UCL semi-finals 2022/2023

Pep’s football has strict positional requirements and is predictable in the sense that the movements are largely pre-rehearsed.

I do think that his teams do offer the conditions to play entertaining football. I mean they build from the back, move the opposition around, can counter when needed etc. There are times where he can be negative, and you can see that in away CL games where he tends to take a more conservative approach by always asking for the extra pass and increased focus on ball retention.

That being said football entertainment is linked to the players at your disposal mostly. It’s more evident with his teams because 90% of teams he plays against sits deep and parks the bus restricting space making individual brilliance harder to come by.


Having someone like Pirlo at DM makes a big difference than someone like Rodri. Having someone like Akanji inverting into midfield is a big difference to someone like Trent. Having Grealish on the LW is a big difference to someone like Leao or Mbappe.

His Barca wouldn’t have been fun to watch if Messi wasn’t dribbling past 4-5 players.

I liked his Bayern because you had Boateng/Alonso spamming switches to Robben/Costa who almost always won their 1v1 duels. Then you had Vidal/Muller/Lewa overloading the box.

Pep’s 2018 City side was probably the most entertaining because they had mavericks on the wing in Sane and Sterling, and he was playing with two #10s in KDB and Silva as CM’s.

The players at your disposal will always dictate the level of entertainment even if the manager applies a more cautious approach IMO.

Also I know that Etihad gets memed, but in big games they’re actually a great crowd. Great atmosphere last night. City hasn’t lost a CL game there since 2018.

Casciavit wrote:Also I know that Etihad gets memed, but in big games they’re actually a great crowd. Great atmosphere last night. City hasn’t lost a CL game there since 2018.

Yeah I read on reddit after the game against Bayern they had a 23-2-0 home record in the CL since their last defeat and this is the longest English team undefeated record in the competition.

I'd also say he's come a long way with his away record. Remember how bad it was, since the loss to Spurs he's 5-4-1 in KO away games, that one loss was to Madrid last season in the dying minutes.

His matchup against Madrid are also weird

2011 Pep KO Madrid
2014 Madrid KO Pep
2020 Pep KO Madrid
2022 Madrid KO Pep
2023 Pep KO Madrid

Better put your money on Madrid next time

The real reason for their performance

Pep was much better tactically than Carlo. I felt like he gave the players much more freedom in attacking players one v one, even in the middle third.

It was a brilliant tactical move because Kroos and Modric can’t handle runners in the midfield and Valverde had to cover an impossible amount of ground. Camavinga was left out to dry. Carvajal sucks. It’s simple really. Kroos or modric can’t both start big games. They offer press resistance in crucial moments but their age is showing and they’re just too slow

LADMELAAAA

injuries ruined a very promising career, but still clutch af

FennecFox7 wrote:Pep was much better tactically than Carlo. I felt like he gave the players much more freedom in attacking players one v one, even in the middle third.

It was a brilliant tactical move because Kroos and Modric can’t handle runners in the midfield and Valverde had to cover an impossible amount of ground. Camavinga was left out to dry. Carvajal sucks. It’s simple really. Kroos or modric can’t both start big games. They offer press resistance in crucial moments but their age is showing and they’re just too slow

What should Carlo have done differently? We beat them in experience, not youth or athleticism. I think Rudiger handled Haaland really well in the first leg, so I was surprised to see him benched for the return leg. We seemed to have 2-3 players on Haaland at all times, which allowed so much space for everyone else. I don't know if Rudiger would've been able to repeat that performance, but it seemed a bit odd to me that he changed something that was working.

i agree with Thimmy. You can look at our game last year and say tactics played a part. You could say one coach didn't react well to substitutions made or didnt react well when the comeback was ensuing. closely contested games are open to those kinds of conversations.

Based on what i watched, one team was just better and bolder. I don't see much Carlo could have done, i mean it was 4 nil and they were running us ragged in the first half. Even if Carlo decided to park the bus, the team (even though some of them had rest over the weekend) looked too tired to even do that for the whole 90.

City were the better side on paper and on the pitch. They were better than us last season too, but this time the pressure didn't get to them. i'm more disappointed in our la liga loss than this elimination.

Glad even the pundits are saying that the real Real had finally been exposed since their luck ran out n it took a finally mature Pep Man C team to break their aura as well. Carlo definitely made some errors and I also felt the Real players themselves were up to it enough. I guess they all assumed they will just pull something out of the hat as usual but its too big of ask against quality of this Man C team. Too many weaknesses to cover up...

my son's been showing me stuff online of people asking if that was madrid's worst defeat (he doesnt watch football, just gets the gist from the internet and maybe highlights). i mean i can think of two off the top of my head which don't even involve barcelona. in the champions league, maybe but i still remember torres and gerrard completely beating the breaks off us at anfield. i was asking myself have people already forgotten that? and then remembered it was like 12 yrs ago

titosantill wrote:my son's been showing me stuff online of people asking if that was madrid's worst defeat (he doesnt watch football, just gets the gist from the internet and maybe highlights). i mean i can think of two off the top of my head which don't even involve barcelona. in the champions league, maybe but i still remember torres and gerrard completely beating the breaks off us at anfield. i was asking myself have people already forgotten that? and then remembered it was like 12 yrs ago

The loss against Dortmund is definitely one of the worst ones I've ever seen. I still vividly remember Pepe pushing Lewandowski and allegedly asking him to show us more respect after he scored a hattrick against us and showing no signs of stopping.

I think people don’t appreciate how good this city team is. I say it better than the Pep Barca teams. At this stage, no other team, is anywhere close to their level.
Our team on the other hand played very well in the CL including the first leg of the semi. What is a disappointment is la liga run, but when you look at what this aging squad accomplished over the past 5 years, it has truly been remarkable and probably was inevitable that it would come to an end. at least it was to a vastly superior team.