His shots were kind of shocking because nearly most of his shots have been hard driven shots that were on target. I think he got a little high off making the game changing assist and he tried to be a hero by curling the shot into the corner, but he kept striking underneath the ball too much and both shots ended up going into the stands, it had the curve on it... but it was like a golf shot. Also... we should all be giving Mario a ton of credit for being so unselfish and not trying to make a shot when there was none, he let it drop pass him and Sami buried it. Mario's best attribute is his consistent work ethic and his unselfish play, he does all of the hard work and looks to set guys up instead of constantly trying to force things. I was actually pleased to see Gonzalo spread the ball around more and keep an open eye out for his guys around him instead of just trying to force shots.
Since losing to Samp 3-2, Juve have scored 21 goals in 13 matches while giving up 1. That is about 1.62 goals for and .08 goals against per match. Compare this to the first 18 matches in all comps where Juve scored 44 (2.45 per) while giving up a whopping 21 goals (1.17 per). I am certainly not complaining given that Juve have not lost in about 2.5 months! Still, it's still pretty shocking to see such a contrast to the beginning of the season. It's crazier given that Juve just went through their toughest part of the first half during this impressive run of form. Should they improve a bit in attack while being just as solid as they have been lately in defense, this team has everything it takes to challenge for CL.
City are better in attack because of Pep. Individually I think Juve have just as much if not more attacking talent. Higuaín, Dybala, Manzukic, Costa, Berna, Cuadrado, Pjanic vs Aguero, Jesus, Sterling, Sane, Bernardo, De Bruyne, Silva Barca don't have as much depth as either in attack, but they have huge quality in Iniesta, Suarez, Coutihno, Dembele, and above all Messi. I think the biggest difference between Juve and these other two clubs is in the philosophy and interpretation of the game. This isn't a criticism since winning is what matters and they all have done so this season playing their own style.
Problem is, 2 of our attackers are out most likely through both Spurs games. If we get another injury there we will regret not buying someone in January or loaning out Pjaca.
I think it was as simple as going away from the 4-2-3-1 and the introduction of Matuidi into the starting XI.
Dybala > De Bruyne. Also De Bruyne is technically not a midfielder, more of an attacking midfielder. He plays further forward.
Very True. Man City is just an attacking team because that is Pep's style of play. Dybala > De Bruyne Higuain = Aguero Costa > Sterling Cuadrado < Sane Bernardeschi = Silva (Silva was better in the past) Pjanic > Bernardo Mandzukic = Jesus Yeah but Messi and Suarez cannot be underestimated. It is hard to match an attack with both of them two. You got arguably the best player in the world along with arguably the second best striker in the world. Maybe we have more depth, but Barcelona really do have the quality.
De Bruyne is consistently good. He has a very well rounded game and can do it all. Paulo has stretches of games where he just struggles and goes missing. If Paulo were consistent, then he very well could be rated better then KVB because Paulo scores a lot more often.
Well keep in mind De Bruyne is 2 years older as well and has a little more experience. I remember 2 years ago he was not always consistent for Man City. There were a number of games he didn't even start.
That is a fair point... but Paulo is not at his level yet, but i do think he can surpass him because all things considered, Paulo finds the back of the net, I think Man City has a better supporting cast in the attack, Jesus is a very dynamic player and Aguero is a very good polished strong striker. Gonzalo has had a regression( he may be coming out of it tho) and Mario doesnt really play in the attack that much, he is more like a hybrid box to box midfielder who plays wide... but his ability to finish on back post crosses or play good backwards diagonal crosses from the attacking 3rd corner is what produces offensive results on the field. We dont have the fullbacks City have, so our offensive guys have to come back and help, where as City's guys seem to not have to do that as much in the games I have seen of them. City are on a magical run of performance right now as well so everyone is elevated in production at the moment.
I think Sandro is better than any of City's full backs. On the other side we don't, but I have seen Man City struggle in defense. Usually they make up for it with attack but in UCL especially vs Napoli, their defense looked very shaky at times. Luckily they really made up for it with scoring enough goals.
Otamendi, Mangala etc all looked like pretty good defenders before signing for City. Only defensive players I can remember them having that werent average are Kompany and Zabaleta. Lets wait and see how he actually performs there.