Oh yeah, in that case, he certainly doesn't have a Plan B.
Pep's record in away legs of CL knockouts
- Thread starter crappycraperson
- Start date
Well the Spurs match where he had Ederson making long passes to go over Spurs' press shows there is a plan B for City.
Well, being more serious, City have been pressed at various times this season by Tottenham, Arsenal, Napoli and Liverpool.
Tottenham put Kane, Son and Alli up to prevent Ederson from passing to the back line. Sterling and Sane pushed up during goal kicks, forcing Tottenham's backline to stay with them (can't be offside on a goal kick). That left a huge void in the middle of the pitch that City (especially De Bruyne) exploited to great effect.
Arsenal had some success applying pressure to City's buildup in various games, but they quickly tired. Plus they did it so shitty that City had no issues with passing through the press. There's a video floating around of City passing around the press before releasing on the break to score.
The games against Napoli were more even. I think the results could have gone either way.
I know people laugh at "gegenpressing", but it's a really systematic way of applying pressure at certain areas on the pitch, and at selected times in the game. It's something Klopp has down to a science, and it's why his Dortmund and Liverpool teams were really great against possession dominant teams. Specifically in this game, they didn't force Ederson to goal kick out (and at that point, they're hunting for the second ball), so Ederson passes to Otamendi or Kompany. But they crowd the half-spaces, restricting space in the middle for De Bruyne to spray diagonal passes. He moves wider. This puts more onus on Fernandinho to be the fulcrum for any play. That's what Klopp targets, the link between the center backs, Fernandinho, and City's play makers who are forced wider.
It's really effective, but it takes a lot of training to implement. And it explains why City were so flustered. No one else has pressed them in this manner.
I'm not sure what Guardiola could have done. I would have not started Gundogan. I would have let Sterling play on the wing. I would have started Delph (who has been great in that role all year). Beyond that, it's just execution and ability to play through Liverpool's press, which may involve more focused training sessions on Guardiola's part? Or just hoof it out?
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I have to say this was a great post. And starting Gundogan and Laporte killed them since with Gundogan lost out wide all of their attacks ended up on the left and with Laporte not getting forward Sane was isolated over and over again.
Aye. Delph didn't go forward much, but as a midfielder he had the ability to tuck into midfield and be an auxillary pivot, taking some attention off of Fernandinho.
Now if Mendy starts with Sane...
They had no trouble playing through liverpool's press the first 10 minutes. Then they gifted them a goal. The goal and Sane's subsequent huge miss a minute later had a big psychological effect on both sides. This resulted in liverpool's press becoming effective in preventing city from building up from the back. Then they scored the second and city wilted
Tactics and team selections had little to do with what happened in thecfirst half
Tactics are only ever as good as the players execution of them. Barcelona were rarely flustered by high press because 1) they had unshakeable self-belief and 2) they were almost unfairly good at keeping the ball
And another one.
Well done St Pep. Now be a good lad and focus on the PL title.
Another terrible year from him in CL.
Fraudiola attacks.
Beat Spurs over the weekend and everything is forgiven
He has a billion pound squad at his disposal, built just for him, and he still can't get to the final.
It's the teams he's getting knocked out by too. Monaco, Liverpool (who weren't as good as they are now) and Spurs. Not exactly the worlds elite.
Had the arrogance to keep chattering away about a quadruple, the perennial CL bottlers
They didn't though
They kept on shooing away talk of it.
But typical media. Build unrealistic expectations and then attack when unrealistic expectations aren't met.
To be fair to Pep it's CL and every game is hard and every team wants to win in games.
The media did goad them into it but recently they started talking about it. Kompany always used to bring it up - 'it's only a matter of time' being a famous quote of his.They didn't though
They kept on shooing away talk of it.
But typical media. Build unrealistic expectations and then attack when unrealistic expectations aren't met.
No Messi, no party.
Benching KDB and Sane for first leg really cost them. Actually not just that but bringing both on with just a few minutes left was a nonsense.
I can understand the Fernandinho sub tonight more, just looking to close game out and can't legislate for conceding a cheap goal from a corner. Man. City would've kept it out if they'd had a player on the post.
I can understand the Fernandinho sub tonight more, just looking to close game out and can't legislate for conceding a cheap goal from a corner. Man. City would've kept it out if they'd had a player on the post.
Exactly this. Strong teams, sure. But not Barca, Real, Juve, Bayern.
He’s a very good manager (100 points!) but, until he wins a CL at a second club that doesn’t have Xavi/Iniesta/Messi, there will be some question marks about just where he ranks in that spectrum between very good and great.
Famous quote of his which he made about 5-6 years ago? And, you know, if it happens 100 years after, it was still a matter of time, sort of...
You misunderstand - that was the beginning of all this chat. I didn't say that happened recently.
Recently I swear I've seen at least three of their players talk openly about it - Stones, Ederson and someone else. Again definitely goaded into by the media but all the same, it's just tempting fate