***Champs v Spurs (H) 5.30pm K.O.| Official Match Thread***

[Harry Dowd scored]

Liverpool beat Leeds Wednesday they’re then 3 points behind us. We need to stop this “6 points” nonsense thinking it’s a 100 point gap.

The game i am worried about is rags at home we have a shit record with Pep in these games fear the worst

[Mase]

Liverpool beat Leeds Wednesday they’re then 3 points behind us. We need to stop this “6 points” nonsense thinking it’s a 100 point gap.

The game i am worried about is rags at home we have a shit record with Pep in these games fear the worst

I worry when we play Swindon so there’s no hope for me

[johnny crossan]

time for a short City Break for me

[Mase]

When will the bald cunt learn to play a settled back 4 ?

I’ll tell you when - never .

You were waiting a long time for this.

Baldie's fault again?

You can't blame guardiola for players not doing their job, when I saw the team I thought great line up!!

No issue with the lineup. But we’ve still not developed tactics against teams that whack 11 behind the ball and counter us. That’s Pep.

It’s not just Spurs, it’s any team that take this approach against us. It’s been a few years and we’ve still not learnt to deal with it.

I think the idea is we'll outscore them. And TBF we normally do. We were just poor pretty much all round today.

That’s Kevin Keegan tactics! Surely Pep is better than that?

We need a proper plan when teams just sit back and counter us. We can usually get away with it against lower teams, but Spurs counter brilliantly with Son and Kane. They’ll be better teams in the CL than Spurs if we want to win it.

[Harry Dowd scored]

time for a short City Break for me

Yes, and no more match threads thank you very much

[ayrshireblue]

I hope that Rodri and Laporte are benched for the foreseeable - Rodri was a fucking disgrace.

Rodri wasn't good today but nowhere near the worst player today. Dias, Laporte and Cancelo had absolute nightmares. Time to look themselves in the mirror and regroup for the next couple of months. All these players are outstanding on there day. We don't lose due to one player being off, we've enough quality in the squad that you need 5 or 6 to be off to lose. Today we had 8 or 9 off it.

[Nigels Tackle]

i blame jc

[patrickblue]

]

When will the bald cunt learn to play a settled back 4 ?

I’ll tell you when - never .

You were waiting a long time for this.

Baldie's fault again?

No issue with the lineup. But we’ve still not developed tactics against teams that whack 11 behind the ball and counter us. That’s Pep.

It’s not just Spurs, it’s any team that take this approach against us. It’s been a few years and we’ve still not learnt to deal with it.

I think the idea is we'll outscore them. And TBF we normally do. We were just poor pretty much all round today.

That’s Kevin Keegan tactics! Surely Pep is better than that?

We need a proper plan when teams just sit back and counter us. We can usually get away with it against lower teams, but Spurs counter brilliantly with Son and Kane. They’ll be better teams in the CL than Spurs if we want to win it.

KK tactics or not, that's the way we normally play. What isn't normal is near enough the entire team having an off day. That's the first shit game Rubin's had, and despite the criticism he gets, Laporte is normally pretty reliable. And that is pretty much the whole defence apart from others tracking back. It's no point saying the full backs aren't/can't defend, because Pep obviously doesn't think that's what they're for.
No-one had a good game, and spuds took their chances. Stats were something like 22 to 4 chances, which normally guarantees a win.
Usually if we're playing shit, someone, usually KDB or Gundo, takes it by the scruff of the neck, but the whole lot of them were poor today..

[Nick]

Sick of sideways slow passing and crossing to the odd midget in a packed box when we need a goal.

[aaron bond]

Sick of sideways slow passing and crossing to the odd midget in a packed box when we need a goal.

We were very slow yesterday.

The main difference between us and Spurs yesterday was when we had the ball, we allowed Spurs to get 11 players back. So we had far more opposing players to get through.

Spurs, on the other hand, attacked quickly so they were only up against 3 or 4 players at a time. Then when you add in all 4 of our defenders were abysmal and couldn't handle Kane and Son's movement, it was always likely to end in disaster.

[salford city]

Pretty much everyone had a nightmare yesterday. We were poor all over the pitch. Spurs had five chances and scored four with one of them being ruled offside. Nice liittle reminder for us that we have to focus once more. Everton next who are playing well at home and will be up for it. I expect us to react after hsving the week off

[nottsblue]

Still fuming. I feel that this could be a turning point in the season one way or the other

[sheblue]

It was just a bad day too many played too badly. We will get it out of our system and move on.

We really lack an instinctive striker who will find space and get chances against bus parkers. It's still astonishing that situation was allowed to develop.

Yesterday prime Sergio gets onto some of them crosses. Crosses that were made to nobody!

We go on with what we have and even without a striker I am still hopeful we will win the league.

[s1ty m]

I think the title is 50-50. Amongst a host of dreadful displays, Rodri and Cancelo stood out for me, Rodri as immobile and effortless as I've ever seen him. Cancelo can't defend and is so overhyped. It's a long list of players that just didn't turn up or play well, Dias for example, and it has potentially destabilised us. Feels no better this morning.

[PeterParker]

I think we are putting Father Ruben in a vulnerable position. He was not as big as last year because he was played more on the right, instead of his usual left. On the left, with Stones on the right, Dias played his natural position.

I don’t know if this is because Stonesy is still a drunk, or we need to keep the primadonna Laporte happy, but this needs to stop.
Every big game once in a while Laporte is a calamity, and usual in key moments. If we keep this up we we are going to fuck up again.

Also, Walker is not the same player since Liepzig. Ok, he is going through some shit with losing his friend, but if he is not fit, do not play him.

[ayrshireblue]

It was just a bad day too many played too badly. We will get it out of our system and move on.

We really lack an instinctive striker who will find space and get chances against bus parkers. It's still astonishing that situation was allowed to develop.

Yesterday prime Sergio gets onto some of them crosses. Crosses that were made to nobody!

We go on with what we have and even without a striker I am still hopeful we will win the league.

We kept on putting those crosses in though. Why did Pep not see fit to put on Delap, who he says terrorises Dias, Stones and Laporte in training, to try and get on the end of them. We could have taken off any one of a number of players without affecting the team too much. Instead Laporte was pushed upfront in a Big Sam style move. I expect better from Pep.

[stupot]

Getting a bit boring this " Laporte shit in big games " narrative. Dias had a mare yesterday and the 2 full backs were shit. Biggest home game so far was Chelsea and it was Laporte/ Stones.

[PeterParker]

Getting a bit boring this " Laporte shit in big games " narrative. Dias had a mare yesterday and the 2 full backs were shit. Biggest home game so far was Chelsea and it was Laporte/ Stones.

Well, because he is shit in big games. The history is there.
Like it or not.

[branny]

Liverpool beat Leeds Wednesday they’re then 3 points behind us. We need to stop this “6 points” nonsense thinking it’s a 100 point gap.

They also know now that it's back in their own hands. They'll be scenting blood.

[stupot]

Getting a bit boring this " Laporte shit in big games " narrative. Dias had a mare yesterday and the 2 full backs were shit. Biggest home game so far was Chelsea and it was Laporte/ Stones.

Well, because he is shit in big games. The history is there.
Like it or not.

The most recent big game is Chelsea