Never mind the first 45 mins tonight, it was obvious there was gonna be an onslaught, and the way we set up the team showed that. We should have turned up in the first leg when we had our top players, and therefore made it a much much harder test for Chelsea tonight.
We already had a round of "Lucas would've buried that" about Llorente wasting that chip from Eriksen, although to be frank we could easily run off a list of players not on the pitch at the time who would have buried it and it all gets us to the same point: having a wrecking ball like Janssen or Llorente on the bench isn't what we need, what we actually need is a poacher who has that extra half yard of pace to get onto passes like that and create enough space to create a chance If that means giving Sterling some minutes off the bench, then that means Sterling gets some minutes off the bench.
Kane is brilliant for us because he has everything. When Kane's out Son does best upfront because he picks his runs well, keeps up with play and can finish. Llorente joins, Janssen and Soldado on the "yeah he can hold it up but he's never where you need him" list. If we had Son, he'd obviously start up top, if we had Alli, I'd stick him up there instead but we have a choice between Moura, Llorente and an academy player. I don't know enough about the latter to make a judgement but I'd hope we pick the one that fits our style in the future.
CK's cave is for small-timers, bro. It's all about the high life now and HIAG provides that for us lads. Word of warning though, boys. Avoid the Prem board, they're ripping their cocks off via furious masturbation at the moment.
Not entitled but it would be nice to win something now and then. Hope you’re right but I think this summer will be a huge one and possibly could be when we lose Eriksen, Kane and Poch.
You know, I thought about going and having a read of the match day thread over there. Then I decided I want to keep my sanity.
I think the frustration comes from being so close last season (and doing well in 2 or 3 before that), continuously improving year on year, but not addressing the obvious squad issues in order to make that extra step last summer. Many fans predicted this situation (because injuries tend to be a big factor for every team each season), and their predictions have come to fruition.
Or just change our style, like we did at the start of the second half. We adjusted the formation to a back three to create width with the fullbacks and then removed the reason why that was effective. Llorente doesn't suit the way that we normally play, but we don't have any other strikers, so we need to do something different. With the injuries that we've got at the moment we need to do that anyway.
That view fits in with your usual negativity King FFS I hope you don't have loose razor blades around on Monday mornings. We lost Bale and Modric and Berbatov and we have a better team now, see what I did there? It's called being positive it manufactures happiness. I prefer it, try it King.
Well...I enjoyed the thread but not the result...not gonna get drawn into the teeth gnashing as we are all disappointed. For all the transfer talk, tactics talk etc the very simple fact remains that we have been decimated with injuries and Son going to 2 tournaments all season. Dele had missed 9 or 10 games pre Xmas due to injuries yet picked up another. Eriksen missed games pre Xmas as did Winks, Toby and Jan. Rose, Davies, Sissoko, Dembele, Moura and Lloris have all missed games through injury as has Lamela. Dier has missed 7 weeks due to appendicitis. That's 13 players...that is unlucky in my view...and no amount of slating who ever will change that fact. Anyhow...thanks all for the company tonight and if any wums turn up wind mill away like @Spurf after his 3rd Bacardi Breezer
It couldn't have been a lot worse with the injuries we have had in a season where we were always going to have extra problems with no home ground and the World Cup taking it's toll as well. You cannot legislate for such bad luck and despite all of that we are 3rd. That is a fantastic achievement.
We agree on this and that Pochettino's at fault tactically but I guess that's as close as we're going to get I wanted a Llorente type, because I thought he'd offer us something different(whilst being PL proven unlike Vinny and Bobby) but it's become apparent in every game since that it's simply too much to switch us from fast technical players to Bolton 2.0.
We started without our four top goalscorers. Take Salah, Mane, Firmino and Shaqiri out of the Liverpool team or Aguero, Jesus, Sterling and Sane out of City's. It's a problem that's not going away, though.
The one positive from tonight that we can take, is that Danny Rose is ****ing back. Like, 15/16 season back. Just pray he stays injury-free now though, because Ben's likely to be out for a while
Llorente's proved a useful option with Kane late on in games when the other team are camped in their own box. If we do move him on, which looks increasinly likely, then I feel that's something that we need to replace. We also need to be able to play without Kane, though. Our squad isn't balanced well enough to do that at the moment.
We have done ok without Kane before PNP, but we had Son and Dele then. Losing them all at the same time is too much to cope with easily.
A distinct lack pf passing tonight, except when mucking about and passing around the defence and goalkeeper. Today was about damage limitation and trying to win on aggregate and they did that poorly. The MF was poor but Sissoko was great but why was he rushed back so quickly? Spurs have been losing too may games this season. What a contrast to the first 10-12 games at the start of the season.
That same ceiling again...we are 3rd/4th best at everything...the team/squad needs upgrading to reach the promised land Oh well at least City got to the final
