Written by kirsikka
How do you solve a problem like Man City? It’s a conundrum we’ve never managed to get our head around but, with a slightly different set-up to them this season where they don’t look quite as invincible and have suffered a couple of recent poor results, maybe today was the day. You could say it was oven-ready for us.
Look how that turned out. I’m starting to wonder about these oven-ready things…
Gary O’Neil decided to try and shore up the defence with an extra body rather than replacing Tavernier like-for-like. In credit to the team, it wasn’t full Alamo-mode from the first minute. The shape was extremely defensive, but it at least left players in a position to try and break away. So it wasn’t trying to replicate that famous Eddie Howe match where he went for 0-0, and failed. However, it was still extremely cautious.
The problem with this lies in conceding to individual mistakes or moments of quality. This time it was the former. A sloppy pass from Traore in our half was intercepted and bish, bash, bosh, a few seconds later the ball was in the back of the net. No time to reset our shape after giving the ball away.
This was compounded by sloppy play for the second. The commentators blamed Mepham, but it looked to me like Stephens was far too deep which allowed the through ball. Then for the third, another poor pass in our half, this time from Billing, and it was game over at half-time. So much for the solid defensive shape.
The frustration here is when we tried to get at City, they didn’t look invulnerable. Zemura, in particular, was causing them problems with some neat interchanges with Traore. If we hadn’t ceded the ground and brought in Anthony for Tavernier, could we have caused them even more difficulties? We’ll never know, but it couldn’t have been too much worse than 3-0 down at half time. Well, it could have, but probably wouldn’t have been. And at least the message to the players would have been ‘I believe in you to beat anyone’.
We tried to get at them to rescue things but, with a comfortable lead, City could sit back and pick us off. It reminded me of those games immediately after the World Cup break. We might look better when we’ve handed the other team a multiple goal lead, but that’s as much about them relaxing as it is us improving.
The second half was over almost before it started. One of those situations where the ball bounces kindly for the attacking team in the box and an unlucky deflection contributes to a goal. If we hadn’t given them three in the first half with errors then you take that on the chin as unlucky and try to get the single-goal deficit back. However, at 4-0 Man City went into cruise control, bringing on a plethora of subs.
It’s still worth pointing out that for the few minutes before they scored we were sitting much deeper in our shape than we had been in the first half. Yep, the tactical tweak at half time to try and get something from the match was to go more defensive. In the first half, we were at least leaving men up to try and hit them on the break. Suddenly we were back to the depressing sight of all XI men in our defensive third. We may as well have just conceded the match.
I’ll repeat what I said above, don’t let the second half showing more attacking threat after it was 4-0 fool us. The same thing happened at Chelsea and in other matches. Making it look like we’re in a contest when the game is over as a contest just shows that we can compete when the other team isn’t that interested in turning the screw any more. It doesn’t mean we or GON did well. Like fool’s gold, it has the patina of something valuable but doesn’t stand up to closer inspection.
More of an aside than anything, but three times in the first half Lewis brought down a player who was trying to break away. They’re meant to be bookings each time. He did it three times. Three time. Let me repeat, three times. No yellow card. It’s a bit tiresome that it isn’t punished when it’s well-known that Man City use this as a deliberate tactic to try and stop teams. Any of those breakaways could have changed the complexion of the match. Instead, we had to watch on as, in the second half, Mepham commits a foul to stop a breakaway and before Grealish has even hit the ground the ref had his yellow out. The usual.
I’m not going to call out too many individual performances as I think this was a match lost on the tactics board before we even kicked off. Let’s be honest, GON isn’t the first AFCB manager to lose to Man City. He isn’t the first to be handed his backside by them. However, going defensive after all we’ve seen in recent weeks was a very poor tactical decision.
Man of the Match against Man CityTraore
Lerma
Anthony
Fredericks
Rothwell
Zemura
Solanke
Someone else
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Zemura – When we did get forward, it was usually thanks to him. His energy and contribution have gone up levels since we signed Vina. It’s the ‘Charlie Daniels’ effect. Now, if only we could get him to sign on the dotted line.
—– Room for improvement —–
Traore – Serie A was once famed for its defensive tactics. As a recruit from there, you’d hope he was on it for this kind of game but it was his poor pass that opened the door. Harsh maybe to judge him on a single moment when he did other things that were very positive, but that changed the whole outlook of the match from that moment on. Against a team like City, you have to frustrate them long enough that they get nervous. His ball meant we failed to get anywhere near that point in the match.
—– GON watch —–
After recent improvements, GON reverted to type and the result went there as well. True, we may never have had much chance of getting something from the match but I’d rather at least set up to try and win it at home.
I’m sure there are going to be comments along the lines of ‘we got at City’ or ‘on another day we could have got something from that’, and ‘GON was unlucky with the individual errors, how is he supposed to stop them?’. They will all miss the point that we handed the initiative to City from the moment the line up was announced. We put ourselves under pressure to be tight and perfect at the back. We simply aren’t that team. When the errors came, there was never a realistic chance we would get back into it.
So no, GON wasn’t unlucky. He decided to try and play a way that we’ve been unable to play all season. Compare today with how we approached Newcastle. Light and day. We gave Newcastle a game. We have Man City territory and the ball. The lessons of recent weeks all unlearned again.
What will we do in the next two matches? I hope it isn’t more of the same. GON isn’t Dyche. He has to put trust in his team to try and get at the opposition, no matter who they are. Sure, it might mean we lose some matches badly. Let’s be honest though, that’s happening anyway.
I know, I know. These aren’t the matches on which he should be judged. The problem is, by being so cautious in the matches in which he should be judged, he’s now in a situation where he’s going to also be judged by his performance in the matches in which he shouldn’t be judged. And sadly, the verdict is guilty of making the same mistakes yet again.
AFCB_Liam said…
Everything is spot on here. Let’s not read too much into the last 10 or 15 mins when they were coasting and got sloppy.
Yes, there were elements of bad luck, but we gave them far too much possession and control of the game and they’ll always score in those situations. Brentford showed the blueprint to get something vs City, you need to be brave, show genuine threats on the counter and make life difficult for them. I fully believe that had we played 4 at the back with Fredricks instead of Smith and Anthony in for Tav then we’d have seen a much closer game.
Not the end of the world as none of us expected much today but would be nice to see a bit more ambition in the next 2 games.
Lerma was very poor today (despite the goal). Traore had an off day and Smith is starting to really show his age. Zemura played well going forward but nobody was above a 7/10 today. – To join the conversation, click here.
