clear that there’s plenty not good enough for where we want to be
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Ferguson had the right idea of replacing a player before his demise on the field and would sell a year of two early and get a fee either Everton, Middlesbrough etc.

We appear to show loyalty and reward it and only when player is completely visibly knackered on the pitch then look for replacement. A lot of people saying last night how much we missed Silva, but forget a lot of folk were slating him last year about his legs having gone and needed moving on.
 
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