How do you beat this City team?

[RedDevilCanuck]

You can't just let them have the ball. But if you press and don't do it well they can destroy you.

Tough situation here.

I'd press them up high like Klopp did a few years back. I'd rather go down swinging than waiting for the inevitable cut backs and soft pens.

 

[VidaRed]

Rangnick will tell you next year.

 

[Vidyoyo]

Break their hearts

 

[horsechoker]

Interrupt the PED supply chain.

 

[Samid]

@Ole

 

[BluesJr]

Liverpool way is the only viable non lucky way.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

Score more goals than they do, id heard you were smarter than this?

 

[Gringo]

Come out of the traps with a left upstairs and a right to the body

 

[Snuffkin]

Stick on Champions, will never win the CL though.

 

[Reapersoul20]

Zonal marking

 

[Kazi]

Fellaini

 

[Chipper]

Eat them.

 

[TheReligion]

Ask Palace

 

[padr81]

You can press us but you have to be clever about it, you can't run like headless chickens and hope to win. You can also win sitting in but you need to be a bit luckier.
West Ham (pens), Palace, Spurs, PSG, Leicester and RBL have all beaten us this season already. Also dropped points vs Southampton. Despite us being the better team we almost dropped points to Villa, Wolves too.

 

[Moston Red]

Remind Pep how nice the weather is in Spain

 

[Red00012]

Ole

 

[Sassy Colin]

Ole managed it, several times.

 

[VivaObertan]

Have pace up front and press then properly

 

[marktan]

1) Have a better first XI than them. There's no one in the league currently but Liverpool were better a few seasons back. In the end it comes down to, can your first XI play a better game than theirs? Teams like Madrid's 4 CL team, our 2008 team would beat them more often than not.

2) Have a bigger squad than them, to win trophies. It's why they keep winning the league cup, they spend on a big squad so can afford to play a second XIs that's basically a first XI while everyone else has to rotate.

If you're a lower level team? You need a hard working midfield to press hard and technically competent, fast forwards to relieve pressure / sneak goals in on the counter. It's why they struggled against Spurs and Lyon in the CL, and against us over the last couple of years. Burnley are the antithesis of this, their attackers are slow and don't keep the ball well, hence why they get spanked 5-0 every time they meet.

 

[Fortitude]

Play them in the CL.

Failing that, hard and fast rapid counters with quality players.

 

[Lemon Moon]

Ask Ole

 

[Cheech Wizard]

Watch Liverpool @ Anfield 2018,19,20. Emirates CL 19'. Watch United @ Emirates 2017/18 2019/20 and whenever palace beat them at Emirates a couple of times in the last few years.

I still think they always need a good 3-5 key players out for the other team to stand a chance of getting a result, few years back it was just Fernandinho or Aguero. Now even if just one of De Bruyne, Ederson, or Silva is out it seems it makes no difference to them.

 

[choccy77]

Ask Palace

Beat me to it.

 

[footballistic orgasm]

Play them in the CL.

Failing that, hard and fast rapid counters with quality players.

The thing though is that since Pep's second season there, they rarely conceed goals on counter attacks.

 

[Gfooty]

The best succes rate against teams like current City is to just dig in extremely compact and hope you don't pull a red card. Play for a draw and dream about scoring a header through one of your 2 corners (if you even get them).

 

[VivaRonaldo85]

Crowd the midfield, do the ugly things well by breaking up play and supply chains regularly, keep their attacking play as wide on the pitch as possible and have some rapid attackers of your own to chase balls over the top and down the channels to make them face their own goal as much as possible.

 

[RedDevilCanuck]

Fellaini

Good shout

 

[Demas]

Park the bus and counter-attack, and/or press them like maniacs a la Liverpool under Klopp. They are not unbeatable, but they will destroy most teams that play open against them because they are so good on the ball.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Watch Liverpool @ Anfield 2018,19,20. Emirates CL 19'. Watch United @ Emirates 2017/18 2019/20 and whenever palace beat them at Emirates a couple of times in the last few years.

I still think they always need a good 3-5 key players out for the other team to stand a chance of getting a result, few years back it was just Fernandinho or Aguero. Now even if just one of De Bruyne, Ederson, or Silva is out it seems it makes no difference to them.

Playing them at Arsenals ground might help, you could be onto something.

 

[adexkola]

The thing though is that since Pep's second season there, they rarely conceed goals on counter attacks.

This, they are really good at defending counter attacks, be it by legal or crooked means

 

[WeePat]

Easy. Play them in a CL final.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

Playing them at Arsenals ground might help, you could be onto something.

I didn't realise. Who even knows what their ground is called nowadays anyway it's been renamed a dozen times since 2002, I bet their fans don't even know themselves all ten of them.

 

[Abraxas]

There's probably multiple ways. Liverpool have gone head to head with them quite often in their style.

You can definitely get at the defence on the counter too. That's a natural consequence of City's style where they always have midfielders around the opposition for passing opportunities once they win it. More pragmatic styles are possible because City don't have a ruthless cutting edge at the moment. I think if they get a Haaland it will be more difficult to play this way as they'll take small opportunities AND monopolise the ball.

I think it comes down to quality more than style. Having killers up front, tactical ability and just outright quality. They've not won the CL because such teams exist so it's not like an impossible question is being posed.

 

[Harry190]

They've already lost quite a few times....

 

[Bwuk]

Make them defend and press them high. Defend with a low block.

City are great but they aren’t a unbeatable force.

 

[Oranges038]

How do wee beeet this Ceeettty teeem?

 

[Cheech Wizard]

Easy. Play them in a CL final.

This requires the rarity of Pep activating Overthinker mode. Lyon exploited this in the CL quarters the season before too.

 

[USREDEVIL]

I'm not sure but "fine margins" has something to do with it.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Audit them

 

[Amadaeus]

You can't just let them have the ball. But if you press and don't do it well they can destroy you.

Tough situation here.

I'd press them up high like Klopp did a few years back. I'd rather go down swinging than waiting for the inevitable cut backs and soft pens.

Pochettino did it successfully this year and last year he showcased a masterclass towards how to beat pep in his game, even though he didn't get a win. Last year display was more impressive than this year despite the loss as he was one or the few managers or only manager beside klopp that made or is capable of making pep play counter attacking.

All in all, you basically just need a solid defense and fast attackers. Counter attack footballing is the way to beat this pep team and hope they aren't clinical. Or you do what poch did with city last year and try to beat them at their game.

That was why Ole was successfully against poch earlier on because we had a solid back four and the pace upfront was lethal. Ole despite claiming that he was an attacking manager was a defensive one and the result against City highlighted that.