17 hours ago, just said:

Look Ampie, I'm not arguing about the failing to break teams down bit. That's why I said you had fair point in your initial post. I am arguing, no I am absolutely livid, at a manager who thinks playing a high, flat, defensive line on the half-way line is a good way to defend in the EPL. It's sh*t tactics that are asking for trouble. Because of that I repeat, the goal was no fluke. 

Man City play with the same high defensive line and they won the league last season with a record points tally. 

To say that defending with a high line doesn't work in the premier league is just wrong. 

Tough game for us yesterday, Wolves were so deep, we couldn't really hit them with that David Luiz ball, they played 5 across the back, making it very hard to in down the wings, they had 3 centre backs to cope easily with crosses, and there midfield 3 were very deep and not allowing space in front of the defence, and clogging up the middle of the park. I wouldn't even say they played on the counter, since even when they win the ball back, the didnt flood forward in numbers. 

Conceding a goal against a team with that little attacking intention was awful. 

I'm not sure what more we could've done to try and win the game. Maybe sarri should've started with a more attacking team, however I dont think he expected wolves to play as defensively as they did. I watched the spurs game and wolves played alot further up the pitch. 

I'm sure it won't be the last time we come up against a packed defence, hopefully we start to figure out how to get that vital opening, it's been an issue for 2 seasons now, I remember similar games last year at home to Bournemouth and Huddersfield. 

It would certainly help if we could put a half decent corner into the box, and I think we need to take more shots from distance, all it takes is a deflection or rebound falling kindly. We seem to want to walk the ball in, sometimes you need a scrappy goal, and we have missed that since Diego Costa left. 

50 minutes ago, big blue said:

Tough game for us yesterday, Wolves were so deep, we couldn't really hit them with that David Luiz ball, they played 5 across the back, making it very hard to in down the wings, they had 3 centre backs to cope easily with crosses, and there midfield 3 were very deep and not allowing space in front of the defence, and clogging up the middle of the park. I wouldn't even say they played on the counter, since even when they win the ball back, the didnt flood forward in numbers. 

Conceding a goal against a team with that little attacking intention was awful. 

I'm not sure what more we could've done to try and win the game. Maybe sarri should've started with a more attacking team, however I dont think he expected wolves to play as defensively as they did. I watched the spurs game and wolves played alot further up the pitch. 

I'm sure it won't be the last time we come up against a packed defence, hopefully we start to figure out how to get that vital opening, it's been an issue for 2 seasons now, I remember similar games last year at home to Bournemouth and Huddersfield. 

It would certainly help if we could put a half decent corner into the box, and I think we need to take more shots from distance, all it takes is a deflection or rebound falling kindly. We seem to want to walk the ball in, sometimes you need a scrappy goal, and we have missed that since Diego Costa left. 

Agree with most, I've noticed recently we do take a fair number of shots yet most get charged down. It seems to me to have a chance of a shot you need first to create that little bit of space to get an opening.

Hazard for his chance did that, he moved as to shoot then moved the ball again and shot.

 

Been travelling non stop since I left The Bridge which is why my review is late.

Missed Hazards goal as I had to leave early to get to Heathrow on time for a flight. I would never leave a game that was still in the balance early out of choice and I was shocked by the numbers that did. I was disappointed to miss Eden's goal but I had no alternative, some people were on the tube kicking themselves and rightly so.

Now onto the game, I thought we were brilliant for the first twenty five minutes, fast buildup and combinations while winning the ball back up high on what felt like a record number of occasions but then we slowed down, back to the pedestrian sterile possession of the winter period which led to growing frustration in the crowd.

I think in the 90 minutes we deserved to win, we penned back and contained a very dangerous counter attacking side and limited them to one opportunity all game which they unfortunately took.

Sarri also said he will start looking at formation changes when his side are in tune with the basics of his football, which is a good sign that he is now changing formation as it suggest there's been progress in that regard.

RLC was decent when he came on, I have said in the past I think he is a super sub type player (ala a midfield version of a Javier Hernandez), I feel his burst of pace against tired defenses causes problems and when he starts he often drifts out of the game easily and when he doesn't initially he does after an hour. CHO was awful unless I missed something in the last seven minutes and it was a reality check for anyone who thinks he should be an immediate starter, but it's all part of the learning curve so hopefully he gets more chances in similar situations.

Jorginho wasn't anywhere near as bad as people are making out but Kovacic probably had his worst game for us.

All in all I think the draw despite lots of territorial dominance was quite applicable to where we are right now, and thanks to United losing I still think we are in a good position for top four as they won't repeat their recent run and Arsenal (and Emery) are weak as sh*t away from home.

Agree with you on RLC though I would compare him to Aaron Ramsey of Arsenal.

Re CHO I started watching around 66 min mark and was unimpressed with him for a while, he didn't seem to be able to beat his man or make a pass. Later though he did put in two decent crosses. 

 

That was a frustrating match to watch yesterday. It was good to see Sarri bring on RLC and CHO as early as he did, however he has got to realize that RLC is a better option at LCM than Barkley or Kovacic, Kovacic should be cover for Jorginho not taking minutes away from RLC. It was also good to see CHO come on around 60 minutes. I enjoy the directness that the boy plays with. He runs at defenders all the time and it is a nice change of pace from the constant slowing up the play that we see from Willian and Pedro.

2 hours ago, big blue said:

Tough game for us yesterday, Wolves were so deep, we couldn't really hit them with that David Luiz ball, they played 5 across the back, making it very hard to in down the wings, they had 3 centre backs to cope easily with crosses, and there midfield 3 were very deep and not allowing space in front of the defence, and clogging up the middle of the park. I wouldn't even say they played on the counter, since even when they win the ball back, the didnt flood forward in numbers. 

Conceding a goal against a team with that little attacking intention was awful. 

I'm not sure what more we could've done to try and win the game. Maybe sarri should've started with a more attacking team, however I dont think he expected wolves to play as defensively as they did. I watched the spurs game and wolves played alot further up the pitch. 

I'm sure it won't be the last time we come up against a packed defence, hopefully we start to figure out how to get that vital opening, it's been an issue for 2 seasons now, I remember similar games last year at home to Bournemouth and Huddersfield. 

It would certainly help if we could put a half decent corner into the box, and I think we need to take more shots from distance, all it takes is a deflection or rebound falling kindly. We seem to want to walk the ball in, sometimes you need a scrappy goal, and we have missed that since Diego Costa left. 

I agree with you and we weren’t as bad as some picture us. Wolves defended well and it’s a struggle to beat these teams. As the bit in bold, I don’t know, but shooting from outside the box and getting the three up front in the box could help. If you watch other top 6 teams, they constantly get three men inside the box when attacking, and shoot often from outside. We don’t do that very often. How many crosses see just Higuaín in the box, where are Hazard, William, Pedro? Outside the box waiting. We rarely shoot from outside, and Xhakas goal yesterday shows that sometimes an easy shot can go inside the goal. Or the rebound, if we have three players inside the box, can fall to one. So we need to attack more all guns blazing, like at the end during the Wolves game.

On 11/03/2019 at 16:04, RMH said:

I agree with you and we weren’t as bad as some picture us. Wolves defended well and it’s a struggle to beat these teams. As the bit in bold, I don’t know, but shooting from outside the box and getting the three up front in the box could help. If you watch other top 6 teams, they constantly get three men inside the box when attacking, and shoot often from outside. We don’t do that very often. How many crosses see just Higuaín in the box, where are Hazard, William, Pedro? Outside the box waiting. We rarely shoot from outside, and Xhakas goal yesterday shows that sometimes an easy shot can go inside the goal. Or the rebound, if we have three players inside the box, can fall to one. So we need to attack more all guns blazing, like at the end during the Wolves game.

I feel like Sarri is wary of committing too many players forward as he knows we're vulnerable to the counter. Agree we do need more people in the box and shooting has been woeful since Lampard so no idea when that'll improve. 

Interestingly after Pep's first season he said he specifically started working on defending against counter attacks as he thought City were vulnerable there. It just needs work and i'm sure that'l come with time.

1 hour ago, rtwelch said:

I feel like Sarri is wary of committing too many players forward as he knows we're vulnerable to the counter. Agree we do need more people in the box and shooting has been woeful since Lampard so no idea when that'll improve. 

Interestingly after Pep's first season he said he specifically started working on defending against counter attacks as he thought City were vulnerable there. It just needs work and i'm sure that'l come with time.

Often Kante is the spare on the edge of the box and gets ignored, I guess because they realise unless he is running on to the ball his shots are not effective. Barkley does tend to shoot, half get charged down and about I per match gets through on target yet the keeper normally easily parries. It would be good if we could get a running midfielder to assist Higuaín like Delli Alli does for Spurs...............

On ?11?/?03?/?2019 at 14:34, Argo said:

Kovacic probably had his worst game for us.

could hardly spot the difference between the wolves game and many of his other performances. He's been a complete let-down and to make matters worse, he's getting game time that'd be better off being given to ruben and barkley...not saying they're finished article either but at least we own them and they can benefit from playing more regularly   

On 10/03/2019 at 12:20, Jackson27 said:

Watch The Goal Again, Kepa Couldn't Do Anything With The Deflection 

I did, as i watched hundreds of goals suchs as this one, and i stand by mi opinion, either go all the way o don't go at all, never hesitate in this kind of situations, it creates a lot more options for the attacker to score.