After 58 mins the game was crying out for a sub or 2 and the Barrow chants were in full swing. Guido waited 10 minutes until we were 2-1 down before making the changes. Monk with his poor late subs at home to Newcastle 2 season ago didn't wind me up this much. It was obvious that Routledge needed to come off. We could have won that with a bit more endeavour from the manager.
Not so much the players fault Stereo because they are being forced to play in a lop-sided system where our attacks are easily read and defended against. I'll explain how I see it. Guidolins insistence on Fer as his main man in midfield means that we have a lop-sided formation with only one winger. Today it was Routledge. On the other side our best attacking midfielder is taken out of the game by making him play out wide. (Why not make Fer play out wide and Siggy in midfield where he'd be far more effective) So, before we start the game our attack is greatly reduced, we lose Siggy's ability in front of Goal and we lose another attacking option in not playing a second winger. We can't play a diamond formation either because we play with two defensive midfielders. Today it was Cork and Britton, previously it was Ki and Cork. So we are left with playing a lop-sided, one sided, one winger formation. Because we have limited options the option defenders can see us coming when attacking. We can only really pass one way to attack, to our one winger, who inevitably is marked up because we have no other options unless we pass sideways. This off course nullifies the stealth of our attack, giving opposition time to maneuver and react to anything we do. Both the opposition midfield and defense can see more clearly what we are going to do and have more time to react to it because we are not stretching them left and right, or confusing them with decoy runners. This makes it easy for defenders to snuff out our attacks, cut out passes and intercept the ball because they know what we are going to do before we actually do it so they can overload in front of our winger and press in midfield. Does any one have any comments or thoughts to the contrary. Am I wrong? Is this not what is happening game in game out irrespective of whether we look good doing it or not. How come I can see it through the bottom of an empty wine bottle but our experienced coach can't? Its so fekking obvious, the clown left Montero on the bench, pushed our best player onto the wing and made us play a lop-sided formation for 90 minutes and to help things he takes Leon off, brings on Ki, lets Baston have a run out for 5 minutes and leaves Fer on the pitch the whole fekin game.
I wasn't sure at the time, but looking back I really wish we had brought Rodgers back to the club. At least we know what we are getting with him and if we did lose it was always going for the game, rather than sitting back from the off and hoping for the best.
@Stumpy, I think that Montero is not being selected because of his poor defensive game, but we could be so much better with two wingers on the pitch, and Siggy in the middle............
A lot of people think you're wrong. The fans applauded the players off the pitch for putting in a shift against one of the top sides in Europe in a game which turned on a dodgy penalty decision. I've never seen us clapped off the pitch after losing 3-1 before. We may have lost, but there were plenty of positives in the overall performance.
You didn't read my post PGF, simply reading the first line would help. If you did you'll notice I was defending the players and the remainder of my post explained my view on Guidolins inept tactics and even more inept substitutions. I was not blaming the players as you suggest. READ my post
What did everyone think of the disallowed goal early on? From where I sit I couldn't see anything wrong but can't wait till motd to find out
as a seven pound note. Penalty my arse, we had a better claim for one than the one he gave them. You could say the ref killed our chance of getting a result today.
Just got back in. Well, the players really out a shift in today - great effort, undermined by an official who was looking to penalise us at every opportunity. Even Mike Summerbee thought the ref was crap..... That said, Citeh were worthy winners. Llorente played really well, took his goal brilliantly. Leon was, well, Leon - although his mistake led directly to their third goal. VDH & Amat looked a decent pairing - Fernandez will need to bide his time to get the shirt back. Cork & Fer were like curate's eggs - good in parts. Naughton did fine at left back, whilst Gylfi is still not firing on all cylinders. At times I felt we were playing with only 10 players - so ineffective was Routledge throughout. If we can maintain this intensity & fighting spirit, we should be ok. Yes, we may have only 4pts after 8 games, but we should be good enough to get 36pts from the remaining 30 games.
Leon, Cork, Kingsley, Amat, Naughton, VDH = 6 defenders on the pitch. How many defensive players does Guido want?
The way Man City played today we could have done with another five. Their running off the ball, which probably doesn't come across on TV, was sensational.
That list was based on his general pattern of never starting Monty and Barrow together. That said, with no pace in the team today, Guido allowed City to attack at will freely. Had Monty and Barrow been on, they'd have been more conservative because of their blistering pace. That said, I've been surprised how quick Pep has stamped his authority etc on them.
That's right. For a team with two of the fastest wingers in the Prem our Guidolin does like to bench them.
