And a foul throw inbetween.Jayzus, he wouldn't be the 1st. I'd defo play him in the next game we play city. Not confident Aurier wouldn't give 2 penos away before being sent off.
i really hope that come Man City we don't go out there and do what Arsenal and Chelsea have done and basically bend over and take a beating.
We're good enough to beat Man City if we play to our strengths
On the contrary, it's how we masterminded recent victories against Real and last season's games at Man city and liverpoolPoch rarely does the sitting back thing.
On the contrary, it's how we masterminded recent victories against Real and last season's games at Man city and liverpool
We didn't sit back in any of those matches.
We definitely played on the counter at Real where we had around 30% possession, we had a bit more in the return match but still no more than 40% and our play was more faster moving forward.
This style was a feature of our games against City and Liverpool last season where Poch had "learned" how to adapt to playing the big clubs.
We didn't implement our natural pressing game and play it out from the back. It was back to front very quickly. I recommend going back and watching the highlights but it was not our natural game.
We are taking about two different things, when I say sit back I mean we didn't drop deeper when we defended, the defensive line was just as high as it normally is, we just ceded possession in the Liverpool, Dortmund and Madrid matches and you're right in saying we had quicker transitions going forward though and we did slightly change the tactics for them.
Also the City game last season we out pressed them and won the 2nd balls more than anything, last season we still hadn't learned to alter our tactics against the big teams, they had more possession because they are a possession based side.
Right, so with that in mind my point is I think (maybe overconfidence) that we are good enough to press them high. I've not seen any team press their back line yet. Liverpool did it and got a 4-3 win and I think we are better drilled than Liverpool at pressing (although the press is slightly different)
We actually tried to press them in the match at the Etihad but they were too good and just passed around us, also their keeper's kicking is so accurate it was just beating our press from goal kicks.
As an aside I reckon Liverpool press better than us but they run out of steam quicker as well, I think we can sustain our press over a longer period.