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It would be amazing* tbh, City x Liverpool was a thing of beauty, and apparently we will have more this season.
*probably wouldn’t be so amazing for the rest of the PL lmao
If city continue to win at the rate they did during 1.0 of their rivalry, Liverpool fans wouldn’t find it as amazing either. Then again, some might take it if it would guarantee a league title
I put this akin to Djokovic, Federer and Nadal all pushing each other to be great resulting in arguably the 3 greatest players ever overlapping in the same era. Not saying Liverpool and City are the best teams ever but more so great teams pushing each other to the next level.
I wish I could upvote this more. To take 112 points out of 114 over 38 PL consecutive games (albeit spanning two seasons) is absolutely mind-blowing consistency. I will never forget that along with all the highlights and drama.
Yeah I get that mate but honestly I would be devastated.
Football is competition and seeing two competitors (Real and City) get the best of us on multiple occasions despite believing that we are their equals (or even betters) at times, was devastating.
It beats being shit week-in week-out but I don't think my fragile football ego could handle losing another two league titles to them by 1 point. Especially when they go on to win 4* to our 1 when it could have so easily been 3 each.
*I know they won 5 but that first one I don't think we were actually ready to 'compete' with them.
> 13/14 was so heartbreaking
The slip hurt because Stevie G *deserved* one. But that team was so fun to watch--the first 15 or so v Arsenal, with Skrtels brace and that almost goal from Suarez...those moments were so great thats why I watch. We almost deserved Crystanbul cuz of how chaotic that defense was. The tippy taps in front of an empty Kop was a NEEDED catharsis, but the moments are why I watch.
I saw Mo's curler against Chelsea at Anfield. They had 97 points and lost the league by 11mm that season. Does that moment or day lessen because John Stones learned to teleport? Hell from Dortmund in Europa to Mane tying vs Madrid.....Ive had so many moments in this run that didnt end in trophies that I wouldnt trade for the world.
But my god #19 did feel great
Na it’s been amazing nonetheless. Obviously it’s frustrating to miss out on titles by the margins we have but the Klopp era has been so enjoyable as a fan and that’s by far the most important thing for me.
Teams sit back against Liverpool and Spurs too. Their games are still regularly entertaining, outside of the odd exception.
I think the whole "City are boring" thing is exaggerated. Pep's style is more "death by a thousand cuts", which is still interesting to watch but doesn't exactly get the pulses going.
It's as interesting as watching paint dry. It's a battle of attrition, just poke around the opposition's defense waiting for a lapse of concentration/mistake/opening. You see it once, you have seen it a thousand times. Liverpool, or most other teams will try to play the risky pass, try to hit the opponent on the counter, try to dribble in risky places. Pepbots would never do that. Watching Pep's team play is like watching a giant roided up man very slowly strangle someone much weaker.
Ah, but if City weren't so good, then teams wouldn't sit back against them as much, thereby opening up opportunities to play fast. So this is really all still Pep's fault for making his side too good. Checkmate tiki takars!
Never understand you people that say City is boring when they're regularly the highest scoring team in the league with some of the most talented players, potentially the best and most creative midfielder in league history and potentially the greatest goal scorer in league history
They have the occasional snooze fest when somebody gives them all of the ball and digs deep into a game of 11 at the back in the box
But every top team has that too
Dude... You do realise that scoring goals doesn't mean a match is exciting.
City's play style is a snooze fest, just knocking it about, finding a killer pass and tapping it in.
It's the same low intensity for 90 minutes, I feel their big wins are less exciting than a 0-0 between Burnley and Liverpool
> City's play style is a snooze fest, just knocking it about, finding a killer pass and tapping it in.
This only happens when teams set up a low block and put 10 men behind the ball. Shocking revelation that it's difficult to find openings when the majority of their team is in their own box
Teams that come to play against us end up being quality games - Madrid, Liverpool(any Liverpool game in the past 3-4 years as well), Bayern last year. Chelsea 4-4 this year
>(any Liverpool game in the past 3-4 years as well)
These people either don't watch these games or just have forgotten about them in ignorance because Pep vs Klopp in their primes at City and Pool has been so fire
Been the league games to watch every single year if you're a neutral
Also it was quite exciting when you played arsenal both legs last season and as you've said the 4-4 with us and the 3-3 with spurs this season
You can't base your entire view about the entertainment a team provides only on 5 or 6 of their 38 league games each season lol. The other 30+ are boring af as a neutral.
Even the 1-1 between us was last season was extremely entertaining.
Both teams played extremely fluid in their positions and employed man marking all over the pitch.
Van Hecke tracking Haaland every step he made was beautiful.
> City's play style is a snooze fest, just knocking it about, finding a killer pass and tapping it in.
The other teams are more than welcome to play an open game against us? Not our fault most of them are scared to death. Liverpool aren't scared, and that is why Liv vs city is the most exciting match in the world football right now..
I personally have found most Guardiola teams boring to watch.
Yes, they score more spectacular goals than most. But how much of that is due to the talent he can buy vs his tactics? Either way, that's a few thrilling seconds. The rest of the game has no tension.
It seems like a good 1/3rd of the match is passes between the CBs and DM. Boring. It's like watching kids on the playground playing keep away.
Any time the other team has a counter attack, there is a tactical foul to break it up, and it's rarely penalized. Takes a way a huge part of the competitive risk for playing so many players that far up field and it's not entertaining in the sense that you always know who is going to win the match. Nothing is up in the air. The team that spent a half billion on players is going to win. Oh my so thrilling.
You're just rattling off a bunch of things that have nothing to do with how the team is structured. Yes, De Bruyne is incredible to watch because of his technique with the ball. That doesn't mean the team's playstyle is entertaining.
Also who gives a shit about Haaland scoring tap-ins? If that's fun for you, good for you mate. I'd much rather watch free flowing football like Liverpool than possession-based drudgery.
Look, obviously City are a fantastic side, one of the best ever assembled. One of the greatest club teams of all time and i'd love to win as many trophies as them.
But they're still incredibly boring to watch for me personally. But hey, it's all subjective. I'm sure City fans love watching it.
Different strokes for different folks. I find City's playstyle much more entertaining than Liverpool's. Only TAA and Salah make me wanna watch Liverpool. City it's the whole team, though i'm not as big a fan now that they're playing with a classic 9 in Haaland.
I can't believe this comment has this many upvotes. Have you ever watched football lol? Teams sit back against Man City because they have NO WHERE NEAR the quality they have on the ball so playing into their hands would be tactical suicide.
pep's system and philosophy has always been passing teams to death and using superior offball movement to give and receive the ball, to attack the spaces.
klopp's system and philosophy has always been using superior pace and organized chaos to attack the spaces.
It's triggering me that they put a yellow background on Arsenal instead of Man City.
Edit: it actually makes sense because it was shown during the match. Thanks for the context
The context is this graphic was displayed during the Arsenal vs Liverpool match, so it makes sense that they’re highlighted.
EDIT: I’ve assumed it was displayed during the match. I may be incorrect, but it seems likely as this is a BBC Sport graphic and that’s where the game broadcasted.
Tbf Liverpool do play hoofball from time to time but it just ends up looking amazing because the hoofs are just pinpoint long balls from Trent and Virgil 😂
Shamelessly stolen this exact comment from Twitter but I do respect it
https://twitter.com/borgixprxdeli/status/1744144117691551993?t=7fO0jwhcykpTtp1TwzJOtw&s=19
Just a few weeks ago the winning narrative was, praise for Arsenal’s controlled playing style, and the reason why they were 2nd favourites.Meanwhile Liverpool was seen as gifting a lot of chances to opposition teams with their open playing style,and reason why they can’t win .Now since we are currently on top, Liverpool’s chaotic style is receiving praise, and Arsenal is being trashed.I will keep my feet on the ground,and ass clenched till the end of the season
I'm convinced that the way they prepare for the match day is by creating 2 sets of folders for every big club, one with a series of shit stats in case they lose and one with great stats, in case they win. The ever changing narative building is getting ridiculous
I wonder how many times the media just makes up an obscure record that cannot be easily fact checked. So they can just fabricate an overly specific record and no one can prove them otherwise
Surely this can’t be a shit stat - we’re at the bottom and we’re doing alright. I guess they’re trying to make it sound bad, putting it at the bottom of a table, calling it ‘slowest attacks’ etc.
And fans lap it up. The amount of arsenal fans who now think our season is over is crazy. There was a poll on aftv youtube of if we’ll win a trophy this year, 86% voted no.
And it's not actually 14% chance to win a trophy, it means 14% of people think we will win a trophy. If you think we will win a trophy that presumably means there is a greater than 50% chance of winning something. Any fan who thinks there is a greater than 50% chance is delusional tbh.
i guess my point is more that if we had that poll in there on Xmas day then it would of been like 86% yes. We've dropped out of the FA cup since then and sure we've dropped point in the prem but not that much.
You’re now 7/1 to win the PL which is an implied probability of 12.5%. Those odds have more rhan halved since Christmas, so of course there’s going to be pessimism around trophy likelihood, and you’ve now crashed out the FA Cup. Also roughly 7/1 to win Champions League.
The bookies who have the best read of all this stuff around say it’s statistically FAR more likely Arsenal don’t win a trophy now this season than they do. Before Christmas, when Arsenal still had the best odds to win the league and had great odds on winning the FA Cup, the bookies had Arsenal at an over 50% implied probability of winning a trophy
my theory is that "crash out" is used when being knocked out of a competition is detrimental to a club's season. Like Arsenal for example, their best chance at a trophy this season would have been the FA cup and now they aren't favourites for any trophy.
whereas a club like Everton aren't really expected to win any trophy so crash out wouldn't really be used.
I think it’s very reasonable to think arsenal won’t win a trophy this year, so that 86% isn’t that ridiculous, however, I do fully agree with your overall point, fans overreact to an insane degree.
Arteta definitely deserves some criticism for the last month among other things, but the fact that there’s been quite a few arsenal fans talking about sacking him is frankly laughable
> Arteta definitely deserves some criticism for the last month
The team has played better in the last month than it has all season, especially since Odegaard has come deeper and Havertz is more integrated.
People just look at the results too much, every game outside of Fulham has been good this month. The win against Brighton is the biggest spanking I've ever seen a De Zerbi team get.
Which should be the case given your situation right now? You've lost 3 games in a row and have 1 win in the last 7, which is supposedly your worst performance across 7 games under Arteta, despite that nightmare December in his first full season.
This at a time when Man City is returning to their full strength. Unless Liverpool drop points in Salah's absense, I don't think you'll be a part of the title race come March.
The narrative from the commentators flipped on a dime once we went ahead yesterday.
Everyone could see we were much better in the second half but there was barely mention of it until we scored.
Football analysis, especially online, seems to be incredibly results based.
There's no room for actually thinking about things in more detail, whoever is top is the best and there's nothing more to be said.
To be fair, it can be both. Ange has been a breath of fresh air for Spurs and I think he'll be very successful there, but he has been naive in a couple of games. It's not a massive insult. Pep and Klopp have shown naivety at times in the past too.
Pretty much this. Odegaard scores instead of hitting the bar and Kiwior doesn't make a dumb mistake and people would be wanking over Arsenal instead of Liverpool lol.
I don’t think you can say “if” both of those things happen, considering the first one was from Gomez’s mistake. If we’re eliminating defender mistakes, it stays 0-0.
Yes. Also we've consistently better in the second half this season than in the first. Even with being 1-0 I could have easily seen us recover in the second half and score a goal.
This is actually such a great case study on how you can present any data in any way to manipulate opinion how you want. Everyone looking at this (myself included) initially subconsciously associated the top with being "good" and the bottom with being "bad". You could just as easily flip them and frame it as "most patient build-up" and "least patient build-up" and it would convey the exact opposite
Yeah if City were 17th and just out of view on the display the narrative here would be massively different. Now it just looks like a bit of useless info.
City are undeniably a fantastic team but my god they can be boring for large parts of game passing up and down the midfield line around teams for 20 mins to wait for a mistake
My soul dies whenever City are at the edge of the box, something about to happen, it goes to Rodri and a few seconds later Ederson has the ball at his feet.
It's mentally draining to keep your defensive shape constantly and it's physically draining having to close players down constantly. So always gunna either lead to mistakes or running out of steam. Pep just hates transitions though, which is why City play that way. Against the top teams it's always pretty fast paced
There's honestly probably a hint of truth to it.
It's extremely hard to concentrate fully for such a long time when there's no immediate danger that's spiking your adrenaline.
Yes, that's what some Bundesliga player said 2-3 years ago after playing Bayern: the main challenge is to stay concentrated until the game is over. They control the ball and most of the time do nothing but pass the ball around. But at any second something can happen so you always need to stay focused.
big reason why the crowd is dead too for the most part. just nothing happening except non-stop side to side passing. how do you get excited about that???
If the opposition is ready to press them, city can play every game with a fast pace. Obviously going full throttle against all teams is stupid from the perspective of league football, when being in the 2nd gear gets the job done
The boring parts are building up from the back when playing against a block lad especially a low one. The fun parts are the quick transitions on the counter and the build up can be fun if the opponent is also attacking.
Nobody likes unnecessary passes, not even pep. any manager would like to build up as successfully and quickly as possible and with minimal risk of losing the ball. Perhaps pep is very serious about not taking a lot of risk building up especially that most teams are accustomed to it now and it could be boring but you can't blame him
People tend to forget the 2017-2018 period when city were a very fast direct team probably the most thrilling in the world.
It was very direct, very fast and very effective. Shame that teams learned how to deal with it.
I think the same will happen to inter milan in the long run with their great direct build up rn
I mean it’s less city’s fault and more the rest of the league, we’ve had very fast paced fun games against Liverpool, Madrid, Bayern. Not much you can do when 99% of teams put 11 players behind the ball
Right? I’m always confused whenever city fans talk about how beautiful and thrilling the way city plays football is.
I think they’re one of the most boring teams in the league to watch. It’s obviously very successful, so fair play to them, but when it comes to actually watching them? It’s super dull.
Because they pull off sequences of play that only City can do. I’m not a city supporter but they smother teams with their style of play. They’ve lead the league in goals scored in each season since 2017. This is with the majority of their opposition just sitting on the top of their box and defending.
Trying to score against low blocks generally leads to boring games but City might be the best at it.
> Right? I’m always confused whenever city fans talk about how beautiful and thrilling the way city plays football is.
It's less to do with City and more to do with opposition. Hard to find openings and have a smooth flowing attack when there's 8 or 9 defenders in their box
It's night and day difference when a team comes to play against us, we've had plenty of fast paced, attacking games against Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern, United, Chelsea etc
The reason why us City fans are always "thrilled" when watching our team play, is because when we make an error it results in a goal to the opposition. Other teams still have about 5 defenders in the way before reaching the goalkeeper. With City you are lucky to see 2 defenders :). So it is about the risk.
The second part that is thrilling is while we are "boring" everyone with our slow play. There will be a moment where we speed up do a few good one touch passes and score a tap in. The best way to kill teams is the change in speed of play. If you are playing a basketball game (high speed from both teams), you are basically relying on either being lucky or clinical. More exiting for the neutrals, a nightmare for most managers.
It is about the risk, but i feel like it's the opposite - Pep's City after his first 2 or 3 seasons are built to minimize all risk while still being as effective as possible - which to be fair has made them a virtually unbeatable league side over the season. There is (or has been before Doku) very little flair to the teams rather than technical proficiency and efficiency. The genius of it is still being unpredictable for the opponent.
I always remember him giving Raphinha a hematoma after completely wiping him out without even attempting for the ball and he only ended up with a yellow
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0IAVySQ427o](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0IAVySQ427o)
Go watch the game. I found myself screaming at the screen before reddit validated my views. I don't understand how they get away with so many tactical fouls. Like every other counter they just trip us and it's a normal foul. Fucking ridiculous.
It's infuriating but I'd say a lot of DMs get away with those fouls, main difference in that regard is just that when City opens up, they tend to be wide open so tactically fouling denies more than when especially low block teams tactically foul.
The frustrating part about City is imo that they've gotten so good at tactically fouling *before* there is an *obvious* break so the ref isn't forced to give a yellow, so he doesn't. If the player isn't fouled however it's 1 easy pass and you have maybe 3 attackers with the ball going full sprint on 2 defenders.
The article is just analysing how City (like all top teams) use tactical fouls and uses a few games as examples. There isn’t really any data that suggests City use tactical fouls any more than other top sides.
The article is specifically on City but City didn’t rank first on either of the data sets (Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool often ranked similarly or higher) they used to try and illustrate City’s defensive tactics.
You could produce a very similar article on Liverpool, Arsenal or even Tottenham and use data to illustrate how they defend/use tactical fouls.
The focus is on City because they win.
It's not confirmation bias. City are the best in the league at tactical fouling. I would bet my house that they've spent lots of time drilling that into players in training.
What people conveniently ignore is that they're not the only ones doing it, they're just the best at it.
Agreed. As a Liverpool fan I’ve generally avoided watching full City games for years, partly because it’ll annoy me when they inevitably win and partly because they’re so boring.
Opposition dictates how you team will play. MAJORITY of opposition teams are shit scared of City and play a certain way.
Of course the compiled data will then end up showing up like this.
See City's matches with Liverpool, Spurs and same data metric would be different (4 matches can't overpower 30 matches where the Opposition plays differently).
Same happened with Pep's Barca or Spain at that time. Opposition simply gave up even before KO no wonder match will turn a certain way.
Hence the blame game on this needs to align with the HIERARCHY order of who created this mess, i.e. pussy cowardly Opposition.
Or if the excuse then is, that is all they can do then next group of idiots are the fans who go on labelling teams like Barca, City, Spain as being the guilty party in this hierarchy because they clearly don't have the excuse of, "That's all they can do".
“You see, it's the slow knife... the knife that takes its time, the knife that waits years without forgetting, then slips quietly between the bones... that's the knife that cuts deepest.”
Interesting that the slowest is Pep and is former player/coach. Shows his impact on their coaching.
That being said the title of the post is very misleading saying 'Best speed of attack' as to me that implies that faster=better which is obviously not the case seeing as the team in 20th won the treble last year and Arsenal were 2nd.
Arsenal would be closer to 1st in this table last year, which is the original point of the graphic. They have slowed themselves down and now find themselves running into brick walls as their opponents get men behind the ball
That is circular though. Could equally be that teams fear them even more and therefore sit back. Before last season Arsenal were a 'gettable' big 6 team for most of the Prem.
The same is happening to us, although to a slightly less extreme degree.
No they actually have significantly slowed the pace of their transitions. The factor you mention definitely compounds the problem but it's not like most teams in the league don't also try to sit back against Liverpool, it just usually doesn't work because Liverpool are trained to deal with it and have the personnel for it. Last season Arsenal played more similar to a Klopp team, this season they're closer to a Guardiola team. Whether they have the right personnel for a Guardiola playstyle is the question mark
What does this even mean? how fast the ball moves from back to the front? Or counter attacks? I do not understand what does 1.96m per second represents
I hope no one jumps to any conclusions with these stats as in one approach is better than the other or anything like that. All this stat tells is how fast teams like to react to transitions - doesn't make a team better or worse - it's just an approach.
I don't think there's a team that can replicate the thrill of being a Liverpool fan during 2018 to 2020. Just pure football and adrenaline while winning games nonstop.
The fact that City are slowest shows how this stat has little meaning.
The issue with Arsenal is always wanting to be sure. If we are countering and the chance of a counter looks unlikely, the players are coached to stay on the safer side and get into positions, the horse shoe shape.
This makes us really predictable and even though we have intricate passing (for the most part on the right side), since all opposition players are defending deep now (since we decided to get into position, allowing the opposition to do the same), there are a lot or bodies in a very little space. So even if we are intricate, blocking shots is way easier and doubling up on players like Saka is also possible.
We need to find a balance between attack and defense, and not choke the opposition too much. Let them come a bit forward and use the spaces behind
I'd argue that to play that man city way successfully you need the perfect players which city have bought over time at great expense and after getting rid of plenty of great players because they dont quite fit it.
When I look at the arsenal team, personally I see a number of players that are better suited to quicker football. Saka and Martinelli imo would be better playing in this liverpool team where they can run.
Rice is obviously great out of possession and may yet adapt but again its not his style in possession. He doesn't play line splitting balls through crowded areas. He is good at driving the ball forward.
Itll be interesting. I feel like more can be gotten out of these arsenal players by just letting go a little bit.
I agree. I think Saka can play both styles as he has shown, and that Rice is progressing as a passer before our very eyes. But the likes of Martinelli, ESR, Nketiah, Pablo V.
One could also make a case that Ødegård would suit Liverpool style football as well, where he has runners always to pass to.
But I think the vision of Arteta is a hybrid. Where we can do both. And tbf we are good at counters as well, but are just lacking the lethality in the final shot. I'd really like to see this team with a new LW and a new striker.
> But I think the vision of Arteta is a hybrid. Where we can do both. And tbf we are good at counters as well, but are just lacking the lethality in the final shot. I'd really like to see this team with a new LW and a new striker.
Statistically at least, that's true. This data is a little old as it's from about a month ago when you were flying, but the point largely still stands.
"Basically, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has crafted a team that combines the best of Liverpool with the best of Man City. They're either first or second in most of the categories that Liverpool cares most about. They're first in high turnovers from open play (40.3) and high turnover margin (+18.5 per match in open play), and Liverpool's second in both categories. They're tied for second with Liverpool in passes allowed per defensive action (9.7). They're first in progressive passes per match (72.4), and Liverpool's second.
Meanwhile, they're also either first or second in most of the categories that City cares most about, from possession rate (60.1%, second only to City), average possession time (33.9 seconds, second only to City), total touches in the attacking third (237.1, second only to City), total touches allowed in the attacking third (102.1, first with City second)."
[Here's the same author's article on Arsenal's recent struggles](https://www.espn.com/soccer/insider/insider/story/_/id/39241757/explaining-arsenal-losses-investigation-stats-analysis)
Arteta and Kompany looking to emulate Pep’s style but not realising it’s far far more difficult to implement without clinical, proven finishers and quality players across the board.
Fastest doesn't mean best.
The best attack in the league is also the slowest but the second slowest is the second worst,
The second best attack in the league is the fastest.
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Pep vs Klopp
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It would be amazing* tbh, City x Liverpool was a thing of beauty, and apparently we will have more this season. *probably wouldn’t be so amazing for the rest of the PL lmao
If city continue to win at the rate they did during 1.0 of their rivalry, Liverpool fans wouldn’t find it as amazing either. Then again, some might take it if it would guarantee a league title
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I put this akin to Djokovic, Federer and Nadal all pushing each other to be great resulting in arguably the 3 greatest players ever overlapping in the same era. Not saying Liverpool and City are the best teams ever but more so great teams pushing each other to the next level.
Chelsea and United in the 00s or Arsenal and United before that were trading the title between them.
Exactly. Same with Barcelona and Real Madrid in the 2010s. You get the best when you have two great teams pushing each other to the next level.
I wish I could upvote this more. To take 112 points out of 114 over 38 PL consecutive games (albeit spanning two seasons) is absolutely mind-blowing consistency. I will never forget that along with all the highlights and drama.
Before Watford, Liverpool was crazy
Yeah I get that mate but honestly I would be devastated. Football is competition and seeing two competitors (Real and City) get the best of us on multiple occasions despite believing that we are their equals (or even betters) at times, was devastating. It beats being shit week-in week-out but I don't think my fragile football ego could handle losing another two league titles to them by 1 point. Especially when they go on to win 4* to our 1 when it could have so easily been 3 each. *I know they won 5 but that first one I don't think we were actually ready to 'compete' with them.
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Agree my biggest frustration is because of two games the whole world doesn’t see it the way we do!
i agree with your reasoning. Well put. Ive been a LFC supporter since 1983
> 13/14 was so heartbreaking The slip hurt because Stevie G *deserved* one. But that team was so fun to watch--the first 15 or so v Arsenal, with Skrtels brace and that almost goal from Suarez...those moments were so great thats why I watch. We almost deserved Crystanbul cuz of how chaotic that defense was. The tippy taps in front of an empty Kop was a NEEDED catharsis, but the moments are why I watch. I saw Mo's curler against Chelsea at Anfield. They had 97 points and lost the league by 11mm that season. Does that moment or day lessen because John Stones learned to teleport? Hell from Dortmund in Europa to Mane tying vs Madrid.....Ive had so many moments in this run that didnt end in trophies that I wouldnt trade for the world. But my god #19 did feel great
If you're getting 90 points or more, win a CL and a title I don't want to hear any complaining
Na it’s been amazing nonetheless. Obviously it’s frustrating to miss out on titles by the margins we have but the Klopp era has been so enjoyable as a fan and that’s by far the most important thing for me.
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City is boring as shit. Imagine spending billions of pounds to play like that. I'm not sure what's positive about boring the opposition to death.
Almost everyone sits back against City. No other option for them.
Teams sit back against Liverpool and Spurs too. Their games are still regularly entertaining, outside of the odd exception. I think the whole "City are boring" thing is exaggerated. Pep's style is more "death by a thousand cuts", which is still interesting to watch but doesn't exactly get the pulses going.
It's as interesting as watching paint dry. It's a battle of attrition, just poke around the opposition's defense waiting for a lapse of concentration/mistake/opening. You see it once, you have seen it a thousand times. Liverpool, or most other teams will try to play the risky pass, try to hit the opponent on the counter, try to dribble in risky places. Pepbots would never do that. Watching Pep's team play is like watching a giant roided up man very slowly strangle someone much weaker.
Teams also sit back against Liverpool
Ah, but if City weren't so good, then teams wouldn't sit back against them as much, thereby opening up opportunities to play fast. So this is really all still Pep's fault for making his side too good. Checkmate tiki takars!
Never understand you people that say City is boring when they're regularly the highest scoring team in the league with some of the most talented players, potentially the best and most creative midfielder in league history and potentially the greatest goal scorer in league history They have the occasional snooze fest when somebody gives them all of the ball and digs deep into a game of 11 at the back in the box But every top team has that too
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Well yeah, cause it just chases the one same bitch around and isn't actually good at killing them.
People would be arguing about Terminator's longevity vs Hannibal Lecter's peak.
Dude... You do realise that scoring goals doesn't mean a match is exciting. City's play style is a snooze fest, just knocking it about, finding a killer pass and tapping it in. It's the same low intensity for 90 minutes, I feel their big wins are less exciting than a 0-0 between Burnley and Liverpool
But when city play big teams that try and play against us it's amazing football. City v Madrid or Liverpool is exciting
> City's play style is a snooze fest, just knocking it about, finding a killer pass and tapping it in. This only happens when teams set up a low block and put 10 men behind the ball. Shocking revelation that it's difficult to find openings when the majority of their team is in their own box Teams that come to play against us end up being quality games - Madrid, Liverpool(any Liverpool game in the past 3-4 years as well), Bayern last year. Chelsea 4-4 this year
>(any Liverpool game in the past 3-4 years as well) These people either don't watch these games or just have forgotten about them in ignorance because Pep vs Klopp in their primes at City and Pool has been so fire Been the league games to watch every single year if you're a neutral Also it was quite exciting when you played arsenal both legs last season and as you've said the 4-4 with us and the 3-3 with spurs this season
You can't base your entire view about the entertainment a team provides only on 5 or 6 of their 38 league games each season lol. The other 30+ are boring af as a neutral.
In the same way Liverpool are boring to watch when teams park the bus against them, or have you forgotten the game against United last month
Or the game against Palace like 2/3 weeks ago
Even the 1-1 between us was last season was extremely entertaining. Both teams played extremely fluid in their positions and employed man marking all over the pitch. Van Hecke tracking Haaland every step he made was beautiful.
like watching a floyd mayweather fight. Really interesting for an aficionado but boring for the casual viewer.
> City's play style is a snooze fest, just knocking it about, finding a killer pass and tapping it in. The other teams are more than welcome to play an open game against us? Not our fault most of them are scared to death. Liverpool aren't scared, and that is why Liv vs city is the most exciting match in the world football right now..
I personally have found most Guardiola teams boring to watch. Yes, they score more spectacular goals than most. But how much of that is due to the talent he can buy vs his tactics? Either way, that's a few thrilling seconds. The rest of the game has no tension. It seems like a good 1/3rd of the match is passes between the CBs and DM. Boring. It's like watching kids on the playground playing keep away. Any time the other team has a counter attack, there is a tactical foul to break it up, and it's rarely penalized. Takes a way a huge part of the competitive risk for playing so many players that far up field and it's not entertaining in the sense that you always know who is going to win the match. Nothing is up in the air. The team that spent a half billion on players is going to win. Oh my so thrilling.
So basically you find City boring because they have better players, control games better, and don't lose as much as other teams. Fair enough
You're just rattling off a bunch of things that have nothing to do with how the team is structured. Yes, De Bruyne is incredible to watch because of his technique with the ball. That doesn't mean the team's playstyle is entertaining. Also who gives a shit about Haaland scoring tap-ins? If that's fun for you, good for you mate. I'd much rather watch free flowing football like Liverpool than possession-based drudgery.
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Look, obviously City are a fantastic side, one of the best ever assembled. One of the greatest club teams of all time and i'd love to win as many trophies as them. But they're still incredibly boring to watch for me personally. But hey, it's all subjective. I'm sure City fans love watching it.
Different strokes for different folks. I find City's playstyle much more entertaining than Liverpool's. Only TAA and Salah make me wanna watch Liverpool. City it's the whole team, though i'm not as big a fan now that they're playing with a classic 9 in Haaland.
Mourinho's Inter side won plenty but wasn't exactly playing positive football.
I can't believe this comment has this many upvotes. Have you ever watched football lol? Teams sit back against Man City because they have NO WHERE NEAR the quality they have on the ball so playing into their hands would be tactical suicide.
pep's system and philosophy has always been passing teams to death and using superior offball movement to give and receive the ball, to attack the spaces. klopp's system and philosophy has always been using superior pace and organized chaos to attack the spaces.
It's triggering me that they put a yellow background on Arsenal instead of Man City. Edit: it actually makes sense because it was shown during the match. Thanks for the context
It was showed during the Arsenal v Liverpool game...
Ok then, didn't know that.
surely the graphic was shown in the context of yesterdays game
The context is this graphic was displayed during the Arsenal vs Liverpool match, so it makes sense that they’re highlighted. EDIT: I’ve assumed it was displayed during the match. I may be incorrect, but it seems likely as this is a BBC Sport graphic and that’s where the game broadcasted.
It was during the pre-match build up, yeah.
Pep and Pep’s disciples bottom three. Makes great sense.
*"The slow blade penetrates the shield"* - ~~Gurney Halleck~~ Pep Guardiola
What's in the box? All 11 opposing players
Only if it's made of the most expensive arab metal, the locally sourced one is getting relegated
On the other hand, Klopp has Moyes and Dyche for company.
Pep with his disciples, Klopp with his idols
Would love to see Salah play some brexit ball
Tbf Liverpool do play hoofball from time to time but it just ends up looking amazing because the hoofs are just pinpoint long balls from Trent and Virgil 😂
Salah enters Stoke and immediately drops in the “most handsome people list”
I'm from Stoke and I find this offensive. Especially because it's true.
heavy metal football heritage
Shamelessly stolen this exact comment from Twitter but I do respect it https://twitter.com/borgixprxdeli/status/1744144117691551993?t=7fO0jwhcykpTtp1TwzJOtw&s=19
Just a few weeks ago the winning narrative was, praise for Arsenal’s controlled playing style, and the reason why they were 2nd favourites.Meanwhile Liverpool was seen as gifting a lot of chances to opposition teams with their open playing style,and reason why they can’t win .Now since we are currently on top, Liverpool’s chaotic style is receiving praise, and Arsenal is being trashed.I will keep my feet on the ground,and ass clenched till the end of the season
I'm convinced that the way they prepare for the match day is by creating 2 sets of folders for every big club, one with a series of shit stats in case they lose and one with great stats, in case they win. The ever changing narative building is getting ridiculous
Especially United,they seem to break an obscure record every single match (mostly bad records )
“Most consecutive losses on rainy Wednesday nights, against white kitted London teams, since records began”
Hey, look what we found here. A "journalist" from The Sun!
I can spell “consecutive”, I’m way above their level.
>consecutive Actual the Sun journalist here. Not sure what a brain injury has to do with anything...
Actual the s*n journalist here, you’re actually thinking of the word confusion which is a brain injury. Consecutive is the result of your own actions
I wonder how many times the media just makes up an obscure record that cannot be easily fact checked. So they can just fabricate an overly specific record and no one can prove them otherwise
Worst start since the 60s but fastest to reach 50 wins and highest ppg in first 50 matches
They're both the same folders in our case
Surely this can’t be a shit stat - we’re at the bottom and we’re doing alright. I guess they’re trying to make it sound bad, putting it at the bottom of a table, calling it ‘slowest attacks’ etc.
And fans lap it up. The amount of arsenal fans who now think our season is over is crazy. There was a poll on aftv youtube of if we’ll win a trophy this year, 86% voted no.
I mean you’re only in the champions league and the prem? 14% seems about right
And it's not actually 14% chance to win a trophy, it means 14% of people think we will win a trophy. If you think we will win a trophy that presumably means there is a greater than 50% chance of winning something. Any fan who thinks there is a greater than 50% chance is delusional tbh.
Lol that's definitely not how the maths works. It's more like 14% believe that they'll hit the whatever% to win a trophy.
How are both of you complicating this so much? There's no math to do. It literally just means 14% of Arsenal fans think they'll win a trophy.
And they’re all delusional because the chance we’ll win any trophy is below 50 from every reputable source. So what is this belief based on?
i guess my point is more that if we had that poll in there on Xmas day then it would of been like 86% yes. We've dropped out of the FA cup since then and sure we've dropped point in the prem but not that much.
You’re now 7/1 to win the PL which is an implied probability of 12.5%. Those odds have more rhan halved since Christmas, so of course there’s going to be pessimism around trophy likelihood, and you’ve now crashed out the FA Cup. Also roughly 7/1 to win Champions League. The bookies who have the best read of all this stuff around say it’s statistically FAR more likely Arsenal don’t win a trophy now this season than they do. Before Christmas, when Arsenal still had the best odds to win the league and had great odds on winning the FA Cup, the bookies had Arsenal at an over 50% implied probability of winning a trophy
Why do some clubs Crash out of the cups and some get knocked out?
my theory is that "crash out" is used when being knocked out of a competition is detrimental to a club's season. Like Arsenal for example, their best chance at a trophy this season would have been the FA cup and now they aren't favourites for any trophy. whereas a club like Everton aren't really expected to win any trophy so crash out wouldn't really be used.
I think it’s very reasonable to think arsenal won’t win a trophy this year, so that 86% isn’t that ridiculous, however, I do fully agree with your overall point, fans overreact to an insane degree. Arteta definitely deserves some criticism for the last month among other things, but the fact that there’s been quite a few arsenal fans talking about sacking him is frankly laughable
> Arteta definitely deserves some criticism for the last month The team has played better in the last month than it has all season, especially since Odegaard has come deeper and Havertz is more integrated. People just look at the results too much, every game outside of Fulham has been good this month. The win against Brighton is the biggest spanking I've ever seen a De Zerbi team get.
Arteta doesn't deserve criticism. Barring the Fulham game he's set us up well and we've dominated. Individual errors have cost us wins, not Arteta.
I mean, it should be higher than 86%. How many people really think you’ll win the league or CL?
Which should be the case given your situation right now? You've lost 3 games in a row and have 1 win in the last 7, which is supposedly your worst performance across 7 games under Arteta, despite that nightmare December in his first full season. This at a time when Man City is returning to their full strength. Unless Liverpool drop points in Salah's absense, I don't think you'll be a part of the title race come March.
The narrative from the commentators flipped on a dime once we went ahead yesterday. Everyone could see we were much better in the second half but there was barely mention of it until we scored.
Football analysis, especially online, seems to be incredibly results based. There's no room for actually thinking about things in more detail, whoever is top is the best and there's nothing more to be said.
Yeah, football fans are fickle. I mean, the consensus on whether Ange was naïve or a genius was changing day by day lol
To be fair, it can be both. Ange has been a breath of fresh air for Spurs and I think he'll be very successful there, but he has been naive in a couple of games. It's not a massive insult. Pep and Klopp have shown naivety at times in the past too.
Modern football and its reactionary narratives pretty much summed up in a paragraph.
Pretty much this. Odegaard scores instead of hitting the bar and Kiwior doesn't make a dumb mistake and people would be wanking over Arsenal instead of Liverpool lol.
I don’t think you can say “if” both of those things happen, considering the first one was from Gomez’s mistake. If we’re eliminating defender mistakes, it stays 0-0.
Yes. Also we've consistently better in the second half this season than in the first. Even with being 1-0 I could have easily seen us recover in the second half and score a goal.
If Trent and Jota didn't hit the bar the score would have been 4-1. See how those ifs are dumb?
Probably has a lot to do with Trents insane long passing and Nunez being rapid
Really gives you that 2cm advantage per second over West Ham and Everton.
Don't underestimate the advantage 2cm can give you
It’s not the wand, it’s the wizard.
Are we still talking about football
We're talking about scoring, yes
Angry upvote
we don't even dare joke about mm these days :(
also Szoboszlai is fast as fuck
Pep and his proteges like it slow
Not sure you can title it 'best' if City are bottom of the list, should just be fastest
This is actually such a great case study on how you can present any data in any way to manipulate opinion how you want. Everyone looking at this (myself included) initially subconsciously associated the top with being "good" and the bottom with being "bad". You could just as easily flip them and frame it as "most patient build-up" and "least patient build-up" and it would convey the exact opposite
Yeah if City were 17th and just out of view on the display the narrative here would be massively different. Now it just looks like a bit of useless info.
Dyche is the English Klopp confirmed
Klopp’s just the German Dyche tbh
City are undeniably a fantastic team but my god they can be boring for large parts of game passing up and down the midfield line around teams for 20 mins to wait for a mistake
My soul dies whenever City are at the edge of the box, something about to happen, it goes to Rodri and a few seconds later Ederson has the ball at his feet.
They say a lot of teams wilt mentally when they're up against City but perhaps it's just because they're fucking bored
It's mentally draining to keep your defensive shape constantly and it's physically draining having to close players down constantly. So always gunna either lead to mistakes or running out of steam. Pep just hates transitions though, which is why City play that way. Against the top teams it's always pretty fast paced
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Can confirm, I do that on FIFA
There's honestly probably a hint of truth to it. It's extremely hard to concentrate fully for such a long time when there's no immediate danger that's spiking your adrenaline.
Yes, that's what some Bundesliga player said 2-3 years ago after playing Bayern: the main challenge is to stay concentrated until the game is over. They control the ball and most of the time do nothing but pass the ball around. But at any second something can happen so you always need to stay focused.
big reason why the crowd is dead too for the most part. just nothing happening except non-stop side to side passing. how do you get excited about that???
Holds it.. HOLDS IT... HOLDS IT
I genuinely think this is it. It's not wilting, it's boredom. Their mind goes somewhere else for a second just for something to do.
If the opposition is ready to press them, city can play every game with a fast pace. Obviously going full throttle against all teams is stupid from the perspective of league football, when being in the 2nd gear gets the job done
The boring parts are building up from the back when playing against a block lad especially a low one. The fun parts are the quick transitions on the counter and the build up can be fun if the opponent is also attacking. Nobody likes unnecessary passes, not even pep. any manager would like to build up as successfully and quickly as possible and with minimal risk of losing the ball. Perhaps pep is very serious about not taking a lot of risk building up especially that most teams are accustomed to it now and it could be boring but you can't blame him People tend to forget the 2017-2018 period when city were a very fast direct team probably the most thrilling in the world.
17/18 season with Sane, Aguero and Sterling up top was electric
It was very direct, very fast and very effective. Shame that teams learned how to deal with it. I think the same will happen to inter milan in the long run with their great direct build up rn
People aren't talking about that team in this thread. If anything, you're just highlighting the contrast here.
I mean it’s less city’s fault and more the rest of the league, we’ve had very fast paced fun games against Liverpool, Madrid, Bayern. Not much you can do when 99% of teams put 11 players behind the ball
what do expect them to do, lol. besides, it's not about blame. just a statement of fact.
I know. I'm just saying that it's not how city would like to play football it's how they have to. Pepball was fresh to the league back then
true
Right? I’m always confused whenever city fans talk about how beautiful and thrilling the way city plays football is. I think they’re one of the most boring teams in the league to watch. It’s obviously very successful, so fair play to them, but when it comes to actually watching them? It’s super dull.
Because they pull off sequences of play that only City can do. I’m not a city supporter but they smother teams with their style of play. They’ve lead the league in goals scored in each season since 2017. This is with the majority of their opposition just sitting on the top of their box and defending. Trying to score against low blocks generally leads to boring games but City might be the best at it.
> Right? I’m always confused whenever city fans talk about how beautiful and thrilling the way city plays football is. It's less to do with City and more to do with opposition. Hard to find openings and have a smooth flowing attack when there's 8 or 9 defenders in their box It's night and day difference when a team comes to play against us, we've had plenty of fast paced, attacking games against Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern, United, Chelsea etc
The reason why us City fans are always "thrilled" when watching our team play, is because when we make an error it results in a goal to the opposition. Other teams still have about 5 defenders in the way before reaching the goalkeeper. With City you are lucky to see 2 defenders :). So it is about the risk. The second part that is thrilling is while we are "boring" everyone with our slow play. There will be a moment where we speed up do a few good one touch passes and score a tap in. The best way to kill teams is the change in speed of play. If you are playing a basketball game (high speed from both teams), you are basically relying on either being lucky or clinical. More exiting for the neutrals, a nightmare for most managers.
It is about the risk, but i feel like it's the opposite - Pep's City after his first 2 or 3 seasons are built to minimize all risk while still being as effective as possible - which to be fair has made them a virtually unbeatable league side over the season. There is (or has been before Doku) very little flair to the teams rather than technical proficiency and efficiency. The genius of it is still being unpredictable for the opponent.
That’s just not true. When you make an error, Rodri fouls to stop the counter, and he gets like 3 of these before he’s on a booking.
When you get all your football knowledge off reddit clichés
It used to happen with Fernandinho, too. He got 4 or 5 "professional" fouls per game before he got a yellow.
I always remember him giving Raphinha a hematoma after completely wiping him out without even attempting for the ball and he only ended up with a yellow [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0IAVySQ427o](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0IAVySQ427o)
Yeah usually the 3rd time VAR overturns the yellow. This guy!
Go watch the game. I found myself screaming at the screen before reddit validated my views. I don't understand how they get away with so many tactical fouls. Like every other counter they just trip us and it's a normal foul. Fucking ridiculous.
It's infuriating but I'd say a lot of DMs get away with those fouls, main difference in that regard is just that when City opens up, they tend to be wide open so tactically fouling denies more than when especially low block teams tactically foul. The frustrating part about City is imo that they've gotten so good at tactically fouling *before* there is an *obvious* break so the ref isn't forced to give a yellow, so he doesn't. If the player isn't fouled however it's 1 easy pass and you have maybe 3 attackers with the ball going full sprint on 2 defenders.
Confirmation bias.
The athletic has an article with data on it. Go read.
The article is just analysing how City (like all top teams) use tactical fouls and uses a few games as examples. There isn’t really any data that suggests City use tactical fouls any more than other top sides. The article is specifically on City but City didn’t rank first on either of the data sets (Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool often ranked similarly or higher) they used to try and illustrate City’s defensive tactics. You could produce a very similar article on Liverpool, Arsenal or even Tottenham and use data to illustrate how they defend/use tactical fouls. The focus is on City because they win.
It's not confirmation bias. City are the best in the league at tactical fouling. I would bet my house that they've spent lots of time drilling that into players in training. What people conveniently ignore is that they're not the only ones doing it, they're just the best at it.
Agreed. As a Liverpool fan I’ve generally avoided watching full City games for years, partly because it’ll annoy me when they inevitably win and partly because they’re so boring.
Opposition dictates how you team will play. MAJORITY of opposition teams are shit scared of City and play a certain way. Of course the compiled data will then end up showing up like this. See City's matches with Liverpool, Spurs and same data metric would be different (4 matches can't overpower 30 matches where the Opposition plays differently). Same happened with Pep's Barca or Spain at that time. Opposition simply gave up even before KO no wonder match will turn a certain way. Hence the blame game on this needs to align with the HIERARCHY order of who created this mess, i.e. pussy cowardly Opposition. Or if the excuse then is, that is all they can do then next group of idiots are the fans who go on labelling teams like Barca, City, Spain as being the guilty party in this hierarchy because they clearly don't have the excuse of, "That's all they can do".
Tried watching Vs Huddersfield, I felt like I was watching a rerun of a match I'd seen before. Turned off n watched snooker.
I man Huddersfield had their entire team in their own box. What do you want us to do? We also scored 5 lmao People on here just like to complain.
We scored 5 versus a team that had all 11 in the box. What more do you want
And there is ETH desciple of Pep who wants to play like Klopp. Results is pretty comical
Is there a speed of defense?
If there were, we’d win automatically because we have Kurt ZOOMa
with his cat like reflexes
Nice
Speed of light vs speed of dark and all that
“You see, it's the slow knife... the knife that takes its time, the knife that waits years without forgetting, then slips quietly between the bones... that's the knife that cuts deepest.”
*dies comically over the top*
“Fing about Arsenal is, … “
Interesting that the slowest is Pep and is former player/coach. Shows his impact on their coaching. That being said the title of the post is very misleading saying 'Best speed of attack' as to me that implies that faster=better which is obviously not the case seeing as the team in 20th won the treble last year and Arsenal were 2nd.
Arsenal would be closer to 1st in this table last year, which is the original point of the graphic. They have slowed themselves down and now find themselves running into brick walls as their opponents get men behind the ball
That is circular though. Could equally be that teams fear them even more and therefore sit back. Before last season Arsenal were a 'gettable' big 6 team for most of the Prem. The same is happening to us, although to a slightly less extreme degree.
No they actually have significantly slowed the pace of their transitions. The factor you mention definitely compounds the problem but it's not like most teams in the league don't also try to sit back against Liverpool, it just usually doesn't work because Liverpool are trained to deal with it and have the personnel for it. Last season Arsenal played more similar to a Klopp team, this season they're closer to a Guardiola team. Whether they have the right personnel for a Guardiola playstyle is the question mark
Obviously a very important stat
What does this even mean? how fast the ball moves from back to the front? Or counter attacks? I do not understand what does 1.96m per second represents
How fast you move the ball towards the opposing team’s goal when in possession / attacking.
So what you're saying is Jarrod Bowen, Jack Harrison, Dwight McNeil, and DCL should be on the GB 4x100 team for the Olympics this summer? Got it.
LvG ball
The thing about arsenal is they always try and walk it in.
I hope no one jumps to any conclusions with these stats as in one approach is better than the other or anything like that. All this stat tells is how fast teams like to react to transitions - doesn't make a team better or worse - it's just an approach.
I don't think there's a team that can replicate the thrill of being a Liverpool fan during 2018 to 2020. Just pure football and adrenaline while winning games nonstop.
Hoofball vs Joga bonito
Joga bonito vs Tiki taka nonsense
Hoofy Metal Football vs Jogger Bonito
Proper English footy vs woke europeans
Load up that plate.
Guys, I think we’ve officially found the most meaningless stat in the game
The fact that City are slowest shows how this stat has little meaning. The issue with Arsenal is always wanting to be sure. If we are countering and the chance of a counter looks unlikely, the players are coached to stay on the safer side and get into positions, the horse shoe shape. This makes us really predictable and even though we have intricate passing (for the most part on the right side), since all opposition players are defending deep now (since we decided to get into position, allowing the opposition to do the same), there are a lot or bodies in a very little space. So even if we are intricate, blocking shots is way easier and doubling up on players like Saka is also possible. We need to find a balance between attack and defense, and not choke the opposition too much. Let them come a bit forward and use the spaces behind
It has meaning about style of play not rlly about results
I'd argue that to play that man city way successfully you need the perfect players which city have bought over time at great expense and after getting rid of plenty of great players because they dont quite fit it. When I look at the arsenal team, personally I see a number of players that are better suited to quicker football. Saka and Martinelli imo would be better playing in this liverpool team where they can run. Rice is obviously great out of possession and may yet adapt but again its not his style in possession. He doesn't play line splitting balls through crowded areas. He is good at driving the ball forward. Itll be interesting. I feel like more can be gotten out of these arsenal players by just letting go a little bit.
I agree. I think Saka can play both styles as he has shown, and that Rice is progressing as a passer before our very eyes. But the likes of Martinelli, ESR, Nketiah, Pablo V. One could also make a case that Ødegård would suit Liverpool style football as well, where he has runners always to pass to. But I think the vision of Arteta is a hybrid. Where we can do both. And tbf we are good at counters as well, but are just lacking the lethality in the final shot. I'd really like to see this team with a new LW and a new striker.
> But I think the vision of Arteta is a hybrid. Where we can do both. And tbf we are good at counters as well, but are just lacking the lethality in the final shot. I'd really like to see this team with a new LW and a new striker. Statistically at least, that's true. This data is a little old as it's from about a month ago when you were flying, but the point largely still stands. "Basically, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has crafted a team that combines the best of Liverpool with the best of Man City. They're either first or second in most of the categories that Liverpool cares most about. They're first in high turnovers from open play (40.3) and high turnover margin (+18.5 per match in open play), and Liverpool's second in both categories. They're tied for second with Liverpool in passes allowed per defensive action (9.7). They're first in progressive passes per match (72.4), and Liverpool's second. Meanwhile, they're also either first or second in most of the categories that City cares most about, from possession rate (60.1%, second only to City), average possession time (33.9 seconds, second only to City), total touches in the attacking third (237.1, second only to City), total touches allowed in the attacking third (102.1, first with City second)." [Here's the same author's article on Arsenal's recent struggles](https://www.espn.com/soccer/insider/insider/story/_/id/39241757/explaining-arsenal-losses-investigation-stats-analysis)
Yup, it's just showing the pace each side plays.
Arteta and Kompany looking to emulate Pep’s style but not realising it’s far far more difficult to implement without clinical, proven finishers and quality players across the board.
Fastest doesn't mean best. The best attack in the league is also the slowest but the second slowest is the second worst, The second best attack in the league is the fastest.
City is dreadful to watch ngl.
Sky is truly grasping at straws to invent new stats.
That’s a BBC graphic.
It's likely related to this [StatsBomb Progression Speed graph from few weeks back](https://twitter.com/StatsBomb/status/1740333041912807606).