Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 154

big questions to answer there for Pep, still can't get through despite a favorable draw against a team largely injured. the way he set up the first leg was shambolic and even tonight, City dominating and in control, he brings on a more defensive midfielder once they go one up and changes the setup, the teams feels his anxiousness.

 

Quadruple ahoy

 

He was blessed to have the greatest club team ever. Bayern and City have both been disappointments.

 

I agree. I feel like his paranoia gets the best of him in these UCL ties, he outthinks himself. Was no need to show Spurs that kinda respect in the first leg

 

Not really. We played some of the best football under his reign and it was far from a disappointment. We had some bad luck in the CL in his second and third year here. Overall it was a great time.

Edit: The only thing that I really hated about Pep was that he rushed injured players into playing again before they were really fit. This caused some subsequent injuries.

 

It was with regards to the CL. Ye won the league which was expected, but got hammered by Real, Barcelona, and lost a close tie to Atletico. Not the worst obviously, but he was clearly hired to win the Champions League.

yeah he's had some very very questionable decisions since joining City. Trying to phase Aguero out for so long before finally realising he's actually fantastic and Jesus is not seems crazy to me.

 

Spurs v Ajax is a cool matchup. They’ve sold us some of our most important players. And somehow they just keep pumping out talent.

Hopefully Poch will whisper some sweetness into de Ligt’s ear when they meet. Would love to sign him this summer.

 

Saw reports today de Ligt is all but certain to come to Camp Nou with de Jong this summer.

 

If he goes anywhere else I’d like it to be Barca.

 

Hopefully the club can come to an agreement with Toby. I don’t wanna see the day where him and Vertonghen aren’t a duo anytime soon.

 

I know it was mostly about CL. But that's why I said we had some bad luck in his second and third season. The games against Barca were especially unfortunate. Lewy was just out with a severe concussion shortly before against Dortmund in the cup but we still performed pretty well if you watched the matches. In the first leg it was 0-0 until maybe the 70th minute. Then we made two mistakes which Barca used to put them up 2-0. We then tried to score the crucial away goal but in doing so opened up too much space so Barca could make their third goal. Then in the return leg we even had the chance to go level with many chances but ter Stegen just was out of this world and denied so many clear chances.
If you only look at the results it looks like an easy win for Barca but it was way more close than that.

And the third season against Atletico was as close as it gets. I think Müller even missed a penalty in that tie.

 

It's hard to win the Champions League. Ferguson won two in twenty five years. Wenger never won it. Mourinho has won it twice in fifteen years, didn't reach a final with Chelsea, Real Madrid or Man United. Conte and Allegri haven't won it. Nor Simeone or Klopp.

Judging Pep because he hasn't won it in eight years seems a little unfair. His away knockout record is an interesting thing to discuss. But there are so many factors that determine a Champions League/European Cup win. On another night he's through to face Ajax in the semis and this discussion gets put off for another three weeks at least.

 

It's more the manner of his exits than simply going out. To go out against Spurs with that tie, is odd.

 

His set up in the first leg was brutal. He could’ve started his strong squad and buried us.

 

He had to try & rotate though. The first leg of the Spurs tie through to the United game next week is a brutal run of games for them and trying to balance the teams for all them would be tough. He could have rotated more for the Palace game just gone and put out a stronger team in the first leg, but I read somewhere he has a weird respect for Palace so probably felt he had to play most of the big guns then too!

 

Also Ajax have signed a CB today so De Ligt is 99.9999999% leaving this summer now. The re-building starts again

 

I've been looking forward to logging in this morning and reading @Swoos' reactions to last night. What a crazy match. So many twists and turns. Can't believe Tottenham won - so pleased for them!

 

I still don’t know how that game happened. So bizarre.

 

That Rooney number is quite massively wrong.

 

Ajax knocked out one of my most hated teams, Real Madrid, AND then knock out Ronaldo's Juventus.

If they beat Spurs I will officially be a fan.

 

Tomorrow’s game is gonna be awkward

 

We’re gonna get slaughtered and I won’t care one bit

 

Heartbreaking for Wednesday. Wasn't a free kick.

Stunning strike though