What Is lacking?

Two different styles..almost like playing a much more effective Burnley..we seem to lack some physicality and clearly a striker which I am sure will be addressed..it will be interesting to see how this next transfer window pans out..rumours of Raheem and Mahrez going..gutter press bollocks as far as I can see. We all love Fern and am sure he will perform well next season, but any new player seems to need a season to bed in, so a potential problem for the future..guess the Covid effect on finances will have an effect on deals.The KdB/Gundog axis does not seem to work well either,one or the other.. Any way,,PL and Carabao enough for me.
 
A DM ( the lad at Brighton looks very good) and a striker preferably Haaland but Kane will do. It’s not my money so not worried about no sell on value.
id move Raheem on
cancelo ( poor attitude and rolls around the floor like a tart)
Doubts about Rodri - overweight and too slow for this league
Everyone else I would keep apart from Mendy who through injury is finished at this level
 
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blueparrot said:
What does pace do against a deep back 5 , 2 holding and a deep 3 forwards, think the bt graphic showed 17 m between the defenders and forwards, pace with no space for it isn’t how to break down an organised deep defence.
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If we had more of it we could change the way we setup and play deeper. we don't move forward quick enough against deep defences. It would be handy to combat the 2 pass attack that we struggle against.
 
We lack pace at the back, Walker aside.
It means teams that sit and use pace on the break hurt us.
Chavs have done it 3 times now. Scum do it every time and even Leeds did it with Rafinha.
Stones and Dias are not slow but they are not quick either.
 
swblue64 said:
Dont over complicate in big games. The quad was on this season but for some bizzaaaaar reason we played the second string v Chelsea in the FA Cup semi and tossed it off. Then tonight the only question we all wanted to know was Dhino or Rodri, and we end up playing neither and our most out of form player Sterling is in the team. WTF ????!!!!!!?...
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Wrong wrong wrong.

Pep makes many complicated decisions in big games that don’t receive excessive scrutiny and abuse because guess what ..... we win most big games

The FA Cup semi was 3 days after a gruelling, mentally and physically draining 2nd leg at Dortmund, we had a tough away game at Villa coming up which had we lost it could’ve seen the rags move uncomfortably close to us and we had a cup final the following weekend. The least important game therefore was the FA SF so Pep was right to rest players.

We all know Raz has been shite for so long and should be moved on but in a one off game his pace and his work ethic in tracking back against a team who break quickly are useful. 2 months ago Rodri would’ve started but his form has nosedived and the recent sentimental Fern wankathon can’t disguise the fact that he’s not near to the player he was. Pep’s decision was understandable.
 
The manager doesn't have the strength of his convictions and stick with what's working, he has to tinker to "find something better" when it isn't there.

Twice in a big CL game in Portugal he's picked a team that the fans and players have no faith in and so both have given up and lost. Until he listens, he'll never learn. There are big players that the rest of the side depend on being in the team in big games and until he learns we'll lose. Kante ran the show and he was unopposed because Pep left our Kante on the bench. We went for control but with no base to build on so Chelsea could pick us off at will.

Pep thinks he's smarter than he is. Tuchel, Solskjaer et al. just play the same trick and we continually fall apart.

Think last sunday was the closing chapter because as genius as this guy is, the 10% that fucks him time and time again he's never going to fucking learn. Like Chelsea have found, the high profile manager can win you league titles but you need a jammy git to win the CL. Ferguson, Klopp, Tuchel, Zidane and even Di Matteo are all lesser tacticians but in a big game knew how to set up their teams to beat teams like us by being jammy gits. We squander and spurn and get done. The closest we came to mastering jammy gits was Dortmund and PSG and playing poorly but stealing 2-1 wins, then Pep threw the CL winning formula that had been presented to him out with the golden goose, the baby and the bath tub.

Dortmund and PSG was literally the footballing gods showing him the way he could win the CL here, and he ignored them. He'll never learn and it'll be a far more unremarkable manager who wins City their first CL.
 
Fuck it.. had enough analysis.. will finish the swill from yesterday and bask in 12 years of glory
 
SamBlue said:
They unsettled our defence with lay-offs on both flanks and we just could not deal with it after losing our focus. And as the game was approaching the end of the first half our possession was steadily going down to 50:50 and we were positionally all over the place. We did not know whether to press or to defend deep, so we were caught in between. I just don't understand Pep did not react whatsoever, the third game in the last two months the made us look so stupid!!!! They've been doing the same thing to us over and over again and we didn't react. This defensive lack of discipline definitely crept in at the end of the season, but their goal was just disgusting.

Mendy dinks to Chilwell, Riyad in mid of nowhere and look at Kyle and Stones where they are.

View attachment 18250
Lay off Chilwell to Mount, Kyle relies on his speed and takes himself out of game, Gundo presses the ref and Stones is completely oblivious what is going to happen - he forgot he gained his place after the same thing happened to Laporte against Spurs.

View attachment 18251

Stones defending Walker who's running back covering nobody, Gundo not covering a single passing line and ZInch who plays his Chelsea player in offside position is suddenly asked to cover the whole of MF after Ruben goes after Werner keeping Chelsea onside.

View attachment 18252
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cannot argue with any of that, no cohesion or fluidity, no rhythm, players looking lost, ponderous and slow decision-making. Over-thinking by Pep is default criticism in the media,, i think it's more like the team being unable to implement his 'vision' . What-ever, the outcome is the performance we got last night, and sadly i no longer expect half-time to be a game-changer. Far from TT 'schooling' Pep, he played a fat sam / pulis m.o. 9 behind the ball and rapid breaks, why City fall for it baffles me....i have to say even if we had 'nicked' it last night it would still be a major disappointment on one of the biggest occasions in club football.....
 
We need 2 pacy unpredictable wingers that can stretch defences and a clinical finisher. That ties up any back 4 and creates space for the rest. Too easy to organise a defences against what we have right now.
 
Yesterday we lacked dm and our fast passing and intensity to pull and drag Chelsea all over the place like we do to a lot of teams.if we’d have done this then 100 percent me thinks we we’d have won.
 
Kompany & co said:
We need 2 pacy unpredictable wingers that can stretch defences and a clinical finisher. That ties up any back 4 and creates space for the rest. Too easy to organise a defences against what we have right now.
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We had one but he got dogs abuse.
Crucified even.
The nature of the role. Taking players on and sometimes losing out. It's not for some of our fans.
That, and only having dwarves to aim at.
 
Would it ever be acceptable for the team to say to the manager, look we know your a fantastic tactician and coach but as a team we would be more comfortable and confident playing our normal system and formation particularly in the biggest game of our lives?
 
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I'm Blue said:
One more thing..
Maybe we need to try taking the FA Cup and the league cup less seriously for a season, assuming the league is looking good.
Play the second string and the kids.
By the time we get far into the champions league we usually look knackered, like tonight.
The way we play, the amount of games we play doesn't help.
Doubt they'll want to try that though, passing on trophies, but if we really want the champions league then its worth the gamble imo.
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Agree with this, I think this season especially we should have played the kids in the league cup. Most seasons the final is in like February, so it can be won and then the team can focus on Prem & CL. But not this year.

It’s so difficult though, we had three weeks rest leading up to last night, whereas Chelsea had basically 5 finals in those three weeks (to secure top-4 and the FA Cup)... which was better preparation for last night? The rest or a string of important games? If you’d asked me yesterday I’d have definitely said three weeks to chill, but now I’m not so sure.
 
Kompany & co said:
We need 2 pacy unpredictable wingers that can stretch defences and a clinical finisher. That ties up any back 4 and creates space for the rest. Too easy to organise a defences against what we have right now.
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We played yesterday extremely wide with Sterling and Riyad, both very fast and it did us no good. We just didn't play well individually and still we had a number of good situations in the box where the final pass or move was lacking. They defended as honey badgers and knew exactly what to do after turn-overs and Pep just didn't give a fuck to remedy that - after two games already lost in the similar fashion to this lot, and then yesterday again. I hope he start looking into playing against back 5, because that became his kryptonite. Tuchel probably saw the games against Villa and Brighton, once you start moving Stones around like an hungry seal, he completely losses his positional awareness and rash decision ensue. And then top it with that front six creating only one shot on goal. The faster this game is forgotten the better, unless they use it to correct the things.
 
GaudinoMotors said:
We had one but he got dogs abuse.
Crucified even.
The nature of the role. Taking players on and sometimes losing out. It's not for some of our fans.
That, and only having dwarves to aim at.
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Agree. When he's the only one doing what a winger should he stands out and gets abused. It's the non existent one on the other side that should be getting called out.
 
SamBlue said:
We played yesterday extremely wide with Sterling and Riyad, both very fast and it did us no good. We just didn't play well individually and still we had a number of good situations in the box where the final pass or move was lacking. They defended as honey badgers and knew exactly what to do after turn-overs and Pep just didn't give a fuck to remedy that - after two games already lost in the similar fashion to this lot, and then yesterday again. I hope he start looking into playing against back 5, because that became his kryptonite. Tuchel probably saw the games against Villa and Brighton, once you start moving Stones around like an hungry seal, he completely losses his positional awareness and rash decision ensue. And then top it with that front six creating only one shot on goal. The faster this game is forgotten the better, unless they use it to correct the things.
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Agree apart from the Mahrez pace bit. It's no good beating a player and then having to stop and cut back it defeats the object.
 
Kompany & co said:
We need 2 pacy unpredictable wingers that can stretch defences and a clinical finisher. That ties up any back 4 and creates space for the rest. Too easy to organise a defences against what we have right now.
Click to expand...
we have about 5 guys who can play winger....really dont think that's the issue.

A striker whose cost will dictate he has to play every game will mean a new way of playing next season.

Or we dont sign one now, wait for Haaland and sign a midfidler who can play in the no8 role to share with gundo and KDB . Grealish seems the obvious choice.

Maybe also a defensive midfielder if Ferna is going and/or Doyle isnt good enough to be trained up
 
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