ljkeane Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 3 minutes ago, polishgenius said: I can't believe Pep is so paralysed in the face of their weakness to the break. It's always been a possible weakness of their teams as it is for any high press but he's always put the teams together so that they're not too vulnerable but now it seems almost as if all that time it was a complete fluke. Which can't be true but it's baffling. In fairness he's done what seems to be the most obvious thing, play two more conservative midfielders in Rodri and Fernandinho to screen the defence. Their pressure on the ball after they lose possession just seems to have gone to pot though. It's strange to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 9 minutes ago, polishgenius said: I can't believe Pep is so paralysed in the face of their weakness to the break. It's always been a possible weakness of their teams as it is for any high press but he's always put the teams together so that they're not too vulnerable but now it seems almost as if all that time it was a complete fluke. Which can't be true but it's baffling. I think a big problem is that their pressing intensity has dropped off since last season. They do manage to pick the intensity up from time to time but it's not the consistent swarming of the opposition as they managed in 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. Laporte also makes a big difference - he's by far their best defender especially in 1v1s which is a crucial attribute when the team is playing such a high line. They just spent big money on Ruben Diaz but I'm not sure how that one will work out - still think they should have caved and payed extra for Koulibaly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 When Mahrez smashed in that beauty with his off foot just four minutes in, and City were completely dominating possession for the first 20 minutes, I have to admit that I thought it would be a stroll for them today. Glad to be wrong. Aguero/Jesus probably aren’t that much of a miss with Sterling playing at #9 instead, but MF and defense looked like it would be disjointed. Lots of good players in there but the combination had a few too many variations from their most familiar pattern. Leicester seem to have rediscovered the rhythm they lost after lock-down. While Vardy keeps scoring they can go on a long winning run. But will they run off a cliff again as fatigue eventually catches up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 54 minutes ago, polishgenius said: I can't believe Pep is so paralysed in the face of their weakness to the break. Hmm. I don't think the goals leicester scored today were really on the break though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Wolves really aren't handling Antonio, Bowen and Soucek at all. The latter two were great January signings for West Ham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 Did not expect West Ham to be smacking Wolves in this manner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 David moyes was the problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 7 minutes ago, Consigliere said: Did not expect West Ham to be smacking Wolves in this manner. I didn't expect this but I've seen people putting West Ham as stone favourites to go down all summer and I'm not sure those people saw them play much post-lockdown and that. Antonio has become a terrific frontman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted September 27, 2020 Share Posted September 27, 2020 1 minute ago, polishgenius said: I didn't expect this but I've seen people putting West Ham as stone favourites to go down all summer and I'm not sure those people saw them play much post-lockdown and that. Antonio has become a terrific frontman. Yeah, West Ham are not in danger of a relegation scrap. They've got a solid team. They thumped lower league opposition in the cup but were pretty dreary against Newcastle and Arsenal in the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 The overreaction to the handball rule in England is too funny. “Games gone” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 Last chance for Karius to prove he has improved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 22 hours ago, Consigliere said: I think a big problem is that their pressing intensity has dropped off since last season. They do manage to pick the intensity up from time to time but it's not the consistent swarming of the opposition as they managed in 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. Laporte also makes a big difference - he's by far their best defender especially in 1v1s which is a crucial attribute when the team is playing such a high line. They just spent big money on Ruben Diaz but I'm not sure how that one will work out - still think they should have caved and payed extra for Koulibaly. I was thinking about this some today and kinda came to the conclusion that while things City aren't doing anymore is definitely part of the problem, it's been exacerbated by changes in trends in the way Prem teams are squadbuilding. There was a little while there when moving away from the English-classic direct style maybe went a bit OTT, everyone was piling in on getting drifting playmaker types or more mazy rather than direct dribblers and that. Everton were sort of the ur-example back when they had like five no10s, but loads of teams were at it (Spurs probably the ones who built the best team that way, though Leicester post-Mahrez would be pretty close except they have Vardy). Now it's starting to swing back a bit the other way and Zaha isn't almost the only fast direct (not that Zaha is that direct but you know what I mean) attacker outside the top six in the league and it's made the problems City already had even more obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soylent Brown Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 As much as anything, I think City's problem is they only have one Fernandinho. When he's in the midfield, he kills a lot of these counters stone dead. Rodri isn't a bad player, but he just doesn't have the mobility or the anticipation of Fernandinho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 For all the criticism of City's defence, it's worth noting that they have a better defence than every team in the league bar Liverpool. It really is a strange one with City that is hard to pinpoint. They don't concede a lot but when they do it is proving to be very costly. Their points tally last season bears this out. You'd expect a team that scored 102 goals and conceded 35 to have accrued a fair bit more than 81 points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 Meanwhile, Fulham are terrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 37 minutes ago, Consigliere said: For all the criticism of City's defence, it's worth noting that they have a better defence than every team in the league bar Liverpool. It really is a strange one with City that is hard to pinpoint. They don't concede a lot but when they do it is proving to be very costly. Their points tally last season bears this out. You'd expect a team that scored 102 goals and conceded 35 to have accrued a fair bit more than 81 points. Worth noting they also had the most number of clean sheets last season. They battered a lot of teams last year. Clearly their defence was in fact good. Possibly there is a mental problem, because they lost far more games than a title contender should. Or maybe its a system issue. They do seem to be able to beat the smaller teams with little issue, but struggle when the bigger sides set up to counter effectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 #LFC v Arsenal: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Keita; Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Adrian, Milner, Jones, Minamino, Jota, Origi, Williams. No Thiago this evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 7 minutes ago, Heartofice said: Clearly their defence was in fact good. I don't think that's true though. Actually I don't think that's ever been true of City under Guardiola despite them at times having really good defensive records overall. What they are really good at (even mostly last season) is controlling where the game is played and not asking their defence to do a lot of defending. When they're asked to defend it usually doesn't go well and their problem is more teams are managing to get at their defence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 here we go. David Luiz,,,,,yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soylent Brown Posted September 28, 2020 Share Posted September 28, 2020 Mane needs to stop being an idiot, quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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