We concede the same goal every time, and it is genuinely enfuriating to watch. There is no need for this at all, it does not harm us to drop the line a couple of meters. We had the goals, we just needed to control the game from this point, not turn it into a chaotic basketball match.
You can’t do this in the CL, because these types of teams will punish you, and your 50 minutes of dominance can be so easily negated.
The CL requires a more conservative approach, which unfortunately Flick has yet to adapt to. We made the same mistake against Inter, playing at the half way line at 3-2 up with 5 mins left and it cost us. We did the same today, and you have to ask yourself whether this is really necessary?
by Select_Drawing_7434
29 Comments
I’m tired of these, I know it’s exciting but we need some experienced cbs man, how many seasons we fck um with these red cards!!! Bummers
Flick never learns. Or he doesn’t want to learn.
no matter how many times we lose games like this, flick will never change his system. We need to give him the signings he wants and see how it goes then
He can play like this, except this is not 2020 Bayern on defense. Cannot play this high line defense with the likes of Cubarsi, Garcia, Martin, etc. We need to sign 2 fast, tall and strong CBs before we even begin to think we will win the UCL because of attacking talent.
no, the question is how does eric start 5 m in front and ends up being left behind?
We let Lenglet down. Bro really was playing like he was trying to apologize for every disaster performance he’s ever had for us and somehow we still couldn’t take advantage of it.
I don’t think Flick trusts the defence to hold on so tries to get as many goals as possible as cushion.
I know I’ll get downvoted, but Barca players don’t respect Garcia’s 1v1 ability enough. I’m pretty sure neither of those red would’ve turns into goals if Cubarsi and Eric hadn’t fouled and just let Garcia handle it. Years of Ter Stegen’s UCL struggles probably made them react instinctively like that. They still think there’s a bum keeper who will concede every 1v1, forgetting we’ve upgraded to Beast Garcia.
Lads low block defending also needs proper defenders. You think this changes with a low block defence. No. It won’t. The issue is our depth. Remove 2 of our players and our strength literally gets halved. You can call it luck/destiny. For me it’s purely the inability to have consistency.
Also. Remember apart from Psg vs Man United no team has lost 2-0 at home in the first leg to win against a team away from home that too against a team which have never lost a UCL knockout game since 1996 except once ig against Chelsea in 2021. Still
Those are records for a reason. We absolutely can defeat Atletico 110 percent. But mind you this is the team that defeated Madrid 5-2 and Barcelona 4-0 once. So yeah it was never going to be that easy.
My worry is that this high line is so ineffective in big games. This season we have only beaten RM and atleti (not in any game that mattered mind you). We’ve lost to every other big team we played. It feels like in order for it to be effective we need a top class striker who will score both the easy and moderate to hard chances. That will give us a much sharper edge, the big issue i think is we also need a top class defense. Pacey defenders who can maintain an offside trap, while being excellent 1 on 1. Great going forward, and also good decision makers. It all just feels a bit to mich to ask for. And adaptation for bigger games to be more conservative seems more realistic.
while we could have been more cautious, you can’t blame our players for trying to capitalise on our momentum at that moment
90% of the team are 28 and below. With a majority being 25 and below. We are young team than needs more seasoning and experience and that comes from ties like this. I for one am glad that the players went through what they went through. This is only going to make them stronger. Barca will win the CL in the next 3 seasons. That’s a guarantee
Because 2 isn’t enough?
Flick will never change his system & rightly so.
You need to own your tactics.
Laporta better give him the signings this time.
We badly need a striker & Cb ffs.
I think after Fermín stopping the game we lost the momentum and gave Atleti some time to grasp some air. Flick should have replaced Fermín immediately to keep the game going, he wasn’t able to play well since. Same for Pedri, unfortunately I think he was very tired and after scoring the 0-2 it would have been time for Frenkie to control.
Because this is the system. If we had changed from the offensive setup which gave us 2 quick goals to a defensive one you would also complain. “Why change something that was clearly working”.
we live by the sword and die by the sword
Ot just that. Look at the line, they are way past the halfway line of the pitch so even if they wanted to make an offside trap, they can’t. People are way too nice with Flick. This loss was on him.
Again with the high line bs agenda. Like the other commenter said, low and mid blocks also require good cohesive defenses. If we played a low block like Atletico usually does, we would need to be much much more clinical with the one or two chances we would be creating. If we play a mid block, then we need far more midfielders to run the game in the mid, to overload the numbers there otherwise it means nothing. And why don’t we do it? Because neither of these two tactics takes advantage of our best assets, our midfield and attack. Yes, despite our recent performances, our midfield of pedri and fdj are arguably the best in the world, they can easily control the game however they like and are both press resistant, so playing a high block with faster pressing utilises their strengths much more. Our attack of Yamal, Unc Lewa, Fermin, Ferran, and Rashford are also really fast off the ball (minus the unc but he’s still one of the best poachers), but we lack the chemistry that other attacks have. Not saying we don’t have chemistry, but it’s nothing compared to what psg, bayern and our old msn trio had. Our attackers are great at quick turnovers, 1v1s (especially yamal) and playing between the lines (Olmo is a master at this with fermin close behind, come at me). All of this being considered, plus the fact that we lack the finances to immediately buy whatever players we want to change up our defenses and heck even improve our squad depth, means we need to double down on what our strengths need. Unless and until we have more defenders and attackers, both in quality and quantity, we can’t expect to play low or mid blocks. Every team plays to their squad’s strengths. Bayern have a lethal trio in the front, why do you think they’re going for an ultra attacking focused tactic? Not to say their defense and mid are not good, but clearly their trio are their gems. They maximise everything to give them their 1v1s and their opportunities to shine.
They were up 2-0 in 30 minutes thats why. Why would Flick drop back defensively so soon if the team made it look obvious that they were going to score another? Say they did drop the line, they would still have to defend and hold the midfield in a highly physical match, with no real guarantee that Atletico wouldnt score anyway.
I get the team suffers defensively because of the high line, but these defenders will not become Maldinis just bc they stay back. Atletico is not a weak team right now. They can drop the highline, but that means Atleticos squad will move up, and pressure still gets created. They could win more corners, fouls, spend more time in the box, etc. With these defenders, they would concede, highline or not. That is why he chooses to gamble. At least they can put pressure in the opposing half and force mistakes like that first goal. Thats his reasoning behind it, even when it doesnt work. And to be fair, up until Fermin got hurt, it looked like the 3rd goal was inevitable. I dont think any coach who saw how they were playing would have turned haram in the 30th minute.
Imo his issues today had nothing to do with the highline imo. It was all man management. The squad got tired, subs were not done well, etc. Why Roony came in so late when everyone else was sluggish for a while? Why Ferran got replaced for lewa, who had little impact? Why werent people rested more on saturday? Poor pedri looked gone, Yamal lasted longer but he looked gone at the end, etc. Dude needs to choose these minutes better. These guys are not machines, they need rest.
It’s simple, we have a world class player in every positions, lamine, pedri, Garcia, except defence. We need investment here.
Eric made the right call here, from his perspective we were a goal down with 20 mins to go, if they scored the game would have been over but playing 10vs11 for 20 mins is manageable.. also the ref robbed us plain and simple that’s never a red and if we were wearing white jerseys we would have gotten 2 pens for that foul on olmo..
Long story short, this team wasn’t good enough for UCL anyhow, and taking out raphinha made it even worse.
2nd, call it me whining or whatever, but the referees have this fetish for teams playing haramball and always favour them in any tie. What Eric garcia did was stupid but he practically breathed on sorloth’s back and he fell, and that stupid ref saw everything and decided it was a foul. Worse things happened to olmo INSIDE their box and no foul was called.
I don’t like to say we’re cursed, but I think we might just be.
we never learn and adapt. Flick needs to have more than 1 game plan for this. No need to play this high when we are already dominating I think. Just back of a little and control the game and create chances against haramball
You live by the high line, you die by the high line
It’s about defending as a collective and keeping distances between defenders and attackers minimal. If they were to drop down drastically, there would be so much space in between the lines.
Basically you’d have to reform tactics but I agree, you should know when to use this highline and when you should drop down, especially in situations like 2-2.
I think Fermin’s injury, that much time stopped, gave Atlético a breather. We were on the good track and another goal would have fallen. We just lost our pace.
This isn’t even High line, it’s Defensive failure.
“We did the thing that helped us control the game and create many chances and score goals, why did we continue doing that?”.
That’s all you’re saying at this point.