What Is lacking?

citymad said:
I’m pretty angry with Guardiola right now but that’s pathetic. He badly lacks the big game mentality but he’s second to none over a long season.
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We were shit last night, but we've won three Prem titles in the last four seasons. Which is nice.
 
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JoeD said:
No back four in the world would be able to resist during 90 minutes without a shield. You just can't put 6 attacking players and expect your defense to come out unscathed.

If Werner had shooting boots they'd 3-4 up at half-time.
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True but we just didn't look comfortable or fluid at all. No flashes of individual brilliance nothing.

The selection affected the team because no way that front 6 all play so badly in the same game.
 
I’m going to be slaughtered for saying this but, we lack two world class centre midfielders. One being a DM. Rodri is far to slow and isn’t suited to the Prem. I always said the replacement to Fern needed to be mobile.

Gundo has had a decent season however he replaced David Silva, for me it’s another downgrade so that’s two downgrades in the midfield area.

I think this was why Pep liked playing with a false 9.
 
Semper aggressus said:
Aggression and mental toughness, particularly in midfield.
A clinical striker.
A winger with pace that can beat his man.
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Fully agree.
The game changed for the better when dihno came on.
Mahrez as good as he has been this season went hiding again...a trait of his.....sterling as bad as he was didnt but he needs to get his form back and his finishing is generally average at best.
Another question is where is Foden best utilised?
And the elephant in the room is kdb.....at times in peps system last night he looked lost and not for the first time
 
city warrior said:
Mentality and offensive quality.

The mentality of players like Bernardo, Stones, Sterling, Mahrez even Gundogan is just not that strong. They are not weak, but you just don't feel they thrive under pressure and that they will be the best player on the pitch on the BIG games. Players like KDB, Dias, Foden, even Ederson, Zinchenko or Walker tend to play really well on big matches.

The main thing is quality, specially for an offensive team like ours. We have a lot of depth and great squad players, but other than KDB which player is without a doubt a top 15 player in the world? Foden and Dias can get there if they keep this season's level. We have a bunch of top 15-50 players, but against elite competition we should have 1 or 2 more offensive top 5-20 players ( Haaland, Kane, Coman, Gnabry, Kante, Salah, Sancho, Verrati, Kimmich).

If we want to win PL(which is great) what we have is enough.Good quality and a ton of depth. But against the elite in cups competition, you need stars.
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Mate, got to say, we need to stop this rending of garments.
we have dominated the league, which is harder than the European Cup.
we have won the league cup and finished in a semi final and final in the other trophies.
if there is a mentality weakness, I am not seeing it.
we cannot win every game and the issue here is we have lost a game. any team can win any one SINGLE game. That is the nature of cups.
I would back this team against any team in the world over two legs.
Am not a Pollyanna, but don’t think we are DESPERATE for a striker. Yeah, we really looked desperate for a striker against PSG and Dortmund!!!! (And being realistic, the only striker who has a resume that is shown to turn up in big games plays for PSG and he ain’t for sale, anyway).
I am very disappointed in my hotel room looking at a partly finished glass of port and tonic From last night.
I won’t be jumping in the Douro and anyone that does because a team loses a single match needs to have their head felt.
Right - am off to the sauna.

up the blues!!!!
 
JoeD said:
None of those, actually and some posters using the defeat to have a dig at the usual scapegoats frankly make me laugh.

That Harvertz goal would have never happened with Fernandinho or Rodri on the pitch, and by letting them on the bench, Pep not only weakened his defense but also his attack.

He tied up Gundogan, who's not a defensive midfielder, forcing him to stay deeper thus having less influence on the game and cut off the defense from the attack, making the transitions ponderous, hazardous even, and constantly exposing the back four to Chelsea's counter-attacks. I've rarely seen you so disjointed.

I still can't fathom why he chose the most important game of the season, a one-off at that, to mess with a proven, league winner, starting XI. The system with the false 9 worked perfectly. The players had their habits, routines and partnerships. Everyone knew what they had to do on the pitch. The second leg against PSG should've put to bed any discussion about who's going to start, except maybe Fernandinho/Rodri. So why for the love of God, change that? Why not simply play your football?

I honestly thought that he would rectify his mistake at half-time, yet he persisted until one hour has passed and with this Chelsea team known for being a tough nut to crack, it was too little, too late. I said before the game that it was vital for you to get the first goal. By the time Fernandinho came on the damage was already done and Chelsea had a huge psychological advantage. Combined that with their well organized team and Kanté in the midfield and you just know that that one goal would be enough.

This Man City team had enough to see Chelsea through, even if it was never going to be easy. Talking about mentality, lack of striker or lack of leadership is simply shifting the problem. It's really heartbreaking, because I wanted Pep and this team to win the CL and put a definitive stamp on this footballing era.

Seems we'll have to wait a bit more.
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Spot on. 3 games against them where either the system or personnel have been different to the normal identity. Don’t understand, never will. He didn’t change his style when we controlled Conte’s similar 3 at the back team - I reckon CFC were a better team then than now - in the 2017/18 season, 1 goal wins, but wins. Feel heartbroken for the team. From the passion of PSG to last night.
 
This team lacks big game players. We've got great technical players but no killers in the box.

We need to address the LB issue and if Fernandinho isn't trusted for last night then whys he getting a new deal?
 
We have a lot of good players and some very good ones but what I saw yesterday was Bernardo Silva totally ineffective, Sterling and Mahrez unable to impact the game, De Bruyne and Foden too far ahead of the ball. Stones and Dias looking exposed and shaky. Gundogan playing way too deep. Our normally crisp, fluid passing was slow and often inaccurate and riddled with errors. Players who are normally calm in possession making hurried, rushed clearances and turning possession over continually. Zinchenko and Walker had nowhere to go with the ball until Fernandinho came on. The goal doesn't happen with a DM on the pitch though maybe Ederson could have done better.

We looked nervous, off balance, and lacking conviction. De Bruyne looked way off the pace even before his injury.
Can't ever remembering us creating so little. Credit to Chelsea who played to their strengths and could have been 3 up by half time.
 
Play to our collective strengths.

Don’t use Gundo as a DM.

Don’t play Foden in a role he is only learning to accommodate an out of form player. play him LM where he is excelling.

Don’t take the tools away from 1 of the best midfielders in the world (Kev)by having him chase CB until exhausted, Bernardo could do that all day.

A puzzle for example is intricate but precise and it only will be completed by placing the correct pieces together into their correct place.

The resting players, the rotation, the drop in form was all supposed to give us an advantage. My biggest worry is that just like Spurs, Liverpool, Lyon, Chelsea he is not learning from his mistakes.
 
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Pam said:
The false 9 scenario is absolutely unsustainable. It was an incredible achievement to win the league without a recognised striker but it isn't a credible option to take into next season. Teams will work out how to stop us if we persevere with that for much longer. We need a 30/40 goals a year man for the team to prosper and he has to be world class. Beyond that, there is very little wrong, in the general scheme of things.
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Spot on, Chelsea in both the Cup and league games showed teams how to play against us and we saw it straight away, most obviously against Brighton. We need to change again next season and a proper striker is the obvious requirement.
 
City10. said:
A false 9 can only take you so far. We need to break the bank for Kane. I'll be devastated if we don't bring in a world class striker.
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There were a couple of occasions last night where a genuine centre forward would have been sufficiently advanced to have taken advantage of a couple of situation. Mahrez had a chance but probably didn't realise the ball would reach him where a CF would be in, KdB on one occasion was just entering the area when we needed a player ten yards further in! False nines work if yer playing a defence that is less resilient than CFC demonstrated last night. Defences, if that's the basket where the club have put most of their eggs, need to get every thing right, every time, and get away with a sticky moment when it comes - Azpilicueta cleared one that could have flown anywhere including his own net - and concentration levels across the whole defence need to be maintained. That's exactly what CFC did. It's interesting that Tuchel adopts an approach so reminiscent of Jose, where Jose is pilloried but Tuchel is regarded as a tactical maestro.
 
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