If he’s watched any of the past games footage that’ll be why he dropped Koch. Goes missing, weak in the tackle, poor communication and thinks he better than he is, there’s a reason Llorente used to be first choice. We need much better.
On that note I thought Kristensen did well and got stuck in which is what we need at the moment. It’s something Koch hasn’t been doing.
City had less shots in this match than in any of the 5 we’ve played against them since promotion… Whether they’ve put 7 past us or we’ve fluked a win. To me it looked like we parked the bus, offered no threat all game but at least restricted chances in the second half - though it seemed in the second half city were generally fairly content to go through the motions and knock it about in front of us The plus was (With the exception of a season long failure to defend balls on the edge of the box) we battled hard and were well organised defensively - though much of that was just weight of numbers. Partly because we were so defensive minded we were terrible on the ball.. created nothing and struggled to get a foothold in the game. Not a criticism of the set up for this game… just what I saw. What I was disappointed in was the last 10 mins after we scored. We had a sudden, slim chance to get something from the game, that was the time to change tactics and really press them to force an error. We didn’t. Don’t think I learnt anything from this game.. Sam’s corn will be earnt in the upcoming games where we have ambitions beyond just keeping the score down.
I think Sam has maybe picked the ones who have an appetite for the fight. I’ve said regularly all season that I’d replace our entire back 5 inc the keeper. We only added wober. Individually and collectively they’re not up to it. Sam went for volume of numbers to get bodies in the way yesterday. If we have intent to be more progressive in our final games then the frailties will return.
Wasn’t the worst watch, though we never troubled them. As many posters have said, we had a shape, the effort was there, and using substitutes helped the cause - something that’s been missing recently. The goal Rodrigo got was important from a confidence point of view but also for the goal difference. Everton play City next weekend and it would please me no end if they got an absolute tonking. I’ve thought all season we’d get something from the last 3 games. Sam’s got a week to drill them, so we should see further improvement in performance. It’s the hope that kills. MOT
You’re right, that’s the idea but easier said than done. I’ve seen Mahrez on numerous occasions cut in and score in the far corner and against better teams than us. Main problem was that most of the time he got the ball wide (same with Foden), they had so much space to set themselves before running at our fullbacks.
