What are we lacking?

[nottsblue]

Went to the game and I’m struggling to think of a single City player who played well. Particularly shocked by Cancelo’s performance. Time for Zinchenko to have a go? Bernardo at least ran his socks off but to little effect. I couldn’t see who provided the pass for the offside goal but it was excellent and Jesus took it really well. Shame. Serious question. Should Kevin have the surgery and come back for the end of the season? Is his concern about his ankle ruining his confidence? I don’t know. Huge call of course. Back on Wednesday and expecting a reaction.

I'm not shocked by Cancelo's performance, he's absolutely dreadful. Moments, few and far between, he does something. The rest of the time is unbelievable dog shit. His powder puff tackling is his worst trait, slightly ahead of about 10 other bags of shit that he is crap at. Can't bear him.

Cancelo is not, has never been and never will be a decent full back. His defensive work simply isn’t up to scratch.

He is a decent player in the opposition half and in a midfield role would do much better. The question will remain for Pep as to whether he can fit him in our already crowded midfield. He has a very good range of passing and if KDB is missing for a period due to getting his injuries sorted then he could slot into the side as the guy who sprays the ball around

[sheblue]

Broken record time...
We're missing a striker.
Foden not a striker.
Grealish not a striker.
KDB not a striker.
Jesus not a striker.
Fucking hell, it goes on and on and on and on and on.....

[Pretty Boy Lee]

Not only a striker but a willingness to counter at pace sometimes. When teams park the bus a quicker counter is needed. When they dare foray into our half is the only time there is space in behind. I get frustrated when teams like that are given time to set up shop while we take a vote on if we feel like attacking.

[blues2win]

My point about Cancelo wasn’t about his defending. His passes in the Opposition half were very poor and his attempts at shooting were awful. He was a bit better in the second half as were the team until the Jesus goal was ruled out. After that everything went flat. We were having to push forward and with ten men the gaps inevitably appeared.

[Dubciteh]

I think cancelo getting a real harsh time here. Hes not the best defender we know that but for 90percent of our games we dont need him to be.

Agree with the quick counters, jacks not helping with these either. Feel like we are making life hard for jack without a striker. I think in our system he would have more impact in the middle.

[Mase]

I think cancelo getting a real harsh time here. Hes not the best defender we know that but for 90percent of our games we dont need him to be.

Agree with the quick counters, jacks not helping with these either. Feel like we are making life hard for jack without a striker. I think in our system he would have more impact in the middle.

We’ve bought Grealish for a record fee and we’ve asked him to change his game. We’d have never bought Kane and asked him to change how he plays. It’s mental when you think about it. If Pep doesn’t think a player fits our system then why buy them?

I think Grealish playing how Grealish played for Villa would be brilliant for us.

[salford city]

I think cancelo getting a real harsh time here. Hes not the best defender we know that but for 90percent of our games we dont need him to be.

Agree with the quick counters, jacks not helping with these either. Feel like we are making life hard for jack without a striker. I think in our system he would have more impact in the middle.

We’ve bought Grealish for a record fee and we’ve asked him to change his game. We’d have never bought Kane and asked him to change how he plays. It’s mental when you think about it. If Pep doesn’t think a player fits our system then why buy them?

Fair point and just highlights Peps love affair with midfield players. I genuinely believe that he thinks he can turn them into whatever he wants be it a defender or roaming / false 9

I agree with your point on Grealish, we have spunked our highest fee ever on a player and them took 50% of his game away from him in not playing him behind a traditionall no.9.
As was said yesterday, we have seen this show before, we score first and generally win - in most cases easily. Concede first and I am never confident that we will get a result. Cannot see us fixing this in January so it is going to be on Pep to find a solution but that involves him changing his principles and that won't happen

[salford city]

It's obvious a striker and a left-back, but in our game?
Multiple times it looks like we are a team that can't come back in difficult moments.

Discuss

The same as we were when we smashed brugge and brighton. Where was this thread then?
For come-backs, see anfield recently. Sometimes we just have to take the medicine and move on..

Are you really asking why people are questioning what went wrong after a defeat?

Yes guess I am. Unless Pep changes the way we play, this will happen again. Every man and his dog can see that. We are all entitled to opinions and i expect to hear more after a defeat but its the same old shit every time. Contrast the thread starting minutes after the game with nothing after the chelsea performance. PP will tell you that its not about Chelsea, brighton brugge etc, i.e the games when it works, but only about the times that it doesn't - fair enough, but that would be perfection and no-one is that.
Criticism is fine with me, but I don't know what some people want / expect when we set up to play the exact way each game. Its Pep's DNA this will not change

[Mase]

I’ve just seen a comment - “In the past when things aren’t going our way we had Toure, Silva, Aguero, Kompany.. that got us important goals from nothing”.

Says it all we still haven’t replaced those players. Toure against Newcastle in 11/12. Toure against Sunderland at Wembley. Aguero pretty much every time. Kompany against Rags in 11/12 and Leicester in 18/19. We just don’t have that anymore.

[Harry Dowd scored]

I think cancelo getting a real harsh time here. Hes not the best defender we know that but for 90percent of our games we dont need him to be.

Agree with the quick counters, jacks not helping with these either. Feel like we are making life hard for jack without a striker. I think in our system he would have more impact in the middle.

We’ve bought Grealish for a record fee and we’ve asked him to change his game. We’d have never bought Kane and asked him to change how he plays. It’s mental when you think about it. If Pep doesn’t think a player fits our system then why buy them?

Fair point and just highlights Peps love affair with midfield players. I genuinely believe that he thinks he can turn them into whatever he wants be it a defender or roaming / false 9

I agree with your point on Grealish, we have spunked our highest fee ever on a player and them took 50% of his game away from him in not playing him behind a traditionall no.9.
As was said yesterday, we have seen this show before, we score first and generally win - in most cases easily. Cannot see us fixing this in January so it is going to be on Pep to find a solution but that involves him changing his principles and that won't happen

The stats about us not recovering from going behind then going on to win are horrendous, its years since that happened in the PL, we are all laughing at rags and rightly so, however look how many times they recover from going behind.
The solution is relatively simple, we need a centre forward, once we have one we can then have a plan B I am not advocating playing direct I am saying we could vary our play more if we have an out and out striker. The tight games would be more winnable if we had alternatives.

[stupot]

I think cancelo getting a real harsh time here. Hes not the best defender we know that but for 90percent of our games we dont need him to be.

Agree with the quick counters, jacks not helping with these either. Feel like we are making life hard for jack without a striker. I think in our system he would have more impact in the middle.

We’ve bought Grealish for a record fee and we’ve asked him to change his game. We’d have never bought Kane and asked him to change how he plays. It’s mental when you think about it. If Pep doesn’t think a player fits our system then why buy them?

Fair point and just highlights Peps love affair with midfield players. I genuinely believe that he thinks he can turn them into whatever he wants be it a defender or roaming / false 9

I agree with your point on Grealish, we have spunked our highest fee ever on a player and them took 50% of his game away from him in not playing him behind a traditionall no.9.
As was said yesterday, we have seen this show before, we score first and generally win - in most cases easily. Cannot see us fixing this in January so it is going to be on Pep to find a solution but that involves him changing his principles and that won't happen

The stats about us not recovering from going behind then going on to win are horrendous, its years since that happened in the PL, we are all laughing at rags and rightly so, however look how many times they recover from going behind.
The solution is relatively simple, we need a centre forward, once we have one we can then have a plan B I am not advocating playing direct I am saying we could vary our play more if we have an out and out striker. The tight games would be more winnable if we had alternatives.

It's 6 months since we won after being behind- Villa away

[PeterParker]

It's obvious a striker and a left-back, but in our game?
Multiple times it looks like we are a team that can't come back in difficult moments.

Discuss

The same as we were when we smashed brugge and brighton. Where was this thread then?
For come-backs, see anfield recently. Sometimes we just have to take the medicine and move on..

Are you really asking why people are questioning what went wrong after a defeat?

Yes guess I am. Unless Pep changes the way we play, this will happen again. Every man and his dog can see that. We are all entitled to opinions and i expect to hear more after a defeat but its the same old shit every time. Contrast the thread starting minutes after the game with nothing after the chelsea performance. PP will tell you that its not about Chelsea, brighton brugge etc, i.e the games when it works, but only about the times that it doesn't - fair enough, but that would be perfection and no-one is that.
Criticism is fine with me, but I don't know what some people want / expect when we set up to play the exact way each game. Its Pep's DNA this will not change

I am more intrigued and annoyed of how pe play when we are in trouble.
That is something, under Pep, that intrigues me and annoys the living hell out of me. In 80% of the time, when we are one goal down. what comes next reminds me of the Sisyphus myth. We are doing the same old thing over and over and over again with the same result.
It's not that doesn't work, but also we fail to create even chances.

Why doesn't he see these things? Tiki-taka can't work all the time.

[Harry Dowd scored]

I think cancelo getting a real harsh time here. Hes not the best defender we know that but for 90percent of our games we dont need him to be.

Agree with the quick counters, jacks not helping with these either. Feel like we are making life hard for jack without a striker. I think in our system he would have more impact in the middle.

We’ve bought Grealish for a record fee and we’ve asked him to change his game. We’d have never bought Kane and asked him to change how he plays. It’s mental when you think about it. If Pep doesn’t think a player fits our system then why buy them?

Fair point and just highlights Peps love affair with midfield players. I genuinely believe that he thinks he can turn them into whatever he wants be it a defender or roaming / false 9

I agree with your point on Grealish, we have spunked our highest fee ever on a player and them took 50% of his game away from him in not playing him behind a traditionall no.9.
As was said yesterday, we have seen this show before, we score first and generally win - in most cases easily. Cannot see us fixing this in January so it is going to be on Pep to find a solution but that involves him changing his principles and that won't happen

The stats about us not recovering from going behind then going on to win are horrendous, its years since that happened in the PL, we are all laughing at rags and rightly so, however look how many times they recover from going behind.
The solution is relatively simple, we need a centre forward, once we have one we can then have a plan B I am not advocating playing direct I am saying we could vary our play more if we have an out and out striker. The tight games would be more winnable if we had alternatives.

It's 6 months since we won after being behind- Villa away

Check the hone record it is 10 years

[branny]

It'd be nice if someone varied it from time to time when we get to the edge of the box. Instead of passing to a team mate who is two yards closer to goal for the sake of keeping the ball, or trying to run through four opposing players, just get a shot off.

[patrickblue]

Not only a striker but a willingness to counter at pace sometimes. When teams park the bus a quicker counter is needed. When they dare foray into our half is the only time there is space in behind. I get frustrated when teams like that are given time to set up shop while we take a vote on if we feel like attacking.

Exactly how I see it. No-one else seems to though.

[Outcast]

Balls! Grinding out results, play shit and win, can't play pretty football all the time.

[Sparklehorse]

A KDB that is in any king of shape to influence a match.
Other than the superb performance against Brugge, there is nothing in the locker, we cannot string two of those games together. I guarantee Wednesdays game will be different

[PeterParker]

Not only a striker but a willingness to counter at pace sometimes. When teams park the bus a quicker counter is needed. When they dare foray into our half is the only time there is space in behind. I get frustrated when teams like that are given time to set up shop while we take a vote on if we feel like attacking.

Exactly how I see it. No-one else seems to though.

I think we talked about this a while, but do you remember the interview after Vinnie's goal with Leicester? All the players were saying: "No, Vinnie, don't shoot".
Speaks volumes, imho on how our tactics are and what Pep wants from them.
We really are a team that 90% of the time needs to walk the ball in.

[Nick]

Someone to drive forward, direct

I want jack in the middle as hrs not cutting it left wing

[Mase]

Someone to drive forward, direct

I want jack in the middle as hrs not cutting it left wing

Like I’ve mentioned, buying him and asking him to change the way he plays is ridiculous. We need someone to drive, like he did with Villa.