Original Dub wrote:getdressedmctavish wrote:I know what Ted's talking about with regard to the first 20 mins, I was going apeshit at our giving it away, but then it settled down, we got our shit together and started to create chances. Our plan using Kolarov worked perfectly, Alves couldn't get forward because of the risk Kolarov would go past him. Our downfall was when Jesus let us down.Kompany I thinkfound him with a quick ball and for a second he was one on one with their lb with 40 yards of green beckoning. Komps and Demi set off for the half way line, but Jesus dithered, was fouled and the rest is history. Had he gone past the fullback we may well have scored, the whole team was doing well at that point. But the ref bottled it, somehow Messi wasn't offside(who played him on, Cliché?) and once we were down to ten Alves started to get down the right and we conceded. No, they weren't that great, Messi particularly, and yes we can give em a good game and will.But the idea we didn't play well or that the planning was poor is wrong imo. We were unlucky and they are a team who could take advantage of that.But we could have the luck in spain.
Excellent post
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Great post. This is about what I feel as well after having calmed down.
It's hard to know what was instructions and what was down to nerves but for all the "Pellegrini is a gambler"-posts going around, it seems he wanted them to start careful and then grow into the game. Which we did. As I wrote in the match thread, the former Swedish national team manager was there commenting on the game on Swedish TV. I don't like him and I think the time he spent managing the Swedish national side between 2006 and 2010 was a waste of time, but one thing he knows is defensive positioning and defensive play. He said we were pretty much spotless in our defense up until the red card and penalty and for all the passing of Barcelona, he found our gameplay much more exciting to watch with the quick counter attacks. He also said that Valdez's save on one of our corners was amazing and life-saving as Kompany was sure to head it in. Small margins as they say.
Kompany played Messi onside sadly. He made a half-arsed decisions that stranded him in the middle of a large green patch with no players around him, trying to block the pass that he knew would come to Messi although there was clearly too much angle to cover. Playing football at this level is like driving, there's no place for half measures. Kompany is a very resolute player so I'm not complaining generally, this time he made a mistake though. Perhaps not a mistake with the same magnitude as Demi's red card challenge but not far off. It happens I guess, but there are signs, perhaps not too worrying though, that also he is finding himself a bit hot-headed and rash at times in Pellegrini's tactics. If Mancini's tactics made players avoid mistakes, play carefully and probing until they found Tevez (over-simplified to make a point, but not far off during 2010-11 for example), Pellegrini's got our entire team huffing and puffing and steaming with energy at almost all times. A consequence seems to be these individual errors. Glaring at times. Even Kompany's prone to make them.
Why players like Demi or Milner (against WBA last season) will think that last minute tackles are a good option in those types of situations I will never know. Perhaps it's that winner "always must win" mentality that very few of us normal people have that makes them rash and uncompromising as push comes to shove. I don't know. Anyone else have a guess? Antti?
