verlaine1979

Also, our attacking performance against Burnely was so limp that the ultra-conservative Dyche felt confident enough to bring on two strikers and go for the win. What does that tell you about the standard of our play?

Funnily enough, the reason people were calling for Koeman's head was that the team suddenly lost the ability to score and went on a terrible run of results. Fortunately, his reputation was rescued by Mane going on an incredible run in which he scored 8 or 9 and made a couple more. Koeman never had to manage us without Mane, but he did have to manage Everton without their most potent attacker, and coincidentally they suddenly couldn't buy a goal. Managers can turn things around, of course, but you need a sense that they have a philosophy that they are trying to impart. I've seen nothing from Pellegrino to suggest he has any meaningful template or tactical plan in how he is setting us up - if anything, he seems determined to default to whatever previous managers have done, which is exactly what you'd expect from an overly conservative type. No matter how technically limited your players are, with the right coaching they can still play with intensity and attack in numbers. That we seem unable to do this is down to the manager one way or another.

Isn't the City game midweek? By that point it would only be a caretaker manager anyway, and there's seldom any pressure on those unless they aspire to the top job (which rarely seems to work out).

Sounds about right - though those 9s are very, very rare.

If a tree falls in a wood and everyone is there to hear it, can it be underrated?

De Bruyne scored from the edge of the box at an angle after an incredibly quick 1-2 with Fernandinho worked him an angle where he only had the keeper to beat (still a very good finish from there obvs). Most of Redmond's speculative shots have involved either trying to curl it round a defender and the keeper from outside the area, or trying to hit it through a crowded box. I'm not disputing that most of City's players are vastly more accomplished than ours in all phases of play, but what I'd stand by is that they are coached to always look for the forward pass and to attack & support in numbers. Those are basic tactical decisions that you can follow regardless of the quality of your individual players, and as Romeu said in his interview at the weekend, Pellegrino seems to favour an approach that prioritises marking open opponents for the counter attack, rather than committing to the attack at pace ourselves.

These stats say nothing about the tempo of the game, and they say nothing about the quality of the shots on goal. When Man City attacked Arsenal yesterday, they had five attackers and midfielders swarming forward every single time, and that doesn't include the overlapping fullbacks or the likes of Fernandinho joining the attack. On the other hand, we're lucky if we have another player in the box at the same time as Gabbiadini when we're attacking.

Mental if so. He went to the world's richest club after a streak of 3 consecutive Europa League wins. What on earth made us think we would be in the running for his next job?

Anyone who thought that Tuchel or Emery were ever remotely realistic targets has no business making decisions about the future of the club. As for MP, I look at how Napoli have been transformed under Sarri over the last season and a half. The likes of Mertens and Callejon were unremarkable mid-level international players, but that team has now been coached to the point where their pressing and movement off the ball are as good as I've seen. If you have an idea and the authority to implement it, you can turn average players into a superior team, but I'm not convinced MP has an idea of what he wants the team to do. Not losing the ball is the obvious fallback position if you don't have a clue what you want the players to do with it.

The gap between relegation and the bottom of mid-table is often no more than six points at the end of the season. So we only need to dip below our apparently superior level for two games before that theoretical advantage disappears. We're in trouble, and if we get spanked a few times during our run of games against the top six between now and Xmas, we could easily establish the kind of negative momentum that has seen teams with expensive squads go down in the past.

Argh, why not Boufal in the middle and Tadic on the left? Absolutely unforgivable refusal to learn from his mistakes if that's actually how they line up on the field.

Yup, there's almost never any movement in the centre. It's like they've been coached that as long as they have a clear sight of the player on the ball, they should stay put to keep the easy passing lane open. You see this particularly from Davis and JWP when they're playing behind the striker - they always want to be open for the pass, which usually involves milling about ten or fifteen yards behind where they need to be to trouble the opposition defence. There was a fifteen minute spell towards the end against Newcastle when Lemina and Boufal were both in the middle, close to the opposition box, and they were both constantly in motion, looking to create space rather than just occupy it - we need more of that, but I'm not convinced its in Pellegrino's coaching manual.

Huh? Our problem is the complete opposite of this. We have almost nothing through the middle, so the ball invariably ends up being slowly cycled out to either wing for a cross.

Playing Boufal on the wing was nobody's solution, especially not when his two biggest contributions against West Brom came with him running through the middle. However, MP is a fundamentally conservative/cowardly manager, so he did what they always do, which is pretend that the only place you can play creative players is out wide.

This is down to the manager. They've coped easily all afternoon with high balls and crosses, yet he's done nothing to try and create any sort of pressure through the middle. Happy to keep Tadic and Boufal on the touchlines, and have Romeu, Davis and JWP playing within touching distance in defensive midfield. Static set-up, very little movement, dull as f*** to watch.

Boufal has played well, but should be in the middle with Tadic on the left and JWP on the right. That said, if we insist on hoofing long from the back every time we win possession, the midfield and attack could position themselves wherever they like without ever seeing the ball.

Is it me, or did Tadic really not want to give Boufal the ball in space in the middle just now? Preferred to hoist a speculative ball out to the wing instead.

Would love to believe it, but seems unlikely from an ultra-conservative MP. Will probably drop Davis back as you say, but bring in JWP instead of risking an attacking midfielder playing through the middle with only one specialist DM behind.

Probably increases the chances of Boufal not being picked in order to maintain a spurious solidity.

Yup - I see no reason why winning the ball back within three passes particularly indicates pressing any more than it indicates effective man-marking or any other strategy for regaining possession.

I think it was Hoedt's signing video that accidentally featured some player sprint times. Redmond isn't any quicker over most distances than Tadic or even JWP. I won't speculate where the assumption that he must be quick comes from, but neither the leaked stats, nor watching him rarely outpace anyone during the course of a game, argue pretty strongly that he isn't really very fast at all comparatively. And as for Boufal, the like-for-like argument with Redmond is a red herring. As others have said, he needs to be played centrally, not on the wing. If MP needs the assurance of another water carrier on the field, then Redmond or Tadic should make way for Davis or JWP to tuck in on the right.

I haven't got him in the middle - I've got him on the right of the three, and only there to satisfy those who insist on having a Davis-style player somewhere in the side. Neither of them should be anywhere near the middle. At best they should be on the right, getting out of Cedric's way.

Sure, like I said, pick whichever water carrier suits your individual preference/prejudice. That said, I thought Davis's corners against WBA were slow, flat and ineffective. The main thing is to get our two most effective ball carriers in the middle of the pitch, playing off of each other, with our best striker just ahead of them playing on the shoulder of an unsettled defence.

Forster - Bertrand/Yoshida/VVD/Cedric - Romeu/Lemina - Tadic/Boufal/JWP - Gabi Let Romeu sit and get Lemina and Boufal playing close together through the middle. Both play with their heads up and are more likely to spot Gabi's movement than anyone else in our squad. I've included JWP as a sop to those who insist on have as many water carriers as possible, so if you feel particularly strongly about it, feel free to swap him out for Davis, though playing on the right I'd rather have JWP on the dead ball than Davis, who hits a useless corner.

No end product, that's Boufal's problem...