Wingers

[Mase]

Both fuckin terrible today, as they have been all season. Anyone that sees anything in Savio is mentally disabled.

Absolutely no way McAtee or Jack would be worse.

[john@staustell]

Both fuckin terrible today, as they have been all season. Anyone that sees anything in Savio is mentally disabled.

Absolutely no way McAtee or Jack would be worse.

Steady . Sadly they would

The Everton champion team of the 80s had a fella called Stuart Barlow. Nickname was The Jigsaw Man

Went to pieces in the box

We have 2

[Dubciteh]

Both fuckin terrible today, as they have been all season. Anyone that sees anything in Savio is mentally disabled.

Absolutely no way McAtee or Jack would be worse.

Particularly shite today as were bernardo and foden wgen they came on. You wont win fuck all with them. Its a tragedy compared to what we had.

[PeterParker]

Both fuckin terrible today, as they have been all season. Anyone that sees anything in Savio is mentally disabled.

Absolutely no way McAtee or Jack would be worse.

Particularly shite today as were bernardo and foden wgen they came on. You wont win fuck all with them. Its a tragedy compared to what we had.

Foden is a proper Donkey lately. Even Dzeko had better ball control than him this season.

[city72]

Sane on a free?

[Im_Spartacus]

Both fuckin terrible today, as they have been all season. Anyone that sees anything in Savio is mentally disabled.

Absolutely no way McAtee or Jack would be worse.

Going back to my point a few days ago, Haaland marked by 2 or even 3, and no runners coming in from deep for a cut back if the winger beats their man. This was where Foden and Gundo in particular for example used to excel from Mahrez and Cancelo.

So even if Doku and Savinho beat their man, there is absolutely nothing for them to hit - it's not about the wingers being shit, the movement isn't there from the entire 4 behind Haaland

[Mase]

Both fuckin terrible today, as they have been all season. Anyone that sees anything in Savio is mentally disabled.

Absolutely no way McAtee or Jack would be worse.

Going back to my point a few days ago, Haaland marked by 2 or even 3, and no runners coming in from deep for a cut back if the winger beats their man. This was where Foden and Gundo in particular for example used to excel from Mahrez and Cancelo.

So even if Doku and Savinho beat their man, there is absolutely nothing for them to hit - it's not about the wingers being shit, the movement isn't there from the entire 4 behind Haaland

I was watching Marmoush and he was available most of the time, dropping back slightly to give them an option. Lewis was giving Savio an option and Josko giving Doku an option - there’s no need for either of them to lose the ball.

Savio blazed a very good chance high and wide as well.

[nottsblue]

One of the problems we have with the end result from our wingers is that there is actually very little to aim for in the box. Sparty alluded to this. The wingers job is traditionally to beat the defending full back and get the cross into the danger zone. It’s then up to the forward(s) and runners from midfield to get on the end of it. That isn’t happening and it isn’t the winger’s fault

I rather suspect that is down to how we are being coached

Which then does beg the question of why we then play with two of them? We no longer have the legs or skill in midfield to retain ball possession and pass the ball out wide to create space on the other flank. Which worked brilliantly 4/5 years ago. We are regressing and we are looking more like a team Southgate would set up with England. Good intentions but without the players to pull it off

[Mase]

Hasn’t Nunes got like 5 assists direct to Haaland - all from just launching it into the box?

If they don’t even try to get it into the box then Haaland will never get the opportunity. Look at Cancelo’s cross against Dortmund for Haaland’s ridiculous ninja kick goal in his first season. We were getting balls into the box - we just don’t do that now, because Doku and Savio aren’t good enough.

[Hazy2]

We have so many injured, out of form. New players bedding in. If we get CL, I’d take it now. Bournemouth like Brighton athletic and in form, another team that will cause us problems. It’s as you said Mase, frustrating. A pal of mine said we are so flaky. We need Phil , Grealish to show up it’s a game a week for the first time in 6 years.

[zuricity]

Sparti has a point about the midfielders.

We have dominated for years, because of a very strong and skillful midfield team.

Since gündo came back it has fallen apart.

When you have defenders and the goalkeeper retaining the ball for as long as possible , you are not going to win games.

Both Ortega and Dias were awful yesterday. Dias has forgotten how to defend and switches off during the game.

Leaving the ball to those two can only result in disaster. An absolute failure on the midfield to do anything.

Bernie came on , phil came on and for the last five minutes tintin . All hiding in midfield.

I don't know if it is a ramadan thing , but marmoush looked drained at 70 minutes.

Some go on about Ed, but he is light years better at distributing the ball than Ortega, whose kicks upfield always ended up with the opposition

[Scatman]

Both fuckin terrible today, as they have been all season. Anyone that sees anything in Savio is mentally disabled.

Absolutely no way McAtee or Jack would be worse.

I think you're being harsh on Doku. He was not terrible. In the first half I would say he was the standout. Very difficult to dispossess and always working hard. But I agree with the point about end product and how he is used. There were maybe 3 occasions when his decision making let him down and he held on to it for too long. I remember one where Haaland would have been clean through but Doku didn't release the ball soon enough. But then there were several occasions where he ran past the fullback and there was just nobody making a run into the box and it ended in nothing. He cannot be blamed for that. Like any pacey winger who can control the ball like him he scares the life out of fullbacks. When he gets past the fullback he needs strikers and midfielders making runs and we don't have that. Our centre midfield is not spritely enough to keep up.

I would much rather have kept Sav on the pitch than replace him with Bern. You just know what is going to happen when he gets out wide and you know it happens slow enough for the opposition to get everyone in the box.

We were at our most dangerous yesterday with balls played over for the quick to run onto. Doku, Sav, Marmoush, Haaland. It was a really entertaining first half and then the second half was just dog shit.

[Im_Spartacus]

Both fuckin terrible today, as they have been all season. Anyone that sees anything in Savio is mentally disabled.

Absolutely no way McAtee or Jack would be worse.

Going back to my point a few days ago, Haaland marked by 2 or even 3, and no runners coming in from deep for a cut back if the winger beats their man. This was where Foden and Gundo in particular for example used to excel from Mahrez and Cancelo.

So even if Doku and Savinho beat their man, there is absolutely nothing for them to hit - it's not about the wingers being shit, the movement isn't there from the entire 4 behind Haaland

I was watching Marmoush and he was available most of the time, dropping back slightly to give them an option. Lewis was giving Savio an option and Josko giving Doku an option - there’s no need for either of them to lose the ball.

Savio blazed a very good chance high and wide as well.

You can see in any phase of play in the past, when a city player gets on the ball, you'd typically have 2-3 options. Currently, it almost always seems reduced down to 1 easy pass back to the fullback. I know Marmoush is showing more than others, but the way we play relies on multiple players showing, quick transitions through space on the pitch etc - it needs to be an entire group playing that way, not just one forward.

In every part of the pitch there seems to be less hunger to show for the ball. Foden in particular looks like he's so out of form he's hiding, when Bernardo gets on the ball he immediately runs out of options, so all season we've had the safe pass that gets us nowhere because the midfield aren't showing, or are being dispossessed on the ball far easier than in the past.

I'm not defending Doku and Savinho blindly here, I'm not a particularly big fan of either of them - but I'm just adding balance to the criticism that if we're playing with 4 attacking players behind Haaland, it's unacceptable that the vast majority of the time by the time one of them have got in the box, there's nothing at all for them to aim at.

I'd argue our biggest chance tactically while we're struggling is to cause chaos by having Doku beat his man, wang the ball in the box at haaland first time, and make winning 2nd ball the priority for the midfield, as then the defence is likely to be out of position and there would be space for a quick 2nd phase.

On the one occasion at weekend we did try to win the ball high up the pitch coming out of the box, was when we scored.

[PeterParker]

Arguably we had our best wingers in Sane & Sterling and Mahrez, between 2017-2019?
That was about when Arteta was working close with them.

I think we are lacking that since Maresca left.
I really think we have top raw talents on the wing, but who need a proper coach to teach them things.

[Mase]

Sané’s first season he got 5 goals and 3 assists. There’s hope for Savio

[Blue In Bolton]

Sané’s first season he got 5 goals and 3 assists. There’s hope for Savio

Sané looked much better when he was switched wide left towards the end of that season and really took off the following one. The brief glimpses we have seen of Savio on the left make me think that this may be a positive solution, but we all know Pep loves his inverted wingers and coming back inside to a packed area of the pitch.

[Mase]

Sané’s first season he got 5 goals and 3 assists. There’s hope for Savio

Sané looked much better when he was switched wide left towards the end of that season and really took off the following one. The brief glimpses we have seen of Savio on the left make me think that this may be a positive solution, but we all know Pep loves his inverted wingers and coming back inside to a packed area of the pitch.

I’d say it’s the only solution mate.

Savio desperately wants to be Mahrez - he’s not got that cut in from the left and goal in him at all. That one he blazed high and wide on Saturday was pathetic. He should be on the left getting balls into the box.

[PeterParker]

Sané’s first season he got 5 goals and 3 assists. There’s hope for Savio

Sané looked much better when he was switched wide left towards the end of that season and really took off the following one. The brief glimpses we have seen of Savio on the left make me think that this may be a positive solution, but we all know Pep loves his inverted wingers and coming back inside to a packed area of the pitch.

I’d say it’s the only solution mate.

Savio desperately wants to be Mahrez - he’s not got that cut in from the left and goal in him at all. That one he blazed high and wide on Saturday was pathetic. He should be on the left getting balls into the box.

Saw something, but did not have time to check it, but read that all goals and assists from Savio came from the left side. 70% of the time he was played on the right side

[Harry Dowd scored]

Sané’s first season he got 5 goals and 3 assists. There’s hope for Savio

Sané looked much better when he was switched wide left towards the end of that season and really took off the following one. The brief glimpses we have seen of Savio on the left make me think that this may be a positive solution, but we all know Pep loves his inverted wingers and coming back inside to a packed area of the pitch.

I’d say it’s the only solution mate.

Savio desperately wants to be Mahrez - he’s not got that cut in from the left and goal in him at all. That one he blazed high and wide on Saturday was pathetic. He should be on the left getting balls into the box.

Saw something, but did not have time to check it, but read that all goals and assists from Savio came from the left side. 70% of the time he was played on the right side

That's probably why Pep plays him on the right where he can cause fewer problems to the opposition .

[stupot]

His assist v Newcastle was from the right the day he had probably his best game for us.
He won the pen on Saturday from the right.