What is wrong?

[Turfin]

High Defensive Line

Pros:

1. Makes it difficult for the opponents to play as they have less space and time on the ball

2. Higher chance of opponents making mistakes

3. Less ground for midfielders to cover due to the smaller operating area

Cons:

1. Prone to counter attacks and through balls behind backline

2. Physically taxing for defenders due to larger area of coverage and need to chase back -footy tipster

 

[Tim of the Oak]

You may think that they are second rate but does Pellegrini? He started Micah Richards against Bayern Munich and left him on the pitch for 90 minutes.

And he was utterly hopeless, and as a result hasn't played much since, today he rested Zab for him, same result.

He should be playing Zab with the captains armband - we are lacking a leader both on and off the pitch. If nothing changes we'll be in the bottom half of the table before we know it.

We need a world class central defender with an excellent fitness record.

Pellegrini needs to simplify the tactics for our fullbacks and Navas because good players are looking very ordinary and blocking each other's space.

Yes, we need more leaders in the team as others have said.

Pellegrini will get it together and he had to.

 

[birchwoodgingerste]

A few things really.

First thing, our squad isn't strong enough in the sense that the so-called back up players, and by this i mean the players who wouldn't make the starting 11 if everyone was available, don't possess the attributes that allow us to play the same way when we have a couple of injuries. We try, but the pace of play is noticeably slower and this allows the opposition to regroup. So when Fernandinho drops out, Garcia comes in, but Garcia isn't as mobile or as quick on the ball as Fernandinho. Milner isn't as intricate as Silva, so as a result, we create a few less chances per game. If we are going to adopt a specific footballing philosophy, which is what i believe we are trying to do, our rotation players need to have the same attributes as the first 11. Or if not, there needs to be an alternative philosophy, which there clearly isn't at the minute. In fact, it's very difficult to have an alternative strategy when the opposition play with 11 men behind the ball.

What's noticeable is that when Silva doesn't play, we opt to play around the sides of the oppositions defence, rather than through the middle. It's not really to our advantage against the backs to the wall type of teams, like the ones we've lost to, because they tend to have the sort of defenders who can deal with balls being played into a packed area, especially when the pattern of our play is so obvious. So overall, we create less clear cut chances.

Nine times out of ten this wouldn't matter so much if we had a defence who were able to concentrate for 90-95 minutes per game. But without Kompany, we don't. Aston Villa had probably 3 chances and scored 3 goals, Cardiff had a couple from open play which our own calamitous defending contributed to, and then they scored a couple from set pieces which we should have dealt with. And again today. They had one chance and that fell to a defender. We seem to be getting punished for every mistake we make at the back, and when we're making 2 or 3 per game, it's always going to end badly.

The forwards also have to take responsibility. Aguero, as amazing as i think he is (and i mean that - i love him) seems to go through spells where he misses fairly straight forward chances. He missed a couple today that he should have done more with, especially the first one. As a team we do miss a ridiculous amount of chances, and this is probably what cost us the title last season. We dominate nearly every match we play in, yet bad decision making or lack of concentration at either end of the pitch is costing us. We should improve defensively when Kompany is back, and i think Pellegrini needs to decide on who his partner will be long term.

Other than that, Navas on the right hand side isn't working. Teams sit too deep for him to actually be able to use his pace to go on the outside, and his tendency to always go on the outside also negates the attacking use of our right back, especially Richards, who's game is based around pace and power on the overlap. It would be much smarter to play Navas on the left, with Kolarov over-lapping, and play Nasri on the right, with Richards over-lapping.

Overall, we're playing well enough to be winning matches, but much like last season, individual mistakes, both in front of goal and defensively, are costing us points. And my guess is, they will continue to do so because the same thing has been happening for 18 months, with pretty much the same group of players. I hope our luck turns and we start to pick up the results we deserve away from home, but i don't think there's a quick fix to our problem. It's partially luck, but that bad luck is brought on, week in week out, by poor decision making, concentration and composure by players who are supposedly top drawer.

When silva doesnt play we have toure and nasri as the two play makers we always go wide but until navas came on we had no width and aguero isnt brilliant in the air.for me id have played aguero deeper and played both dzeko and negredo up top .We needed to score but never looked likely.Also we are to slow at the back the defender s are international s but all are defenders arent rapid.top class centre back with speed in january another play maker and forwardlet dzeko go and buy a quality wideman with skill.<br /><br />-- Sun Nov 10, 2013 8:37 pm --<br /><br />

A few things really.

First thing, our squad isn't strong enough in the sense that the so-called back up players, and by this i mean the players who wouldn't make the starting 11 if everyone was available, don't possess the attributes that allow us to play the same way when we have a couple of injuries. We try, but the pace of play is noticeably slower and this allows the opposition to regroup. So when Fernandinho drops out, Garcia comes in, but Garcia isn't as mobile or as quick on the ball as Fernandinho. Milner isn't as intricate as Silva, so as a result, we create a few less chances per game. If we are going to adopt a specific footballing philosophy, which is what i believe we are trying to do, our rotation players need to have the same attributes as the first 11. Or if not, there needs to be an alternative philosophy, which there clearly isn't at the minute. In fact, it's very difficult to have an alternative strategy when the opposition play with 11 men behind the ball.

What's noticeable is that when Silva doesn't play, we opt to play around the sides of the oppositions defence, rather than through the middle. It's not really to our advantage against the backs to the wall type of teams, like the ones we've lost to, because they tend to have the sort of defenders who can deal with balls being played into a packed area, especially when the pattern of our play is so obvious. So overall, we create less clear cut chances.

Nine times out of ten this wouldn't matter so much if we had a defence who were able to concentrate for 90-95 minutes per game. But without Kompany, we don't. Aston Villa had probably 3 chances and scored 3 goals, Cardiff had a couple from open play which our own calamitous defending contributed to, and then they scored a couple from set pieces which we should have dealt with. And again today. They had one chance and that fell to a defender. We seem to be getting punished for every mistake we make at the back, and when we're making 2 or 3 per game, it's always going to end badly.

The forwards also have to take responsibility. Aguero, as amazing as i think he is (and i mean that - i love him) seems to go through spells where he misses fairly straight forward chances. He missed a couple today that he should have done more with, especially the first one. As a team we do miss a ridiculous amount of chances, and this is probably what cost us the title last season. We dominate nearly every match we play in, yet bad decision making or lack of concentration at either end of the pitch is costing us. We should improve defensively when Kompany is back, and i think Pellegrini needs to decide on who his partner will be long term.

Other than that, Navas on the right hand side isn't working. Teams sit too deep for him to actually be able to use his pace to go on the outside, and his tendency to always go on the outside also negates the attacking use of our right back, especially Richards, who's game is based around pace and power on the overlap. It would be much smarter to play Navas on the left, with Kolarov over-lapping, and play Nasri on the right, with Richards over-lapping.

Overall, we're playing well enough to be winning matches, but much like last season, individual mistakes, both in front of goal and defensively, are costing us points. And my guess is, they will continue to do so because the same thing has been happening for 18 months, with pretty much the same group of players. I hope our luck turns and we start to pick up the results we deserve away from home, but i don't think there's a quick fix to our problem. It's partially luck, but that bad luck is brought on, week in week out, by poor decision making, concentration and composure by players who are supposedly top drawer.

When silva doesnt play we have toure and nasri as the two play makers we always go wide but until navas came on we had no width and aguero isnt brilliant in the air.for me id have played aguero deeper and played both dzeko and negredo up top .We needed to score but never looked likely.Also we are to slow at the back the defender s are international s but all are defenders arent rapid.top class centre back with speed in january another play maker and forwardlet dzeko go and buy a quality wideman with skill.

 

[mike channon´s windmill]

Both of you should go follow him to Turkey. With the squad we had when we won the league and how everyone talks about Mancini you would think we won the title easy. We won on goal Difference!!! with how much money Mancini spent I could have won the fucking title. His gone people drop it for fuck sakes! A lot of damn spoiled fans itt

Guess what Hughes spent more and this manger could spend another 100m and we still won't win the league he is not a winning manager he is a decent manager when he has a team with no expectations!

We will win fuck all with his management style! He wouldn't know how to set up a team defensively if his life depended on it.

I just hope we squeeze into top 4 then fuck him off..

Good call Waspish.

Spot on - a lightweight who can´t handle big expectation and knows next to nothing about winning stuff

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

A few things really.

First thing, our squad isn't strong enough in the sense that the so-called back up players, and by this i mean the players who wouldn't make the starting 11 if everyone was available, don't possess the attributes that allow us to play the same way when we have a couple of injuries. We try, but the pace of play is noticeably slower and this allows the opposition to regroup. So when Fernandinho drops out, Garcia comes in, but Garcia isn't as mobile or as quick on the ball as Fernandinho. Milner isn't as intricate as Silva, so as a result, we create a few less chances per game. If we are going to adopt a specific footballing philosophy, which is what i believe we are trying to do, our rotation players need to have the same attributes as the first 11. Or if not, there needs to be an alternative philosophy, which there clearly isn't at the minute. In fact, it's very difficult to have an alternative strategy when the opposition play with 11 men behind the ball.

What's noticeable is that when Silva doesn't play, we opt to play around the sides of the oppositions defence, rather than through the middle. It's not really to our advantage against the backs to the wall type of teams, like the ones we've lost to, because they tend to have the sort of defenders who can deal with balls being played into a packed area, especially when the pattern of our play is so obvious. So overall, we create less clear cut chances.

Nine times out of ten this wouldn't matter so much if we had a defence who were able to concentrate for 90-95 minutes per game. But without Kompany, we don't. Aston Villa had probably 3 chances and scored 3 goals, Cardiff had a couple from open play which our own calamitous defending contributed to, and then they scored a couple from set pieces which we should have dealt with. And again today. They had one chance and that fell to a defender. We seem to be getting punished for every mistake we make at the back, and when we're making 2 or 3 per game, it's always going to end badly.

The forwards also have to take responsibility. Aguero, as amazing as i think he is (and i mean that - i love him) seems to go through spells where he misses fairly straight forward chances. He missed a couple today that he should have done more with, especially the first one. As a team we do miss a ridiculous amount of chances, and this is probably what cost us the title last season. We dominate nearly every match we play in, yet bad decision making or lack of concentration at either end of the pitch is costing us. We should improve defensively when Kompany is back, and i think Pellegrini needs to decide on who his partner will be long term.

Other than that, Navas on the right hand side isn't working. Teams sit too deep for him to actually be able to use his pace to go on the outside, and his tendency to always go on the outside also negates the attacking use of our right back, especially Richards, who's game is based around pace and power on the overlap. It would be much smarter to play Navas on the left, with Kolarov over-lapping, and play Nasri on the right, with Richards over-lapping.

Overall, we're playing well enough to be winning matches, but much like last season, individual mistakes, both in front of goal and defensively, are costing us points. And my guess is, they will continue to do so because the same thing has been happening for 18 months, with pretty much the same group of players. I hope our luck turns and we start to pick up the results we deserve away from home, but i don't think there's a quick fix to our problem. It's partially luck, but that bad luck is brought on, week in week out, by poor decision making, concentration and composure by players who are supposedly top drawer.

When silva doesnt play we have toure and nasri as the two play makers we always go wide but until navas came on we had no width and aguero isnt brilliant in the air.for me id have played aguero deeper and played both dzeko and negredo up top .We needed to score but never looked likely.Also we are to slow at the back the defender s are international s but all are defenders arent rapid.top class centre back with speed in january another play maker and forwardlet dzeko go and buy a quality wideman with skill.

-- Sun Nov 10, 2013 8:37 pm --

A few things really.

First thing, our squad isn't strong enough in the sense that the so-called back up players, and by this i mean the players who wouldn't make the starting 11 if everyone was available, don't possess the attributes that allow us to play the same way when we have a couple of injuries. We try, but the pace of play is noticeably slower and this allows the opposition to regroup. So when Fernandinho drops out, Garcia comes in, but Garcia isn't as mobile or as quick on the ball as Fernandinho. Milner isn't as intricate as Silva, so as a result, we create a few less chances per game. If we are going to adopt a specific footballing philosophy, which is what i believe we are trying to do, our rotation players need to have the same attributes as the first 11. Or if not, there needs to be an alternative philosophy, which there clearly isn't at the minute. In fact, it's very difficult to have an alternative strategy when the opposition play with 11 men behind the ball.

What's noticeable is that when Silva doesn't play, we opt to play around the sides of the oppositions defence, rather than through the middle. It's not really to our advantage against the backs to the wall type of teams, like the ones we've lost to, because they tend to have the sort of defenders who can deal with balls being played into a packed area, especially when the pattern of our play is so obvious. So overall, we create less clear cut chances.

Nine times out of ten this wouldn't matter so much if we had a defence who were able to concentrate for 90-95 minutes per game. But without Kompany, we don't. Aston Villa had probably 3 chances and scored 3 goals, Cardiff had a couple from open play which our own calamitous defending contributed to, and then they scored a couple from set pieces which we should have dealt with. And again today. They had one chance and that fell to a defender. We seem to be getting punished for every mistake we make at the back, and when we're making 2 or 3 per game, it's always going to end badly.

The forwards also have to take responsibility. Aguero, as amazing as i think he is (and i mean that - i love him) seems to go through spells where he misses fairly straight forward chances. He missed a couple today that he should have done more with, especially the first one. As a team we do miss a ridiculous amount of chances, and this is probably what cost us the title last season. We dominate nearly every match we play in, yet bad decision making or lack of concentration at either end of the pitch is costing us. We should improve defensively when Kompany is back, and i think Pellegrini needs to decide on who his partner will be long term.

Other than that, Navas on the right hand side isn't working. Teams sit too deep for him to actually be able to use his pace to go on the outside, and his tendency to always go on the outside also negates the attacking use of our right back, especially Richards, who's game is based around pace and power on the overlap. It would be much smarter to play Navas on the left, with Kolarov over-lapping, and play Nasri on the right, with Richards over-lapping.

Overall, we're playing well enough to be winning matches, but much like last season, individual mistakes, both in front of goal and defensively, are costing us points. And my guess is, they will continue to do so because the same thing has been happening for 18 months, with pretty much the same group of players. I hope our luck turns and we start to pick up the results we deserve away from home, but i don't think there's a quick fix to our problem. It's partially luck, but that bad luck is brought on, week in week out, by poor decision making, concentration and composure by players who are supposedly top drawer.

When silva doesnt play we have toure and nasri as the two play makers we always go wide but until navas came on we had no width and aguero isnt brilliant in the air.for me id have played aguero deeper and played both dzeko and negredo up top .We needed to score but never looked likely.Also we are to slow at the back the defender s are international s but all are defenders arent rapid.top class centre back with speed in january another play maker and forwardlet dzeko go and buy a quality wideman with skill.

We must have put 30 crosses in today and hardly looked like scoring on any. It's not he way we normally play yet 2nd half it seemed it was that way or no way.

 

[wilmslowblue]

Regrettably your right. Mancini was pure City. Mancini was the man, and we let him down.

Both of you should go follow him to Turkey. With the squad we had when we won the league and how everyone talks about Mancini you would think we won the title easy. We won on goal Difference!!! with how much money Mancini spent I could have won the fucking title. His gone people drop it for fuck sakes! A lot of damn spoiled fans itt

Guess what Hughes spent more and this manger could spend another 100m and we still won't win the league he is not a winning manager he is a decent manager when he has a team with no expectations!

We will win fuck all with his management style! He wouldn't know how to set up a team defensively if his life depended on it.

I just hope we squeeze into top 4 then fuck him off..

Squeeze into the top 4 ? NO lets fuck him off right now before this gets embarassing. Gottmar or Heyneckes anyone? Surely "the general" can manage us and do Switzerland part time. Then this ""engineer"" can go and manage some wank club somewhere in Spain!

 

[Lavinda Past]

Both of you should go follow him to Turkey. With the squad we had when we won the league and how everyone talks about Mancini you would think we won the title easy. We won on goal Difference!!! with how much money Mancini spent I could have won the fucking title. His gone people drop it for fuck sakes! A lot of damn spoiled fans itt

Guess what Hughes spent more and this manger could spend another 100m and we still won't win the league he is not a winning manager he is a decent manager when he has a team with no expectations!

We will win fuck all with his management style! He wouldn't know how to set up a team defensively if his life depended on it.

I just hope we squeeze into top 4 then fuck him off..

Squeeze into the top 4 ? Gottmar or Heyneckes anyone? do we want to win the european cup at this club?

Personally, I'd prefer us to win the Prem than the Champions League any year. We'll win it one day - hopefully in my lifetime - but the League will always mean more to me.

 

[bluesimon]

We are a soft touch. Yaya shit out of tackles and headers today. Lescott and kolorov are fucking terrible footballers. We are also the slowest team in England. Lescott, demichelis, Garcia, kolorov, nasri, milner and dzeko. All very slow. Micah is dense. We have serious problems. January is huge. 4 in and the same out.

You are so right about the speed. Whilst I admire the 'treading the ball through the eye of a needle' approach, it simply wont work without significant speed in several more areas. I have lost patience with Kolorov - he never had an ounce of pace anyway and he jsut seems to think that his left foot is the only thing he should move. It is all very well having a great left foot, but if he cant get past a coffin, then just wating for the occassional free kick is a waste of a squad player. Milner is not slow, same with Nasri, but I wish they would just run at the opposition defence alot more, like Richards used to do when he got the chance.

Defenders rarely have pace and Lescott is still, imo, a good defender to fall back on and dimichelis appears to be a very worthwhile stand-in when needed.

The only way most teams are going to try and play against our possession game, is to keep on closing us down and not giving us space and therefore we need to make sure we have more pace to contend with that approach. For the mid-region teams, we should be starting with the likes of Navas, Clichy, Milner and get Toure further up the pitch running straight at the defence - inject some pace

 

[WestGorton]

What is wrong = the defence. What is right = the attack. The attack drew a blank today but we should have a draw. 28 goals for prior to today.

 

[Jimfv1]

I thought todays game was very reminiscent of the Stoke game a few years ago when we couldn't break down a ten man team.

We have always had problems when dominating games, and the slow build up is part of it, but when a team piles everyone back near their 18 yard box we struggle to feed the ball through the gaps. No Silva on the pitch and things get worse.

For me we can do better with players in certain areas:

Pantilimon doesn't do much wrong and isn't much different than Hart.
Hart can do better, good shot stopper but distribution is poor, and doesn't command his area like Pantilimon can.

One of these keepers needs to go and a better replacement brought in. (when you get down to it either could be sold, but we need some English players in the squad.)

Richards, needs time to get back to where he was two years ago, very poor today and do we have time to wait for him to regain his form, looked bone idle at times and I've seen him jog back in other games and let the winger do the defending for him.

Kompany is injury prone and the club need to sort his injury issues out, Hopefully he can recover and be back to where he was.

DeMichelis looks to have settled in, not the youngest but has experience and maybe him or Zab should be captain.

Nastasic still a young player and maybe should get a break now and again, but needs games to improve, it's a balancing act, and the manager has to know when to play him and when to give him a break.

Lescott, good defender, but needs to play regularly for his own form, not long on his contract and will probably leave in Jan, or next summer at the latest.

Boyata, not sure about him, prone to mistakes, but usually gets away with them, Mancini didn't rate him and kept loaning him out. I think we should cut our losses and let him go when we get in a suitable replacement.

Clichy, good enough for us but we need to be looking for a challenger for him by summer at the latest. Sometimes struggles when left one on one with a tricky or physical winger. Needs a good centre back to cover for him if he gets beaten.

Kolarov, better going forward than defending, been more consistent this season, but not really a left back more a left sided midfielder. Good squad player.

Navas, slow build up play doesn't suit him, some teams put two defenders on him to slow him down. Needs time to get used to this league, but our right backs also seem to get in his way a bit when we dominate play.

Milner, not really a right winger, but good squad player for us, does the covering and of all the English players I think he's our most consistent. Passing is a bit poor at times, and should take on a shot more often when he gets a chance. It does look as though his career has stagnated at City but I'd be sorry to see him leave.

Fernandinho, getting better and better, great signing even if it was on the high side cost wise.

Garcia, just doesn't fit in this side, as a utility player Milner is much better, he isn't suited to the Premiership and never will be. Seems a nice bloke but doesn't give anything to the team.

Yaya Toure, been a very good signing and scoring some great free kicks this season, he's a very important player for us when he is on form, but goes missing for spells in games and sometimes attacking players run past him like he isn't there. Shouldn't be an automatic starter in every game, but we don't have any reliable backups that are fit often enough to replace him. Getting older but can probably play for us at the top level for another 3 years yet.

Rodwell, poor signing, he might be good but can we afford to keep him when he isn't playing, would have been better to sign an older player who can be picked to play in the team. Not sure if we made the right decision, on paper it looked OK because English players who are good enough are few and far between, but this signing is looking disastrous.

Silva, quality player, strong for his size, and missed when injured, doesn't score enough but probably our most influential player.

Nasri, much improved this season, maybe better can be found in Europe, but not with his Premier league experience, another who doesn't score enough.

Negredo, great signing and Dzeko's replacement, gives more to the team than Tevez did, not always on top form but maybe still adjusting.

Aguero, great on his day, sometimes struggles to impose himself on the game, like today, in other games he scores goals other strikers can only dream off.

Dzeko, needs to go, more and more press outbursts can't help him, another player who just isn't suited to the Premiership. He can score goals, and would be a blessing to a lot of teams, but not for those with title aspirations. The team has to be setup around him and he needs more space on the pitch to operate. He'd be excellent in Italy, or back in Germany.

Jovetic, just not seen anything of him, If Rodwell was a mistake last summer then Jovetic is looking the same this season. It's no good adding players to the squad you can't use, I'd rather we signed Douglas Costa or a centre back we could have used. If we needed Jovetic we could have tried to sign him next summer or in Jan, but at the moment this is looking like another mistake.

All in all we do need to ship out some players and cut our losses on others. It will be hard for some and can't be done over the next couple of windows.

We need a keeper who can challenge for a starting spot consistently. One who is a shot stopper (hate that term because this is a keepers job) but also someone who can distribute the ball well and build attacks quickly, also a keeper who commands his penalty are better on free kicks and corners.

If Richards doesn't improve quickly then we'll need a new right back, and he needs to be a bit younger than Zab so we have a replacement for him as he ages, and can challenge him for a starting place. This is up to Pellegrini and Txiki and depends on how Richards responds to some home truths about his performances over the last two-three seasons.

We need to get to the bottom of Kompany's issues and we need at least one top quality centre back to be able to challenge our top three at the moment. When the injuries settle down, then the club will have to look at the weakest and move him on. This may happen anyway when DiMichelis contract runs down (2 year deal wasn't it ?)

At left back we need to bring in an understudy, just like we do at rightback, someone to challenge for the starting position and ultimately replace Clichy in 3-4 years if not before.

In midfield we need a long term replacement for Yaya. I think Yaya like Hart would improve his performances if he has a challenger for his position, and ultimately he will need a replacement. We could even need two players here, if Rodwell doesn't look like becoming the player we thought we bought and also the Garcia situation, we are extremely short of quality options for centre midfield.

Up front we are OK, I think maybe we have too many strikers on the books, but with Dzeko's and Jovetic's situations then we could actually be a striker short. Again a team player is needed, someone who can fit in with either Aguero or Negredo.

On the left wing we don't have anyone at the moment so this is also a position where we could add a player to the squad to give us more options.

Players to keep; Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, DeMichelis, Nastasic, Clichy, Milner, Yaya, Fernandinho, Silva, Nasri, Negredo, Aguero, Navas.

Players who the verdict is out on; Richards, Jovetic, Rodwell, Kolarov.

Players to be let go; Pantilimon, Boyata, Garcia, Dzeko.

When written down, it looks obvious where we need to strengthen, Boyata and Garcia are the weakest options at centre-back and and in central midfield. These two positions are very important for January, especially when you look at the middle row, and the injury prone players who are there. Rodwell doesn't offer any cover so the midfield is very short.

It's harsh on Pantilimon but the fact is we need English players in the squad, and at the moment there isn't much between the keepers quality wise. Pants hasn't done much wrong but we need a better keeper and Joe Hart needs a challenge for the number one jersey. He won't improve without competition, and if he doesn't respond then he too will have to leave, but at least he'll get the chance.

Jovetic will have some breathing space but if we sold Dzeko and didn't replace him then the pressure would be on Jovetic to get to full fitness and help the squad. Maybe we will need another striker but we can always play one up front, and the striker position isn't as desperate.

Kolarov would only go after we have covered the other positions first, or we have an alternative lined up.

Richards also has a bit of time and Milner can cover if Zab gets injured, unless we get a good offer or the right player becomes available then his role isn't under immediate threat.