What is it with our build-up play?

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bobom

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30 Nov 2009
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Our link up between the defenders and midfield is non-existent. Most of the midfielders play way really high and aren't really available. The exception is Fernando, who isn't a great passer either. As a result the defenders have to make long, accurate passes to reach them, and we lose possession. The only times our attacking midfielders seem to get the ball is from broken play. I don't know why the players don't make themselves more available...
(posting this in the hope of being proved wrong in the last 15 mins again Madrid)
 
Because the distance between defenders and midfield is massive. And it's even more massive because our midfielders are instructed to do front foot defending, which often finds them even further up the pitch.
 
That was Real Madrid, not Stoke mate. To hold these means we are right with the top. The likes of Ajax, Dortmund, Munich have annihilated us and we have definitely stepped a lot forward from that. We have become cagey and I like it.
 
It was looking alright until Silva got injured. But there was a big gap in the midfield between Fernando/Fernandinho and Iheanacho/Aguero. Games like today is why we still need Toure. He's a big game player and can bulldoze the shit out back lines when teams turn in a performance like that.
 
Without Yaya we have nobody to drop between the defence and midfield to take the ball and help us gain yards up the pitch. And we try to defend from the front with either 1 or sometimes both centre midfielders, which is absolute suicide against good sides, especially in the latter stages of the game where tiredness plays a part. It makes us easy to play through, and in the games where we play 4-4-2, we are outnumbered in midfield as it is. We only magnify the problem when we hopelessly charge round closing down space.

And because teams can play through us so easily, it causes Otamendi (normally) to try and close the space in front of him so he also leaves his position and leaves a big gap behind him.
 
This game was 1 team with a shit attack (Real - only Bale with any goal threat in entire team) vs a shit midfield (us). We lost our only drive through the middle with KDB shunted out wide. Sterling wasn't great when he came on but not keeping KDB in the centre was a stupid decision
 
MeatnSpudsMCFC said:
It was looking alright until Silva got injured. But there was a big gap in the midfield between Fernando/Fernandinho and Iheanacho/Aguero. Games like today is why we still need Toure. He's a big game player and can bulldoze the shit out back lines when teams turn in a performance like that.
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Yaya never would have pressed them so hard in the 1st half and would have been more than dead on his legs in the 2nd. He's a great player and he deserves our love for what he has done for our club but let's be realistic about what he would have brought today.
 
teddykgb said:
Yaya never would have pressed them so hard in the 1st half and would have been more than dead on his legs in the 2nd. He's a great player and he deserves our love for what he has done for our club but let's be realistic about what he would have brought today.
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I was thinking more along the lines of bringing him off the bench when Silva got injured. In regards to him not being able to do a job for a full 90 I would agree with that assessment.
 
I noticed after the change to 4-4-2 there was another more direct long balls, I don't think that suits City at all.
 
kupest said:
That was Real Madrid, not Stoke mate. To hold these means we are right with the top. The likes of Ajax, Dortmund, Munich have annihilated us and we have definitely stepped a lot forward from that. We have become cagey and I like it.
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Oh, the CL has been a massive achievement this year, and I love that we're not conceding in Europe. If anything I would like us to be more cagey in attack - just work our way up the field more methodically, instead of passing it around the back line a few times before lumping the ball forwards.
 
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