LongsightM13 said:Zonal Marking. Definitely the same fella, he started our pretending to be a blue and dropping a few snide comments, then his red allegiances were 'outed'. He used to boast about his 'media commitments' stopping him from attending actual, real, live football matches.BillyShears said:LongsightM13 said:He posted on here for quite a while. He is just another one of of a myriad of online bedroom 'tactics experts', whose judgements are no more valid or backed by qualifications, achievements or experience than anyone else's. Everything is taken from TV and we all know how the bigger picture can be missed when the camera is following the ball.
I think his website is excellent as are most of his analysis as I said just before. As for him posting on here, what was his username. Shouldn't be hard to get tot he bottom whether it was him or not...
Didsbury Dave said:When he saw Mancini going to the 3-5-2 in the second half.
We'd weathered the storm and actually taken control of the game. We were ahead, Silva and Yaya had been causing them problems, they were being restricted to long shots. I was sitting at home, thinking of division 2, scarcely able to believe we were looking like winning at the Bernabau. As soon as I saw that change, I thought the same as Mourinho: we've opened up the flanks for them.
He made his changes, and lo and behold, their wide men found the space and got the goals.
I really really hope this is the last we see of this bloody 3-5-2. We have not got the players for it at the back. Clichy's not at his best tucked in. Lescott and Kompany look uneasy in it. Milner, Zabaleta, Maicon, Kolorov are not wing backs. They are not mobile enough.
It was a tactical change which cost us the game last night. On the plus side, I'm really hoping we don't see it again.
On another plus side, I was delighted the manager finally put Ya Ya in the role he is effective in from the start. I hope I never hear another poster on here say "he's only effective in that role late in games" because it's bollocks as he proved again last night.
So whilst I'm gutted we lost the game, I see two major positives to come from this. The death of the 3-5-2 and the death of Yaya as a holding player.
This! Regardless of the formation, the lack of defensive effort was horrific. Not closing down at the edge of the box and letting world class players have shots at the goal was bound to burn us and they did. The formation had nothing to do with that. I can't even say that it was fatigue because it happened throughout the match. Real had 35 shots, 12 on goal!!! The fact that they only scored 3 is amazing.andrewmswift said:Thread is just another dig at Mancini. What let us down were embarrassing personal moments (/performances), not the system.
wolfie1988 said:I thought he changed to 3 at the back straight after the break personally. In fact i was completely adamant he had but it wasn't picked up by the commentators nor have I seen it mentioned here. I was sure he'd moved Maicon out to wing back and Kolarov the same on the other side. Clichy went inside as part of the back 3 and Silva went up to play behind Tevez with Yaya advancing from midfield.
I thought it was strange nobody picked up on it but if you look back on the second half from the start and our shape when defending it looks like he changed it half time
Exactly.twinkletoes said:A deflected goal and a defensive mistake lost us the game last night not Mancini's decisions.
ono said:Even though the zonal marking article claims we switched to 3-5-2 I think Zabaleta actually mouthed 5 when he came on, meaning 5 at the back. Clichy certainly didn't play as a wing back and in any case, in a situation where you are a goal up in the dying minutes at the Bernabeu, your actual formation becomes a bit of non issue given that you are certain to be penned in. We turned into a back 8 and sat very deep.
For all 3 goals, our full backs were pretty much where you'd expect them to be. The main issue came centrally where firstly, Garcia was too slow closing down Marcelo after he cut inside. Secondly, Nastasic gave Benzema too much space, and thirdly nobody backed Zabaleta up when Ronaldo squared him up. Granted Zabaleta should have shown him down the line, but equally he shouldn't be isolated with the most prolific player in the world, in the 90th minute.
This isn't a formation issue at all. It's basic human error brought on by constant waves of pressure. Kompany and Nastasic made basic errors purely which resulted from them being isolated against 3 of the best attackers in the world.
As an aside, at this level, Barry will always look a yard of the pace and if we have aspirations of winning the Champions League, we need to probably look at bringing in a more technically astute and mobile alternative. Not to say Barry isn't a very good player because he is, but against the very best, he looks like he is struggling on the European stage. I don't mean we should get rid, I just don't think he suited the game last night, in a similar sort of way to Lescott - which Mancini got spot on.