Claudius wrote:
goon wrote:
Pep relies on the press to do their defending for them, once you beat it his defenses have always been awful, even at Barca.
Problem for him at City right now is that their press is being beaten pretty comfortably, a few PL teams have become quite press resistant, so they're being exposed quite often. All the centre backs in the world won't fix that.
Yes. It’s the specifics of City’s press and the players he has. The problem is the players he has are designed to control possession and the press is designed to quickly recover possession and dominate the ball. This all requires lots of skillful players compressed high up the field. When it fails, it leaves the guys in the back very exposed.
Completely different to the Pool system which is a bit more counter press secure. Pep’s biggest problem is he is very dogmatic and doesn’t seem to veer away from plan A, so a team with the right players can beat it.
Pep needs more dynamic players.
Gundogan, Rodri, old version Fernandinho etc are not the players to press.
He should have been then manager getting Partey. SMS as well would have been interesting for them.
Also how on earth has he not landed Upamecano, who looks made for a high line, and extremely difficult to beat one on one, is beyond me.
Pep’s idea on players needs tweaking a bit.
