Itâs hard to do anything against those tactics. It is basically parking the bus. Thankfully we donât see it often in football.
Nothing stopped Arteta from trying to nick a goal in the second half and really kill the match.
Then there is the lying down claiming injury to stop momentum and time waste, Teams resorting to that can fuck off.
Arsenal were extremely disciplined and extremely cynical. Extremely, well, Spanish.
If it was that easy theyâd all do it.
Arsenal are very good at it tbf.
Puke football though
If they were Spanish, theyâd have won
Lads Real Madrid employed the same tactics in the 2nd leg of the champions league semi final at the ethiad⌠so much so that when city were knocked out on pens some of the players were fuming saying only one team were trying to play and that was 11 v 11⌠does that mean Real Madrid have a small club mentality
Youâd wonder why the small clubs donât do it more really
Iâm sure Chippy Brady was disgusted at the Arsenal tactics employed yesterday. He used to do a fair amount of whinging when Atletico used the same approach in the Champions League on occasion
Playing a Pep team in their pomp is about staying in the game. So many teams get overwhelmed. Real never stopped believing theyâd win (do they ever?) so kept at it. Arsenal were doing the same. They were 1 up and down to 10. What else were they supposed to do?
I was thinking that myself yesterday.
You do what you have to in these games.
Tipp Town FC went out against the mighty St Michaelâs on Saturday night in the FAI Junior Cup First Round with a 6-3-1 formation. Now they still lost 4-1 but probably saved themselves from a 10-0 had they gone out and been a bit more cavalier.
Fellas here seem to think that if you just pack your defence youâve the hard work done. I dont like negative football but, like attacking football, it can be done extremely well or very basically.
At the height of Pepâs Barcelona, which were essentially the unstoppable Spanish national team plus Lionel Messi, Mourinho still managed to win a treble with Inter
Itâs just who we are mate. Even with five men weâll have a go.
Whatever about the Champions League but how Barcelona gifted Inter the Italian league and cup was criminal.
The discipline and concentration to follow through on those tactics must be off the charts
A Champions League Semi Final?
Ah stop. Arsenal had a real chance strike a blow yesterday. But as before, they went into themselves.
Theyâre still not serious people.
Is it that hard with the dangerous part of the goals being essentially loaded with players?
I didnât watch the 2nd half but apparently 3 Arsenal players went off injured, with a teenager coming on in defence for his debut. I think you might be underestimating the physical toll playing against a side like City has on a team if you think they should have been providing an attacking threat as well, especially less than 72 hours after playing a game in Italy.
They didnt help themselves by making no effort to take the pressure off over 45 minutes though. You cant complain about the mental fatigue of defending, when you allow the other team abdicate that same responsibility entirely.
Itâs like what Rodri does. It looks so simple but he is always, always running to be in the right position to take a pass, he never goes too far forward and leaves a gap, never tries to get glory for himself. Reminds me so much of Busquets. A great footballer, who could probably do damage if he made more forward runs, but knows that thatâs not what heâs there for
I donât think they had to go off due to mental fatigue, they had to go off because they were physically done. A few lung-bursting runs forward isnât the cure for that.