Why do we need a jolt before we play with any tempo?

[SteveW]

Why else would plodders like Matic (hes ok when not on the ball) and Fellaini be in such favour.

Edit: And McTomminay. What top level club glorifies midfielders with such basic passing ability? Jose literally had Matic and McTomminay as his players of the season.

Nothing is going to change. Well continue to play like this and he'll blame it on the attackers for not bailing him out every week

 

[cyril C]

It's how the manager wants us to play. Risk averse football

If it is risk averse, we would be drawing all the top12 clubs and beating all the bottom 6. Are we?

 

[whatwha]

Because our team is set up to be reactive rather than proactive.

 

[Theonas]

Because playing with tempo is a very difficult thing. It requires being comfortable on the ball in advanced areas of the pitch. That level of comfort needs a lot of ingredients, one of which is repetition and familiarity. Since we change approaches depending on who we are facing, that familiarity never gets developed and improved. There is also another point that Guardiola made the other day when asked about changing approach depending on the opposition. His response was that it sends a message to his players that he doesn't trust them and that he values the opponent too highly which can create hesitation and insecurity. The point is changing approaches can gain you points because you are better equipped at dealing with different challenges as we have seen against the top 6 this season. But the other edge of the sword is that it kills your momentum when it comes to fluidity and confidence of the players.

 

[bosnian_red]

What kind of tactics are those? Let's play utter garbage and chill until they score, then move our arses?

Its standard Mourinho tactics. Keep things safe and organized, dont ever over commit going forward, wait for the opposition to make a mistake and then when they open up more, hopefully they make more mistakes. Ultimate pragmatism. When we concede, then we suddenly realize we need to push forward and commit attackers and push way higher up.

Our good/attacking football is always reactive depending on game state.

 

[sunama]

Well it's either player related or coming from the manager/coaching.

You think that the coaches are telling the players not to give much effort until they go down 2-0.
Then after we are 2 goals down, they should give maximum effort and win the game from there?

IMO, it's a lack of leaders on the pitch. When Ibra was around, he'd gee up the players around him.
Sanchez can also do this, as other players will see the ridiculous work rate he is putting in. Lukaku also puts in a lot of hard work.

Think Roy Keane, who would tell the player around him to up their intensity, by example.
Same with Alan Shearer.
Same with Patrick Vieira at Arsenal.
There are plenty of players, going through history, who are leaders and we need 1 or 2 of them. They will need to be at least 25 years of age and probably midfielders.
For the record, I think that Herrera can be a leader, but Jose does not trust the guy (for some reason).

Personally, I'd insist that the players take a dose of caffeine 15 minutes before the match starts and tell the players that they must play with maximum intensity for the first 20 mins of each half, bearing in mind that as the half continues, energy levels will naturally drop.

 

[sunama]

It's how the manager wants us to play. Risk averse football

Risk averse does not mean low intensity and apathy towards a losing scoreline.
Also, if risk aversion is what is causing this, why do we beat quality teams? Surely the quality teams should be the ones which we'd park the bus against and not beat. We scored 3 goals against MCFC. 2 against Spurs. We beat LFC (I could go on, but you get the point).

 

[TwoSheds]

Why else would plodders like Matic (hes ok when not on the ball) and Fellaini be in such favour.

Edit: And McTomminay. What top level club glorifies midfielders with such basic passing ability? Jose literally had Matic and McTomminay as his players of the season.

Nothing is going to change. Well continue to play like this and he'll blame it on the attackers for not bailing him out every week

Matic is quality, I don't know what games you've been watching. Often beats a man in midfield and his passing is almost always accurate and forward, don't know what more you could ask of a DM really.

And with regards to McTominay I think José is more just making a point to the other players about their attitude. Gives his best, looks after himself like a professional and always tries to do what's right for the team. How many of our midfielders or forwards could you say that about in the last few seasons? Carrick, Matic, Lukaku and Fellaini maybe, Lingard most of the time...

 

[SteveW]

Risk averse does not mean low intensity and apathy towards a losing scoreline.
Also, if risk aversion is what is causing this, why do we beat quality teams? Surely the quality teams should be the ones which we'd park the bus against and not beat. We scored 3 goals against MCFC. 2 against Spurs. We beat LFC (I could go on, but you get the point).

Risk aversion is constantly apparent in our play. Rarely do we see players trying any even slightly difficult passes between the lines, rarely do players (pogba aside) seem to want the ball under any sort of pressure. It's all safe square passing to players in loads of space. Every time we play I see player after player turn down fairly easy passes that could progress moves in favour of safe passes wide and backwards. I get the sense of a team being pushed to keep the ball and not make mistakes. Someone like Matic (who to be clear is a good player) is perfect for this because he keeps it nice and simple. None of the top teams play like this.

 

[Marcky411]

It's the million dollar question. We seem to play in short bursts. Something is lacking. Very rarely are we able to put teams under sustained pressure. Is it the physical nature of the squad that is causing the issue perhaps? I was very irritated with Smalling, Matic, Valencia in particular. Young has a lot of heart and tries but just lacks in quality. Major changes need to be made. It's much worse when we play at OT and are required to break down teams who sit deep. Maybe we are just not able to play an open, expensive game with some of these players. When you watch us and then you watch Man City it's like night and day. The sharpness, the intensity, the speed of thought, the ball circulation. Everything is being done at a higher level. For starters we need to play our best players and it's criminal that players like Martial are struggling to get games. Also the mentality of the team must improve and some players need to grow up. We are too lackadaisical and the decision making at some points is a joke.

Management and training, City didn't always play this way nor did Liverpool before Klopp. At the end of the day I am sure we do have players who can play that way. With Jose it is more like when you have just got your driver's license and you are allowed to use the family car for the first time and dad instruct you to not get out of second gear. Obviously after a couple of miles you to are going to lacklustre and complacent, what can go wrong at that speed.

 

[Canagel]

Management and training, City didn't always play this way nor did Liverpool before Klopp. At the end of the day I am sure we do have players who can play that way. With Jose it is more like when you have just got your driver's license and you are allowed to use the family car for the first time and dad instruct you to not get out of second gear. Obviously after a couple of miles you to are going to lacklustre and complacent, what can go wrong at that speed.

I think it's a bit of both. It's not possible to play this way with players like Smalling, Matic, Fellaini, Valencia , Lukaku. If we did the whole team would be gassed by minute 60. Blame goes to Mourinho for not building this team in the correct way. We need more players with craft, low centre of gravity instead of these plodders we have in our team. We do have some real talented players but the team is not balanced at all.

 

[SteveJ]

We've been like it for years.

 

[RedTillI'mDead]

It's the way we prepare mentally, and the coaches need to find a way to cut that shite out. We can't do this again next season.
Kinda pissed it's the World Cup as I feel we need a bit of time for not just physical but mental preparation imho.

World cup could be a good thing, disrupt City progress and clear heads and come back with new sense of focus for United players. Our players are too casual and the world cup might sort some players out.

 

[Adisa]

One thing is for sure, we don't commit enough bodies when we attack.

 

[ZombieFootball]

What kind of tactics are those? Let's play utter garbage and chill until they score, then move our arses?

Our wingers are as deep as our fullback defending, only player close to the midcircle is Lukaku, if our wingers start of at fullback position when we counter how are we gonna get enough bodies forward quick enough before the opposition has a good defensive shape? thats another reason why he cant get the best out of Martial and Rashford, everytime they get the ball they are surrounded and they very rarely have the fullback isolated.

You can also watch how other top teams utilize their fullback and then look at ours, it has nothing to do with quality but what their instructed to do, even though they are not up to par, in an attacking system they would be much better in attack then what they show under Mourinho.

 

[Lukakusfirsttouch]

Mourinho likes to keep things tight and compact, it’s the way he plays football. He’s a winner because of it! Look! We are in the FA cup Final and have finished 2nd in the league after having Moyes and LVG. Let’s be honest we haven’t been great to watch. If Mourinho is given time and money he will get this team to where we expect it to be. We are ahead of Liverpool in the league who have been playing “Fantastic, breathtaking football” And yet we’ve been “terrible all season” Mourinho will get it right with a few more players we will have better end product and more desire just wait

 

[Minimalist]

You think that the coaches are telling the players not to give much effort until they go down 2-0.

No I'm not. That would be ridiculous.

What I'm saying is that whatever Mourinho and his coaches are doing week to week, it's not changing the players behaviour on the pitch.

And you can't just rely on new players solving this issue.

 

[RedCurry]

Why: because we setup with a flat back four, our wide players are constantly standing still in central areas, we overload the centre and then pass it back to Smalling who passes it back to DDG who boots it long. When our skill players receive the ball, they have no idea what they should do with it next. You can tell because when they receive the ball, they pause, look up and die a little inside due to lack of movement ahead of them or in wide areas.

 

[kouroux]

Because the whole gameplan is based on reacting to what the opposition does rather than imposing our own style of play. A good thing really because we don't have a style of play to impose, and appear to have no desire to find one.

I would agree with this and this is the main reason we'll need to move on from Mourinho in the near future because honestly except for changing players for better ones, there is not much improvement Mourinho actually creates in the team in terms of dominating teams and imposing our game.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

It is weird that so we play this low block, low risk system which does make our games quite slow and pedestrian as it’s basically waiting for an error from either side and our plan is to make less errors other than forcing errors from the opposition.
However there are occasions when we go behind and all of a sudden the focus shifts, the defenders push up, so does the midfield, and it’s just a chain reaction. The tempo changes, options are there and we on occasion looked like we know what we were doing and have pushed teams back and hemmed them in and put them under siege and from that point on controlled all aspects of the game. For me that’s evidence of a flawed game plan especially when we look more proficient and educated in the 2nd tactical option.