Iron fist in a velvet glove?

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Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Dimples » Wed Oct 24, 2018 5:00 pm

Our defence: Iron fist in a velvet glove

Ederson, Walker, Laporte, Stones, Mendy - animals with speed, ball skills and footballing nous (+ Kompany, Otter, Danilo and Fern)

Nobody is going to push us around and that is impressive.
We are a physical match for any team.

Pep creates poetry but it is poetry with a real hard edge.
I think our toughness, that hard edge, tends to be overlooked or unrecognized.

Anybody got an opinion on this?
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby sheblue » Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:23 pm

Stones certainly has more of an edge to him this season.
Laporte is going to be a beast at the back for us.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby zuricity » Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:25 pm

sheblue wrote:Stones certainly has more of an edge to him this season.
Laporte is going to be a beast at the back for us.



it's his tight trousers
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby sheblue » Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:01 pm

zuricity wrote:
sheblue wrote:Stones certainly has more of an edge to him this season.
Laporte is going to be a beast at the back for us.



it's his tight trousers


Trousers? He can wear a fooking dress for all I care.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby nottsblue » Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:33 pm

Defensively, we are looking very solid. In the PL we are giving up about six shots on goal per game, a league low by some two shots. Any successful or pleasing on the eye side over the years has had steel in their ranks. We are no different. And the great thing is three of our first choice back four have a good 7 years ahead of them.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Piccsnumberoneblue » Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:20 pm

There was a quote from Pep in that documentary O was amazed wasn't picked up by the press and made a big deal of. He said something along the lines of, if we lose the ball and can't win it back quickly,make a foul and stop the counter attack. We clearly do this.
I expected some outrage after it was aired, but nothing.
City and sniffing knickers.
Come on Blues.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby london blue 2 » Wed Oct 24, 2018 9:19 pm

Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:There was a quote from Pep in that documentary O was amazed wasn't picked up by the press and made a big deal of. He said something along the lines of, if we lose the ball and can't win it back quickly,make a foul and stop the counter attack. We clearly do this.
I expected some outrage after it was aired, but nothing.

Yeah I heard that too. Was thinking we'd get stick aswell.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Nigels Tackle » Wed Oct 24, 2018 9:23 pm

Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:There was a quote from Pep in that documentary O was amazed wasn't picked up by the press and made a big deal of. He said something along the lines of, if we lose the ball and can't win it back quickly,make a foul and stop the counter attack. We clearly do this.
I expected some outrage after it was aired, but nothing.


maybe it’s because it’s what every team does?
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Piccsnumberoneblue » Wed Oct 24, 2018 9:34 pm

Nigels Tackle wrote:
Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:There was a quote from Pep in that documentary O was amazed wasn't picked up by the press and made a big deal of. He said something along the lines of, if we lose the ball and can't win it back quickly,make a foul and stop the counter attack. We clearly do this.
I expected some outrage after it was aired, but nothing.


maybe it’s because it’s what every team does?


That doesn't usually matter
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Outcast » Thu Oct 25, 2018 8:54 am

Laporte is turning into something special, he'll get even better the more he adapts to the language and the culture
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Nigels Tackle » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:17 am

Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:
Nigels Tackle wrote:
Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:There was a quote from Pep in that documentary O was amazed wasn't picked up by the press and made a big deal of. He said something along the lines of, if we lose the ball and can't win it back quickly,make a foul and stop the counter attack. We clearly do this.
I expected some outrage after it was aired, but nothing.


maybe it’s because it’s what every team does?


That doesn't usually matter


it’s what ratboy bangs on about in commentary on most games - the ‘old’ tactical foul... it’s just part of the game these days.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Hazy2 » Thu Oct 25, 2018 12:14 pm

Piccsnumberoneblue wrote:There was a quote from Pep in that documentary O was amazed wasn't picked up by the press and made a big deal of. He said something along the lines of, if we lose the ball and can't win it back quickly,make a foul and stop the counter attack. We clearly do this.
I expected some outrage after it was aired, but nothing.


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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Sideshow Bob » Thu Oct 25, 2018 12:38 pm

Outcast wrote:Laporte is turning into something special, he'll get even better the more he adapts to the language and the culture


i had my doubts after he signed but he is the real deal. cant understand why he's been frozen out of the french NT?
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Saul Goodman » Mon Oct 29, 2018 1:24 pm

Pep Guardiola is often praised for producing entertaining football but the Manchester City boss is arguably the best defensive coach in the world too, writes Adam Bate.

It is almost two years ago now that Pep Guardiola risked ridicule with his remarks following Manchester City's 4-2 defeat to Leicester City. "I am not a coach for the tackles so I don't train the tackles. What I want is to try and play good and score goals. What's tackles?"

It was the sort of comment that serves as a red rag to fans of rivals in red shirts. But even to the wider public it helped to fuel the image of Guardiola as a naïve figure who not only underestimated English football but fundamentally misunderstood its nature.

That opinion was not restricted to these shores. The great Argentine defender Roberto Ayala once accused Guardiola of damaging football by taking the emphasis away from defence. There were those at Bayern Munich agitated by his commitment to a certain style of play.

Andre Villas-Boas, a man not exactly renowned as a savvy pragmatist himself, said upon his arrival in England that the Barcelona approach would not work in England because of the higher risk of losing the ball. As Yaya Toure put it: "His way is to attack, not to defend."

But there is a risk here of missing the point. Not coaching tackling does not mean not coaching defending. Focusing on how to construct attacks doesn't mean ignoring how to defend the opposition's attacks. It is all part of the whole. Guardiola's way of attacking is a way of defending.

Firstly, let us acknowledge the blindingly obvious. Guardiola's way works. In each of his first seven seasons in top-flight management - four of them with Barcelona followed by three more with Bayern - his teams had the best defensive record in their league.

His Manchester City side repeated the trick last season. The result? Guardiola has had the team with the best defensive record in the league more times than he has won the league. Think about this. He has had the best defence more times than he has had the best attack.

It might be counter-intuitive, but on these numbers alone, it would not be outrageous to regard Guardiola - the man who doesn't coach tackles - as a defensively-minded coach.

Even in his initial presentation upon being named as Barcelona coach back in the summer of 2008, he spoke of the desire to build a "solid and balanced" team. Privately, in his first meeting with the players he talked of "order and discipline" as being his priorities.

It took some time for that control to become apparent at City but it is obvious now. Guardiola's team have gone eight-and-a-half hours without conceding a goal. It's not luck. The underlying numbers reveal how the opposition have been starved of opportunities.

City have conceded the fewest goals, the fewest shots and the fewest shots on target. Delve deeper into Opta's expected-goals model that tracks the overall quality of chances and it becomes clear that City are by far the best defensive team in the Premier League.

That model suggests that the chances City have given up are likely to have resulted in fewer than four goals - as indeed they have. For every other team that number is at least six. For the ninth season in 10, expect Guardiola to finish up as the coach of the team with the league's best defensive record.

"I like to have a clean sheet but I know that a clean sheet is not just as a consequence of the back four," Guardiola once said. Nothing unusual about that. All coaches talk of the need to defend as a team. What causes the confusion is the way that City attack as a team too.

The quality of their build-up play encourages opponents to retreat into a deep defensive block or risk being passed around and picked off. Opta's advanced metrics highlight just how successfully City are able to get the ball up the pitch in each sequence of play.

On average, they progress the ball further with each sequence of ten passes or more - 18.2 metres to be precise. Moreover, City have an average of 74 such passages of play that either reach the opposition box or end in a shot - twice as many as any other team.

The consequence of this ability to dominate games is that they make it so much harder for the opposition when they have the ball. City's opponents are not only more tired when they win it back because they have so little possession but they are also deeper when they get it.

In contrast, City are already up the field when they win it. Opta's advanced metrics also reveal that their sequences start higher up the pitch than any other team. For Guardiola, playing this high-pressing possession game becomes a virtuous cycle.

"We play in the other team's half as much as possible because I get worried when the ball is in my half," he once said. That too is reflected in their approach. After some difficulty in dealing with the counter-attack in his first season at City, that issue has been addressed.

In part, it is due to the acquisition of younger and quicker defensive players. It is also due to how well drilled City are in preventing the counter-attack. Do not be fooled by the fact that they have committed the fewest fouls in the Premier League. It is misleading.

When it comes to the number of fouls per successful opposition pass, a different picture emerges. Only four teams allow more passes before committing a foul. Only two teams allow more passes before making a defensive action. City stop teams breaking on them.

It is not a new idea. It is one that Guardiola has been honing over more than a decade. This year could even be his best yet. After five consecutive clean sheets, the prospect of challenging the Premier League record of 15 conceded in a season cannot be ruled out.

That record, of course, belongs to Jose Mourinho and his first Chelsea team. Their reputation for defensive excellence was well earned. But maybe a truer picture of Guardiola's coaching ethos is also beginning to emerge. Pep Guardiola.is a defensive genius.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11679/11538824/pep-guardiola8217s-manchester-city-are-the-best-defensive-team-too
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby bigblue » Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:00 pm

Sideshow Bob wrote:
Outcast wrote:Laporte is turning into something special, he'll get even better the more he adapts to the language and the culture


i had my doubts after he signed but he is the real deal. cant understand why he's been frozen out of the french NT?


Laporte and Ederson are the only 2 players to start every league game. It looks like if he's fit, he starts.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Mase » Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:04 pm

I'd love to see Otter more.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby nottsblue » Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:25 pm

10 games, 3 goals conceded. Only one side in top flight history has a better defensive record after 10 games. Chelsea had conceded just 2 in their first 10 games in 2005/6
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Piccsnumberoneblue » Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:27 pm

Not happy with Ratboy pointing out how we'll foul so much on counter attacks.
ssshhhh!
Last edited by Piccsnumberoneblue on Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby Beefymcfc » Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:28 pm

Smash!
In the words of my Old Man, "Life will never be the same without Man City, so get it in while you can".

The Future's Bright, The Future's Blue!!!
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Re: Iron fist in a velvet glove?

Postby nottsblue » Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:43 pm

nottsblue wrote:10 games, 3 goals conceded. Only one side in top flight history has a better defensive record after 10 games. Chelsea had conceded just 2 in their first 10 games in 2004/5
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