So what does Pep need to do?

[Tony P]

Drop Bravo?
Play a back four?
Spend 100 million in January?


Ideas?

[nottsblue]

Adapt to each game as it comes. Each side is different and has different threats and weaknesses. One size fits all will not work. He is a manager who has consistently shown he is not afraid to change things. He needs to channel this into changing things for the benefit of the match, not the benefit of the team. Three at the back may work in some games, as two up front may. Or two wingers. Or a false nine. Or inverted full backs. Whatever, it doesn't really matter what the changes are per se, rather than that the coaching for each game is relevant for the opposition.

And a spot of target practice wouldn't go amiss. Not tucking away our chances is hurting us big time

[london blue 2]

Get his team to score goals. We'd be comfortably at the top of the league if we could do this.

[roblues]

He needs to address the mentality issues within the squad. As poor as Otamendi (and Bravo, to a lesser extent) looked on the first goal, Pep predicted that Chelsea would convert any chances they were given in his press conference yesterday. The team should have anticipated the likelihood of conceding and stuck to their game plan rather than losing their heads, letting the game slip away, and then losing their discipline.

Once the equalizer went in, the game was suddenly end to end. We got stretched out and were too far apart from each other. The first move after the kickoff was an aimless run up the left that led us nowhere, and when the ball came back to the half way line Stones played a ball to KDB which he miscontrolled and then threw his arms up as if to blame Stones. They need to stick together in moments like this.

One minute later, Sane decided to try to dribble through the middle and lost possession which almost gave Chelsea another chance. Then KDB tried the same, but deeper, and with the same result. Next possession Bravo went long to Aguero who was then pressing alone, 40 yards away from any other City player. After that Sane tried the same thing again and lost the ball again. Their heads went and so did the plan.

The mistakes that followed for goals 2 and 3 were inevitable, even though we still got a couple more half chances after the equalizer - the actual game plan went out of the window. Pep needs to convince them to stick to the system that was clearly working for them.

[PeterParker]

Except Stones, all our defence including keepers are over 28 which is horrible at this point. We kept many of them too much instead of trying to change many of them. Now we have to do this all at once and we might get ahead of ourselves and buy some flops.

Now, he needs to stop this 3 on the back shit. It does not work,simple. Pellegrini would had been crucified (and was for far less decisions) for his decisions. Things will come, but I don't understand why he is trying this stuff with players that are not capable of doing what he actually wants.

Has a huge job on his hand. Let's see.

PS: I think we saw today the diffence from a team that is playing in Europe and one that is absent
PPS: Our schedule was excelent in the league and we manage to lose points were we shouldn't have. I hope in march-april-may this will not affect us that period when we will have derby after derby.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Except Stones, all our defence including keepers are over 28 which is horrible at this point. We kept many of them too much instead of trying to change many of them. Now we have to do this all at once and we might get ahead of ourselves and buy some flops.

Now, he needs to stop this 3 on the back shit. It does not work,simple. Pellegrini would had been crucified (and was for far less decisions) for his decisions. Things will come, but I don't understand why he is trying this stuff with players that are not capable of doing what he actually wants.

Has a huge job on his hand. Let's see.

PS: I think we saw today the diffence from a team that is playing in Europe and one that is absent
PPS: Our schedule was excelent in the league and we manage to lose points were we shouldn't have. I hope in march-april-may this will not affect us that period when we will have derby after derby.

I don't like the 3 at the back stuff but is that reason we lost today or was it simply because our best players missed a whole bunch of great chances and then we committed hari kari with our defending

[PeterParker]

Except Stones, all our defence including keepers are over 28 which is horrible at this point. We kept many of them too much instead of trying to change many of them. Now we have to do this all at once and we might get ahead of ourselves and buy some flops.

Now, he needs to stop this 3 on the back shit. It does not work,simple. Pellegrini would had been crucified (and was for far less decisions) for his decisions. Things will come, but I don't understand why he is trying this stuff with players that are not capable of doing what he actually wants.

Has a huge job on his hand. Let's see.

PS: I think we saw today the diffence from a team that is playing in Europe and one that is absent
PPS: Our schedule was excelent in the league and we manage to lose points were we shouldn't have. I hope in march-april-may this will not affect us that period when we will have derby after derby.

I don't like the 3 at the back stuff but is that reason we lost today or was it simply because our best players missed a whole bunch of great chances and then we committed hari kari with our defending

We keep on missing a lot, don't we?

Not normal for a team of our calibre. I think the 3 system will fail with any players there. This does not work in England. Simple example, trips at small teams, they usually need spaces on the lines to put good crosses in. We need RB and LB to stop that and help us up front. I understand what he is trying to do, but this is not Barcelona and Bayern. He does not understand England yet and his statements about refs is proving that. Here you will get a shitload of decisions against you and teams will play their heart out.

We played our best football under Pep with 4-2-3-1.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Get his players to stop missing absolute sitters.

[FA cup winners 2006]

Our wide front players need to be a goal threat.

Silva and DeBruyne did not provide that today. When they play in the midfield 3, then navas, nolito and sterling do not provide a goal threat and sane has not been given enough time.

With Sergio and Fern out, everyone needs to step up. I expect Yaya to be central and other players to feed off him.

There seemed to be a need the last few weeks trying to set everything around sergio, no need for that now. Everyone needs to be greedy and ruthless. We need to hammer a team 5-6 nil and maybe the confidence will flow

[South Stand Balti]

Bravo
Stones Mangala otter
Fernando Delph Gundo Sane
Navas Bony Sinclair

That's a pretty expensive team but not much quality there. Early days for one or two but this is where our problems lie. Not much quality or strength in depth. I don't know who bought Mancini's players but please bring them back! The planning has been piss poor too. All our full backs have given great service but their best days are gone. Only one established striker at the club. Lowest points total in 7 years last season. I also think we hav been tactically hopeless at times this season.

[Hazy2]

Accept quickly he is trying to win an F1 with a ford transit, the players are not capable of playing his way, it really is that simple, defensive errors are a weekly occurrence. Teams sit back and the rest is there for us to see. We are also inefficient. 10 chances and all we have is an own goal.

[carl_feedthegoat]

get a new goalie as this cunt is fucking useless.

He really is.

[roblues]

Accept quickly he is trying to win an F1 with a ford transit, the players are not capable of playing his way, it really is that simple, defensive errors are a weekly occurrence. Teams sit back and the rest is there for us to see. We are also inefficient. 10 chances and all we have is an own goal.

Did all the clear chances we had create themselves? Did we miss them because of the tactics? Clearly something was working.

The game got away from us when the players stopped caring about shape and possession, as far as I could see

[london blue 2]

Accept quickly he is trying to win an F1 with a ford transit, the players are not capable of playing his way, it really is that simple, defensive errors are a weekly occurrence. Teams sit back and the rest is there for us to see. We are also inefficient. 10 chances and all we have is an own goal.

Thing is, if we took some of the 100s of clear chances we keep missing we wouldn't have to be concerned about the defence. The more that we miss them the more pressure we heap on the back.

West ham
Scum
Boro
Everton
WBA
Chelsea
Burnley
Soton
Sunderland

We should have smashed all of these and we've looked shaky cos we keep missing chances.

[roblues]

get a new goalie as this cunt is fucking useless.

He really is.

I'm much more on board with this gut reaction than one suggesting our tactics are the problem. And I defend our players until the bitter end usually

[South Stand Balti]

Accept quickly he is trying to win an F1 with a ford transit, the players are not capable of playing his way, it really is that simple, defensive errors are a weekly occurrence. Teams sit back and the rest is there for us to see. We are also inefficient. 10 chances and all we have is an own goal.

Thing is, if we took some of the 100s of clear chances we keep missing we wouldn't have to be concerned about the defence. The more that we miss them the more pressure we heap on the back.

West ham
Scum
Boro
Everton
WBA
Chelsea
Burnley
Soton
Sunderland

We should have smashed all of these and we've looked shaky cos we keep missing chances.

We regularly miss chances.....but maybe we lack the quality to put them away. We no longer have Tevez, Dzeko or Balo etc to take these opportunities.

[Tru_Blu]

First of all Pep is on the right track we are flying people. I think we are capable of ripping any team apart, we just didn't score any goals today. Can anybody say G. Jesus. As far as what does Pep need to do?

defense drills with the lot we have until he can buy/sell in the summer
shooting drills

Who's panicking? I'm not panicking! Are you panicking?

[South Stand Balti]

First of all Pep is on the right track we are flying people. I think we are capable of ripping any team apart, we just didn't score any goals today. Can anybody say G. Jesus. As far as what does Pep need to do?

defense drills with the lot we have until he can buy/sell in the summer
shooting drills

Who's panicking? I'm not panicking! Are you panicking?

Yes

[Tokyo Blue]

Get his players to stop missing absolute sitters.

This and a settled back four.

Maybe get Mancini in as defensive coach.

And call out mike riley about the refs.

[sheblue]

Build a team.