What's the problem(s)?

Err no strikers.....?? Aguero jesus any team in the fecking world would miss them if kun was fit we would have been 5 up at half time ! Leeds were piss poor in the first half ffs.
 
Short Term we lack a killer touch, when on top, and without Gundogen and the two Silva"s we lose possession more frequently, and often with our midfield ahead of the ball.

Long term, we need to be patient, but things can change very quickly.
 
bristleneck said:
Err no strikers.....?? Aguero jesus any team in the fecking world would miss them if kun was fit we would have been 5 up at half time ! Leeds were piss poor in the first half ffs.
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There can’t be another top side in Europe who has only two stickers, especially when one is nearly finished and is prone to injury (no disrespect to the wonderful Sergio).
 
We had a total of 40 chances in the Leicester & Leeds games.

I'm pretty sure that if any other PL side gets 40 chances in 2 games - even West Brom - they'll win them both.

Seems to happen a lot. Remember Southampton post-lockdown ? We had 28 shots and lost 0-1.
 
Blue Theatre said:
We had a total of 40 chances in the Leicester & Leeds games.

I'm pretty sure that if any other PL side gets 40 chances in 2 games - even West Brom - they'll win them both.

Seems to happen a lot. Remember Southampton post-lockdown ? We had 28 shots and lost 0-1.
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I think you are onto something!
 
We are playing in a manner that is getting nothing out of the talents of the players we have, and is massively exposing our weaknesses. No more excuses, we cant be sitting here saying we just need to spend millions and millions more every season. Last weekend the excuse was that we didn't have good enough centre backs. We had them this weekend, same problems. We conceded 7 shots on goal from a side that just came out of the championship, whereas we only had 2. The fact is if that was a better side we'd have been battered again today.

I don't know what has changed since the domestic treble, but we don't play at all like we used to. We don't keep hold of the ball well enough, we don't win it back quickly enough, and when we give it away cheaply we look incredibly exposed. I'm not having that this is down to certain personnel in our defence or midfield either; with Gundo as a lone 6 & a makeshift LB in Zin in 18/19 we looked very very solid and even saw games out at 1-0 in a real departure from Pep mentality during the run-in. That same system simply isn't working now, and yet we keep trying it over and over.

My concern is the players aren't responding to the coach anymore, and that Pep's frustration with our finishing is sending him the opposite way in dealing with it, i.e hurl even more players forward in search of more goals. The fact is we have thrown away 5 points in two games from winning positions. It's nowhere near good enough and if we aren't able to see games out without scoring 2 or 3 goals minimum then we are in trouble.
 
Not sure what’s wrong tbh. It’s not very fashionable but less rotation, especially in the back 5, would help.

Beyond that we pick some strange teams at times and Pep seems a bit stubborn on making subs when it is obvious they are needed. It was inevitable they’d equalise today and bringing on Bernie earlier for Mahrez (I like the guy but he struggled today) seemed obvious.
 
Recruitment has been utterly shocking. Simple as.

1. Mahrez - Strange signing since day one. Given his propensity to not track back and his selfishness, it makes it hard to believe Pep wholeheartedly wanted him. The subsequent nonsense where Pep would bench Sane for a month for not tracking his man, yet persist with Mahrez having 50 shots per game and not bothering his arse to press, resulting in Leroy becoming disillusioned and wanting out. Truly criminal.

2. Rodri - Possesses none of the qualities shown by the DM in our successful 2017-2019 period. With his inability to get around the pitch, set a game's tempo, win 50/50s, make cynical fouls...how on earth did the club think we would continue our success?

3. Cancelo - Considering the amount apparently paid for him, was he an absolute necessity that we needed to blow half of our supposed budget last summer on? Danilo was doing a fine job filling in and even if he wanted out, did we need to spend such a considerable amount on someone not improving the starting eleven? Baffling again.

4. 2020 summer recruitment - After our sorry excuse for a title defence and our win in court, all the messages coming out of the club were that of an all guns blazing summer where previous hesitancies about age profile and transfer fee would be brushed aside in favour of ruthlessly improving the starting eleven. Instead, we've been slow and plodding. Signing Ake (a player that doesn't improve the starting eleven but improves the overall squad) Torres (a very young and unproven player) and Dias (our apparent 3rd or 4th choice centre back depending on who you ask).

What this team needed after such a flat season that saw David Silva leave was for proven and renowned personalities to walk through the door and not only reinvigorate the atmosphere around the club but light a fire under those who were complacent last season. Raise the level a couple of notches and properly kick on.

None of our recruits have done this and I can see the frustration in some of the experienced players, namely Kevin. Is he looking around and saying to himself that his peak years will be spent competing at the business end of the Champions League? Forget about it.

We need to get next summer right. Because we've fucked up the last three.
 
It’s simple when you think we’ve lost Kompany, Silva, Leroy with no adequate replacement. Fernandinho is older without an better replacement lined up/signed. Aguero is now 32 which no replacement lined up/signed. That’s a whole core of a team which has either left or is coming to an end and it hasn’t been addressed.
 
when it comes to recruitment Txiki was on his way to sign Jorginho, Fred, Maguire, alexis...

Nobody was there to save us from Rodri, Mahrez, Cancelo, 180m pounds...
And I am not sayng these are horrible players but are we sure spending 180m on players should only get us as stronger as Rodri/Cancelo/Mahrez did?
Allison/Van Dijk combined fee of 140m, two players but look at how much they improved them? they signed them and went to win CL, then finish on 97 points then win the league after 30 years with nearly 100 points.
those two signings gave them so much power and confidence for defence and whole team and also huge number of great performances of course.

Cancelo who is not more capable of replacing Walker than Danilo was, Mahrez who is not a perfect fit for the way we play, and Rodri who happens to be compared to an ultimate workhorse Fernandinho whose hard work and defensive performance was crucial in all of our great successes since Pellegrini.
Rodri coming from a defensive Atletico side where Simeone has complete different mindset, he is happy to have 30% possession but win games 1-0, and Rodri always had wingers tracking back, defence was not high line of course, attackers tracking back helping midfield.
At City he has so much harder job its unreal. And this is quicker league, while he is just not fast enough.
 
At the moment our football just seems somewhat chaotic.

We're good for a short period, then fall apart.

When we fall apart, there's no leadership, players suddenly look disorganised and unfit and cannot maintain the intensity.

No pre-season obviously hasn't helped. But it just seems more than that. Something just seems off, something not right.
 
WE just don’t take out chances we should of been out of sight in the first 20 minutes. Not panicking though some people are having full on meltdowns on here.
 
We’ve become lazy.
We know longer press like we used to, pass and move like we used to.
We can no longer work hard for 90 minutes, seems the most we can manage is 20 minutes at the beginning of the game and a 10 minute spell at the end.
This team looks worlds apart from the one 18 months ago.
 
hertsblue said:
Think the best teams are now pace and power, we are slow and small
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laporte, diaz, ake, mendy, walker, rodri, kdb and torres are hardly small were not the biggest of teams but were not small either. Slow ill give you mainly in midfield at times.
 
I'm Blue said:
We’ve become lazy.
We know longer press like we used to, pass and move like we used to.
We can no longer work hard for 90 minutes, seems the most we can manage is 20 minutes at the beginning of the game and a 10 minute spell at the end.
This team looks worlds apart from the one 18 months ago.
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This sums it up nicely.
 
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