Lack of Coaching

[Theonas]

Not only do we have issues coaching wise, I actually do not understand how much time and energy is dedicated by fans and pundits to talk about things like leadership, character, ... or any of the other intangible easy go to's. A top football team need to have first and foremost quality in terms of players and coaching, the rest compliments that and elevates. A lot seem, for whatever reason, to focus on the complimentary attributes and barely address the essentials.

 

[Greck]

Not only do we have issues coaching wise, I actually do not understand how much time and energy is dedicated by fans and pundits to talk about things like leadership, character, ... or any of the other intangible easy go to's. A top football team need to have first and foremost quality in terms of players and coaching, the rest compliments that and elevates. A lot seem, for whatever reason, to focus on the complimentary attributes and barely address the essentials.

When you have Roy Keane, Neville and Souness in a studio this is to be expected. British dinosaurism. Why Southgate and Howe are a breath of fresh air

 

[tomaldinho1]

What would you say our style of play is? How would you say we act in the final third? How we attack? Is there any patterns you can identify, in how we move the ball and try to break the other team down? Or does it all look a bit random and hopeless, and like we’re making it up as we go along.

I can’t answer any of those apart from the last one. This is the problem. I could have answered the rest 3-4 months ago, but now that’s all disappeared. So where’s the coaching gone?

Even the pressing that was there in pre-season has gone. We don’t seem to be coached at all, other than maybe defensively. That’s why people compare it to Moyes, Jose type football. Because it’s exactly the same as what we saw under those 2 managers - basically just a neglect of our attacking play.

Exactly - watch our team this season. From the sample size of 6 games, regardless of results, it's difficult to describe how we play. This is particularly important offensively because we have a lot of the ball and had a lot of possession so far.

Contrast that to other teams, even teams I don't watch regularly, and i can give a general overview/have an idea of how they play. Name the best managers in football today and they're all extremists they take their philosophy and force their team to use it whether it's successful or not. We seem very middle of the road and a bit confused (like holding onto possession but yet wanting to play counter), kind of like Ole has said 'I believe in you, now go and make things happen' rather than specifically outlined how he expects us to play.

 

[He'sRaldo]

That's why I posted a vid of Rochdale above. Precisely to show it's not just about investment. Doubt they even have anyone on mata's level and they can still orchestrate attacks like that first goal

That's something we can do as well, as well as most other teams. We haven't had problems playing from defence or anything, what we've had problems with is defeating the low block.

As you know, most teams won't press us like that, or open up space in front of their defence. Most teams in our situation would struggle, as to beat a low block consistently you need to have good players, no two ways about it. Other factors come into play of course, but good players are imperative to face buses week in, week out.

 

[Johan07]

It’s like Plato and the cave wall, we don’t see the light (coaching), we don’t see the coached strucures, we only see the shadows on the cave wall.

We can look for signs of attacking structure, like #Rozay showed with Guardiola/City, and wether we see them or not depends on our understanding of football structures, how hard we look and what we want to see.

Four things are clear: 1 A highly collectivized team with detailed instructions is easier to see structure in than a team that caters to individualism and creativity. 2 A team good enough to always be dominant (or bad enough to always be underdog) will play with the same structures mire often. 3 A group of players having played together for many years will be easier to see structure in than a newly assembled team. 4 Most importantly, a team that plays well is easier to see structures in.

Guardiola at City is probably the most extreme example of ‘easy to see structure’ in football today. When in Barca, he used to say to the players: I’ll take you to the 30-yard line, you have to do the rest yourselves. Meaning, play was highly structured by detailed instructions in defense and up to the last third, after that it was largely up to improvisation of individuals. At City, with less genial attacking players, he has automated the play all the way up to the five yard line in most cases.

Klopp is ‘known’ for playing style, but if you saw Liverpool last year and so far this year, it was very different to Dortmund and Klopp’s first years at Pool. It was often a case of getting the ball over the half line and open up times on the counter or using the fast interplay of the very well drilled and high quality of Mane-Firmino-Salah, plus they had very much a flow season. This season, when I’ve looked at them, the structure is hard to see because they’ve not managed to perform it with quality, but as we’ve seen Klopp’s teams for so long, we assume there is structure there even when it doesn’t show.

Solskjær is in a different situation. Few here have seen his Molde teams play much and know what to look for. Last season we saw him play first a Solskjær tweaked Mourinho drilled team, then a team set up tactically suited to different on paper dominant opposing teams (Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, PSG, Pool, Barca), and then a team not able to perform the game plan successfully due to exhaustion, weak mentality, confidence, what have you.

Solskjær haven’t been able to impose an own playing structure before preseason started. After then, there are quite a lot of structure at display defensively, which makes sense, as there are better players there, and Solskjær is building from the back, security first, like most coaches do.

The attacking play, the structure is clear to se up until the half way line. From there on in, there are problems. Are they due to a) attacking patterns taking more time to implement than defensive patterns, b) they’re only getting started focussing on the attacking pattern, c) the constant changing of players due to injury means the relations are not getting developped, d) the players are not (or not yet) good enough quality wise to impose their playing structure in the game, e) there are no attacking structures beyond the half way line, f) there are attacking plans but Solskjær and his coaching team are not good enough at getting them across, or g) there is a plan in place, it’s just inferior to the plans of all other PL managers.

I don’t claim to hold the answer. I just see there are a lot of likely factors to choose from, and it’s unlikely for anyone outside the club to know which ones of these factors are most relevant for a year or maybe two.

As for anyone looking at not finding any signs of structure in our play at all, I think it’s clear they don’t know how structure looks like or aren’t looking very well.

This is not his "idea" originally. Its something most Dutch coaches since Cruyff has said. Especially LvG who is on record saying exactly the same I dont know how many times and also on his tenure here at United.
And its perfectably reasonable. And I dont agree at all with Citys play being automated to the five-yard line (whatever that is).

 

[Greck]

That's something we can do as well, as well as most other teams. We haven't had problems playing from defence or anything, what we've had problems with is defeating the low block.

As you know, most teams won't press us like that, or open up space in front of their defence. Most teams in our situation would struggle, as to beat a low block consistently you need to have good players, no two ways about it. Other factors come into play of course, but good players are imperative to face buses week in, week out.

It most certainly is not. That type of fluid passing is what breaks down low blocks and also what we lack. We haven't even fashioned a chance playing like that this season talk less of scoring that way. The way the ball moved from defence to midfield into the final third into the back of the net. No square passing or stopping to ponder where to pass next. To reiterate that was Rochdale not City or Liverpool

 

[Dec9003]

We definitely don't play counter a attacking football, at least not primarily.
United to me want control. We want to be in control of the match whether it be on the ball or off it.
We're always willing to play the ball out from the back, we're willing to push up and press teams to win the ball back high up the pitch.
In general I think we try to play as high up the pitch as possible, which has hurt us on occasion, but it will when we've just started doing it.
Once we're up field and on the ball, I think we perhaps do rely on individuals a bit, but many top managers do the same.
It might be an unpopular opinion but I don't think we're poorly coached, at least not to the extent that it's said on here.
I think our inconsistencies come down to trying to implement new ideas amongst a squad that lacks quality and flexibility.

 

[He'sRaldo]

It most certainly is not. That type of fluid passing is what breaks down low blocks and also what we lack. We haven't even fashioned a chance playing like that this season talk less of scoring that way. The way the ball moved from defence to midfield into the final third into the back of the net. No square passing or stopping to ponder where to pass next. To reiterate that was Rochdale not City or Liverpool

I understand what you mean by the bolded.

So the question is, by your analysis, which parts are we missing? And how long do you think it should take for us to train and imbibe them?

 

[Lentwood]

I hate this 'coaching' nonsense. The people who throw it around usually have absolutely no idea what goes on behind the scenes so I've no idea how they can speculate on whether the standard of coaching is up to scratch or not - remember, two world-renowned coaches were not able to get our mob to look like a cohesive unit!

People also come up with the lazy generalisation that 'Howe has coached Bournemouth to do X' or 'Farke has coached Norwich to do Y'....the fact is that at Bournemouth and Norwich it's acceptable to put ten men behind the ball and play for a draw. This allows them to play counter-attacking football which requires a much lower level of technical skills than beating a low-block.

Most of our opponents will set-up with a low-block and ask US to break THEM down. Be under no illusions, this is the hardest thing to do in modern football.

City have superstars all over the pitch and break opponents down by making the pitch big and moving the ball around at speed. The problem is, you need an exceptionally high technical level to make this work. You can't coach Pereira, Mata, McTominay, Rashford, Martial, James etc...to play this way.

Liverpool have an exceptionally high-quality front three backed up by an incredibly industrious and hard-working midfield three. The plan is to press opponents and force them into mistakes. Many people who have watched Liverpool over the last few months will note teams are getting a little wise to this and Liverpool look less fluid and less threatening by the game - however, they are currently getting away with it due to moments of individual brilliance from a world-class front three or mistakes by their opponents.

I would just like posters to think about what they are suggesting. I might even buy that Ole is not a good coach, I could accept that argument. The fact, however, is that two world-class coaches in LvG and Jose ALSO failed to coach any coherent attacking play out of our squad.....which leads me to the simple conclusion our players are not good enough to do the job which is required of them at a 'top' club with expectations on dominating football matches

 

[He'sRaldo]

I hate this 'coaching' nonsense. The people who throw it around usually have absolutely no idea what goes on behind the scenes so I've no idea how they can speculate on whether the standard of coaching is up to scratch or not - remember, two world-renowned coaches were not able to get our mob to look like a cohesive unit!

People also come up with the lazy generalisation that 'Howe has coached Bournemouth to do X' or 'Farke has coached Norwich to do Y'....the fact is that at Bournemouth and Norwich it's acceptable to put ten men behind the ball and play for a draw. This allows them to play counter-attacking football which requires a much lower level of technical skills than beating a low-block.

Most of our opponents will set-up with a low-block and ask US to break THEM down. Be under no illusions, this is the hardest thing to do in modern football.

City have superstars all over the pitch and break opponents down by making the pitch big and moving the ball around at speed. The problem is, you need an exceptionally high technical level to make this work. You can't coach Pereira, Mata, McTominay, Rashford, Martial, James etc...to play this way.

Liverpool have an exceptionally high-quality front three backed up by an incredibly industrious and hard-working midfield three. The plan is to press opponents and force them into mistakes. Many people who have watched Liverpool over the last few months will note teams are getting a little wise to this and Liverpool look less fluid and less threatening by the game - however, they are currently getting away with it due to moments of individual brilliance from a world-class front three or mistakes by their opponents.

I would just like posters to think about what they are suggesting. I might even buy that Ole is not a good coach, I could accept that argument. The fact, however, is that two world-class coaches in LvG and Jose ALSO failed to coach any coherent attacking play out of our squad.....which leads me to the simple conclusion our players are not good enough to do the job which is required of them at a 'top' club with expectations on dominating football matches

This is my take on it as well. Most teams don't have to face buses week in week out, and are allowed to park them themselves.

When you have a lot more space in the final 3rd, of course it will be easier for you. Unfortunately for us, we have neither the space nor the players. We are given the respect of a top 3 team, without the players to match.

 

[Alvaro Maestre]

Can someone coach us on how to take corner kicks? We have between 5 to 10 a game an none feels like a threat.

 

[croadyman]

Can someone coach us on how to take corner kicks? We have between 5 to 10 a game an none feels like a threat.

Yeah it is one poor corner after another and just gives you no confidence when we get one.

 

[Vissy]

Usually the manager isn't the one who does the coaching. They have established coaching teams with them who they know and who can consistently coach the manager's tactics and patterns of play into the players, and this is a big part of how the best managers are able to do such a good job. Ole does not have this going for him right now to be fair to him, and he did not have that when he came to United either. I think he has been trying to quickly build that team but it takes years.

 

[croadyman]

Ole has to bring in someone who has coached at a high level, he needs to realise pretty damn quick that will never be Carrick or Mckenna.

 

[MonkeysMagic]

Blaming players or lack of quality is a poor excuse for management to hide behind their own inadequacy. Whilst I'm not expecting miracles from Ole, I want to see some pattern of play that shows training drills in practice but there is none. If memory serves me correctly, Cardiff similarly showed no attacking pattern or creativity and blaming just the set of players....its not a coincidence. I'm afraid the writing is on the wall for Ole whether the club accept it now or after May 2020 or 2021!

 

[flappyjay]

I've seen this phrase pop up numerous times over the past few weeks. Usually it's thrown out there without much explanation and often after a poor result. It seems to be a go to description for a poor perceived performance, but what exactly do people mean by it?

Lets take Guardiola as an example. I'm assuming most people would not accuse him of a lack of coaching (whatever that might mean). So what exactly is he doing behind the scenes that Ole is refusing to do, or isn't good enough to do?

You can tell certain things are not exploited. Granted all James low crosses in front of goal were all blocked I was still surprised to see all our attackers hang back for a cut back instead of one of them gambling on a ball going through. It's either our attackers are thick headed or things like that aren't discussed behind the scenes.

 

[Leftback99]

Blaming players or lack of quality is a poor excuse for management to hide behind their own inadequacy. Whilst I'm not expecting miracles from Ole, I want to see some pattern of play that shows training drills in practice but there is none. If memory serves me correctly, Cardiff similarly showed no attacking pattern or creativity and blaming just the set of players....its not a coincidence. I'm afraid the writing is on the wall for Ole whether the club accept it now or after May 2020 or 2021!

What were Arsenal's 'patterns of play' tonight?

Our forwards look like they couldn't trap a bag of sand most of the time. That's not coaching it's just lack of ability at this level.

 

[Welbeckham]

Did Ole ever get us back into a game like Mourinho used to do ?
It's a part of good coaching.

Mourinho the Manchester United manager and good coaching don’t belong in the same sentence. We’ve lacked any sort of playing style post-Fergie, perhaps excluding Van Gaal. Our football looks severely undercoached, from building up play to set pieces, we look unforgivably clueless.

We don’t make (the right) runs, we don’t time things correctly, we don’t give the most efficient set pieces. When our full-back or winger gets the ball, mostly the only thing they can do is cross the ball mindlessly or pass it backwards. Not (only) because they aren’t good, but because we’re so unorganized and undercoached. For example, we don’t get 2-on-1’s, if we do, we don’t know how to execute them.

 

[simmee]

We are incredibly poorly coached in attack. We never have anyone making runs in the box. Everytime James gets down to the byline in a good position we have one player standing still at the penalty spot and the other attacker just realising he should probably be making a run so he's not even in the box yet.

The few times we have players in good attacking positions we pass the ball to Young who gives the opposition just enough time to block his cross giving us a throw in and captain Ashley the opportunity to point and scream a little.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Basically he is still playing the default formation on football manager rather than something fancy sounding that Ajax's under 13s once played.

He hasn't even right clicked on Harry Maguire to make him a shadow centre back.

 

[adexkola]

Why does City's defence look poor without Laporte? Does Pep not know how to coach a defence?

The only season you could lob this accusation at him with credence was 2016-17, his first season with City. And his defense was an aged one. I believe City have conceded the fewest amount of goals in the PL since 2017-18. One of those seasons had Stones and Otamendi starting most games.

Contrary to popular belief, defensive organization is something Pep is very good at.

 

[Leftback99]

The only season you could lob this accusation at him with credence was 2016-17, his first season with City. And his defense was an aged one. I believe City have conceded the fewest amount of goals in the PL since 2017-18. One of those seasons had Stones and Otamendi starting most games.

Contrary to popular belief, defensive organization is something Pep is very good at.

But it looks nowhere near as solid without Laporte (and Stones at the moment). Our attack looks poor because it doesn't even have one top player in it.

 

[Rozay]

Roberto Martinez got a rubbish Wigan side able to pass and move and have an identity. He then went to a side who had a Scottish manager for over a decade and played a certain way and immediately got them passing and moving very quickly.

Said it before, but I believe we would currently need an XI at least 30% better than City’s to beat them to a title. That’s the level of what they get from off the field.

 

[adexkola]

But it looks nowhere near as solid without Laporte (and Stones at the moment). Our attack looks poor because it doesn't even have one top player in it.

True, but there is still a system at place. Individual errors have fecked City at the back this season.

When Jesus plays instead of Aguero, there is a drop off in quality but the system still exists.

 

[Anustart89]

One big thing that makes 'lack of coaching' obvious to me is when we put balls inside the box. Let's say that Dan James breaks down the left-hand side and puts a ball into the box. Where does he put it? He usually flashes it across goal, right? Now, usually there's nobody there to meet it, instead we have 1-3 players waiting by the penalty spot for the cut-back.

The obvious questions here are a) why doesn't James go for the cut-back, or b) why doesn't everyone just leg it towards the goalkeeper when James gets past his marker? Yet here we are, a handful of games into the season, and we're still seeing Rashford lounging around by the penalty spot while James fizzes balls in close to the keeper.

 

[Sylar]

One big thing that makes 'lack of coaching' obvious to me is when we put balls inside the box. Let's say that Dan James breaks down the left-hand side and puts a ball into the box. Where does he put it? He usually flashes it across goal, right? Now, usually there's nobody there to meet it, instead we have 1-3 players waiting by the penalty spot for the cut-back.

The obvious questions here are a) why doesn't James go for the cut-back, or b) why doesn't everyone just leg it towards the goalkeeper when James gets past his marker? Yet here we are, a handful of games into the season, and we're still seeing Rashford lounging around by the penalty spot while James fizzes balls in close to the keeper.

Yeah, ive said on here before. When we get somebody going like that, which is rare but James is adding it moreso now, we have nobody going across the first defender for a tap in. Its a missed opportunity. There was a moment where James was on the left, he turned, turned back, goto the byline put it across, but it went for a corner. Had it not gone for a corner, well, there was nobody in an attacking position to benefit. Theres no off the ball movement into areas which will see us score.

 

[MikeKing]

Yeah, ive said on here before. When we get somebody going like that, which is rare but James is adding it moreso now, we have nobody going across the first defender for a tap in. Its a missed opportunity. There was a moment where James was on the left, he turned, turned back, goto the byline put it across, but it went for a corner. Had it not gone for a corner, well, there was nobody in an attacking position to benefit. Theres no off the ball movement into areas which will see us score.

This is down to our attacking players not anticipating action. That is very hard to teach. Currently our players like Rashford and Lingard either hides or just think everything is going to come their way naturally. They have terrible anticipation and just stands there thinking we'll I'm not gonna score from here, why even move. It is hard to watch. It is not like they are told to do that.

 

[Sylar]

This is down to our attacking players not anticipating action. That is very hard to teach. Currently our players like Rashford and Lingard either hides or just think everything is going to come their way naturally. They have terrible anticipation and just stands there thinking we'll I'm not gonna score from here, why even move. It is hard to watch. It is not like they are told to do that.

Maybe. But sterling didnt used to do this. He does this a lot now and ends up with loads of goals scored doing this. So I dont agree its very hard to teach, but im not going to disagree fully cos its hard to say what is going on behind the scenes and who is to blame.

 

[MikeKing]

Maybe. But sterling didnt used to do this. He does this a lot now and ends up with loads of goals scored doing this. So I dont agree its very hard to teach, but im not going to disagree fully cos its hard to say what is going on behind the scenes and who is to blame.

I was thinking of Sterling too, and that is why I said it is hard to teach. The work Guardiola has done with him is amazing, not something you see very often. Turn a problem into a skill, it is hard to teach imo. Sterling has to get some credit too.

 

[JMack1234]

I don't like having a go at the coaching staff because I don't think it's there fault that we are, where we are.

However, when Jose was in charge we were fed the myth of McKenna and Carrick. Here we had two young coaches who were desperate to get stuck in and coach the side and what do we have?

We have one very identifiable trait. We're obviously a counter attacking team who want to give the ball to Pogba so we can pick out one of our rapid forwards and then we can hurt them. When we actually have the ball, we looked clueless. When Rochdale decided to park the bus we have no idea what to do. There are no patterns of play.

It's pathetic.

 

[acnumber9]

I don’t know why somebody needs to be told to make runs across defenders or into the six yard box. Anyone who’s watched football much less played it surely knows that’s how you get goals. The problem for me is that it requires guts to get into those positions. To me Rashford and Lingard seem reluctant to get into those positions where they’re putting their bodies on the line. So we’ve got a situation where either the manager doesn’t care they’re not doing this or knows they won’t and can’t do anything about it until more signings are made. Which is a problem. Surely nobody can be so bad a coach as to see this. Especially one who was a top striker.

 

[Grande]

This is not his "idea" originally. Its something most Dutch coaches since Cruyff has said. Especially LvG who is on record saying exactly the same I dont know how many times and also on his tenure here at United.
And its perfectably reasonable. And I dont agree at all with Citys play being automated to the five-yard line (whatever that is).

Did not say it was Guardiola’s idea, certainly Guardiola derives from the Cruyff school, like Van Gaal, consistently becoming more detailed in the instruction of how movements and interplay should look up until the last third of the pitch. Whereas LVG stopped there, Guardiola’s City now displays a large degree of structured, prearranged attacking moves in the last third of the pitch, which players should move in which spaces when, where the ball should come, first runs, second runs, third runs in the same places time after time. The degree of improvisation in the last third have dropped radically from Barca to City. Improvisation is also more effective with Messi, Iniesta and Eto’o than with Aguero De Bruyne and Sterling (as good as they are). Automatons is a name for pre drilled tactical combination moves where players should do the same thing every time in similar situations, it brings speed up as long as it works, though it brings down room for creative improvisation.

Ferguson was a big believer in improvisational freedom in the final third, certainly more so than Guardiola.

 

[Sterling Archer]

Big question for me is the forwards positioning. With a reputed former striker at the helm, why is it that we are not seeing improvement with someone like Rashfords positioning in the box.

Isn't that supposed to be coached into a 21 year old to some extent? One part instinct, two parts repetition and training.

 

[Sterling Archer]

The corner routine is another issue for me. Drifting it to Maguire is the only thing we practice?

 

[Foxbatt]

Cruijff does improvise in the final third when he has the players to do it. But the basis is the right player at the right space at the right time.
So all the players know what to do.
We don't seem to know anything. Not even a corner. Surely, the coaching staff are blind if they can't see what is happening on the pitch. We are not talking about tactics etc. Just a simple free kick. At this level they should be able to do this.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

I don't like having a go at the coaching staff because I don't think it's there fault that we are, where we are.

However, when Jose was in charge we were fed the myth of McKenna and Carrick. Here we had two young coaches who were desperate to get stuck in and coach the side and what do we have?

We have one very identifiable trait. We're obviously a counter attacking team who want to give the ball to Pogba so we can pick out one of our rapid forwards and then we can hurt them. When we actually have the ball, we looked clueless. When Rochdale decided to park the bus we have no idea what to do. There are no patterns of play.

It's pathetic.

Our average possession this season is 55%. We're not a counter-attacking team.

 

[ryansgirl]

Mata and Matic get a lot of stick, but if you watch their passing they are putting ball where our player should be. But the player doesn’t arrive. Pogba and Rashford have given up on guessing what their teammates are going to do, and try to do it all by themselves. McTominay is tired of losing possession so passes sideways or backwards. It’s unclear what AWB is attempting to do when going forward, but whatever it is his teammates don’t know how to react. And so on. The end result looks like a disorganized mess.

We have to remember it’s early days for Ole and his coaches. If at the end of the season the squad isn’t playing any better as a team, we might have a coaching problem. Even then, one season isn’t enough to get this level of change implemented. But we should see signs of progress.

Oh, no, no, no. You should be screeching from the rooftops that United are in freefall, possibly will be relegated and are the joke of the Premier League if not the world`s football leagues. Just like notable media commentators, mainstream and tabloid journalists and bitter numpties like Jamie Carragher and Steve whathisname who just cannot conceal their rage that Liverpool has never won a Premier League title.

 

[King_Cantona07]

Two proofs - James is good at getting past marker and he often crosses in front of the keeper with power, why are our strikers not reaching the spot? Right, Rashford lacks striker instinct but he is fast and has pace, just need to tell him to reach the center spot the moment you see James running. Football is a simple game if basics are done right or basic instructions are issued correctly.

Set pieces approach from the corner, we have Maguire who is good at winning first headers, why put into far post which will need 2 touches to score (one header back to the center and second touch with head or foot to score)? rather put the ball in center where Maguire can directly head at goal. One ball did come yesterday like that where Mctominay was unmarked and his header went above.

2 simple instructions if coaches/manager instruct will make a lot of difference, what system are they getting coached everyday?.

 

[Skills]

I've seen this phrase pop up numerous times over the past few weeks. Usually it's thrown out there without much explanation and often after a poor result. It seems to be a go to description for a poor perceived performance, but what exactly do people mean by it?

Lets take Guardiola as an example. I'm assuming most people would not accuse him of a lack of coaching (whatever that might mean). So what exactly is he doing behind the scenes that Ole is refusing to do, or isn't good enough to do?

Go into a match thread when City are playing, and a common observation is that City score the same goal again and again. You don't think this is a result of a conscious effort by Guardiola and his staff?

 

[King_Cantona07]

Go into a match thread when City are playing, and a common observation is that City score the same goal again and again. You don't think this is a result of a conscious effort by Guardiola and his staff?

Yes city attack is coached clearly, all the goals and runs have a pattern. Go channels, inside runs and then cut back for someone to tap in. We have James losing marker week in week out, crosses flashed across goal. Is it difficult to instruct other attackers to be in spot where crosses are expected? Even a mishit can go in as James attacking is already panicking defenders.