The Chels

Someone should make a similar video for Ivanovic. Aside from all the half-hearted closing down and running back to position, his lapses in concentration have probably proven the most costly. Off the top of my head I can think of these recent examples: Sunderland in our last encounter (can't remember exact chance but was near the end)Denmark equaliser v Serbia (Euro 2016 qualifier)Lampard goal (away to City)Maribor empty net chance (away)Arda Turan goal (Atletico Madrid at home)Salah goal (away to Basel)Anyone think of any more?

5 of the 6 teams who have a better defensive record than Atletico have played 1-2 games fewer so that statistic is somewhat misleading. Atleti have also conceded the second fewest shots on goal in the league after Barcelona (8.1) which suggests that teams tend to be clinical against them in front of goal. Personally I prefer our approach against the smaller teams to Atletico's because we tend to play better football. Against the big teams, however, both teams want to do so the same thing - have less possession, defend well and score on the counter attack. They have to play against Real and Barca remember and are often very successful against them: whereas they beat Real Madrid 1-0 away in the league, we drew to an awful United side 1-1. And it's not just the results which are in their favour, their performances are also generally a lot more convincing because they don't have the issues of pressing and compactness that we tend to have and their attacking play tends to be a lot better too. Atleti are definitely the best example of a brilliant defensive (but balanced) side for the big games (and away games) which is why I see them going very far in the CL. Haha wow Cahill's defending and Ivanovic's lack thereof is comical. I agree that having more mobile defenders would certainly help our pressing but not entirely. It wouldn't compensate for the problems we have upfront where for example Costa sometimes presses on his own and has to shout frustratedly at the other players to press with him since they don't seem to know what the pressing triggers are. Also our press ends up being easily bypassed far too often (due it to being not very aggressive and very local) with slow defensive transitions following and again that's not something more mobile CBs would necessarily improve. Interestingly Mourinho often used a broken press at Real Madrid too especially against Barca and they had very mobile defenders so I guess it his style. Though I have not seen it applied very well here in many games at all and when I compare it to Atletico's collective pressing system I just cannot see the advantages.

No team is going to remain compact all game, every game. You found one example from the start of the season where they had some defensive issues and weren't parking the bus (which was the criteria)? They had that area covered by the way but it's amazing that you have to look so far back to see such issues with Atletico while you could just look at any single one of our games. You will also find gaps in the game between Atletico and Real, 7 Jan 2015? I'd like to see that. I think you heavily overrate our defence as it is definitely not one of the best in the world.

I don't see any big issues with compactness when they had 10 behind the ball and that's what you were supposed to find. I like how you didn't want to choose any of the 6 matches where Barca failed to beat Atletico last season (or score more than 1 goal). I wonder why. You said you could find it in any game? Try Atletico v Real, 7 Jan 2015.

Whichever. A game where they're parking the bus, where there's no defensive structure and where there are big gaps in front of the defence.

They're not my pictures actually. You can look up tactical analyses yourself and you'll realise I'm not the only one who sees our defensive issues. I take it you think we're defensively brilliant and with no issues, right? I'm still waiting for the Atletico Madrid picture.

You can see the issues when watching the game live. The images are just there for a visual aid. Ok I'd like you to find Atletico Madrid having huge gaps in their midfield and no clear defensive structure when they're parking the bus with no intent of attacking like we were against Pool. And can you tell me if they'd have conceded the goal we did to Liverpool with a huge gap between the CMs?

This is probably addressed somewhat at me so I feel I should respond. I do think tactics were partly to blame. Look at how many times Bradford got in and around our box even though we were leading. That suggests that our pressing was non-existent or constantly overcome (didn't watch so can't say) and I don't understand why that should be the case. Our players should have been more than capable of pressing and preventing a League 1 side from advancing so deep into our half, and so I am led to believe that they were either not instructed to press or the pressing was disjointed (as usual). The issues with pressing and compactness have been recurring themes this season, even with the first team so I am not surprised to see them here. My personal opinion is that we don't necessarily have a good or clear defensive philosophy. Instead we rely heavily on individuals - mostly Matic - to keep us defensively stable. And a system that depends too much on individual brilliance means that when that player has a bad game or doesn't play then the limitations of the system come to light. Obviously Matic is an exceptional player and it would be difficult to replace the qualities he brings, but the system doesn't allow him to be replaced IMO. Without his ability to cover the huge spaces that we often leave (generally because of the disjointed pressing) then we tend to be defensively very vulnerable. In this game we allowed Bradford to get into dangerous positions numerous times and we then made many individual mistakes, which really isn't surprising given the players we had out there. So for each goal conceded what do you blame - the individual mistake(s) right at the end of the passage of play or the tactical errors that allowed the passage of play to develop and allowed for those mistakes to be a (big) possibility? Personally I blame the latter. None of these factors would be such an issue if our defenders were capable of defending for themselves but we all know that is not the case.

That compactness though. Second pic is from when we were actually parking the bus and had 10 behind the ball lol. One of the biggest factors responsible for our poor defending IMO is our disjointed pressing, which has been a problem since Jose's return - I remember us using it in the 2-0 defeat to City last year. Players often do not press in tandem, apparently having no clearly defined pressing triggers. When we do press the whole team doesn't shift across (or up) the pitch very well to accomodate for the press (second pic) and this makes it local pressing only which is much easier for the opposition to overcome. Our defensive transitions once the press is overcome also tends to be rather poor as we don't get enough men behind the ball quickly enough. Disjointed pressing ultimately leaves big gaps for the rest of the players to cover and for the opposition to exploit (first pic), leaving us very vulnerable. It should be noted that against City this season we decided not to press at all which meant we had no attacking threat and were thus pinned back into our box and fortunate not to concede before we did. Improved pressing is the answer rather than not pressing.

That's how we normally defend?

...perfectly exemplified by his comments after the City game. Schurrle, an attacking player, gets lambasted publicly for momentarily losing concentration in defence whilst Ivanovic, a defender, does the exact same thing and gets away scot-free (as he has on many occasions).

Good point. If you isolate any of our defenders 1v1 (apart from Azpi usually) then we're screwed. I'm not sure how that is possible in a team vying for PL and CL glory but because of it we need to make sure our defenders are not exposed and we're not doing such a good job of that, for reasons previously mentioned. Against Liverpool, Sterling was allowed to run at Cahill (even though we were parking the bus!) and that meant there was only one conclusion.

I really did think City's first half performance was excellent but can't say how I'd have found it if I were a City fan. I guess my pessimissm on here is mostly with Mourinho and his tactics. As good as he is I do consider him a lot less infallible than other fans do and I often feel there are repeated errors with tactics/personnel from him that are completely excused and ignored on here, so I point them out. I don't post so many positive and upbeat posts as they're generally already out there and I usually just hit 'like' on them instead of repeating the same thing. I do apologise for sounding so negative all the time but I sometimes feel my pessimism is needed to offset the excessive optimism and oversights that you can get on here

So you don't recall hearing phrases like 'Mourinho masterclass', 'Mourinho got his tactics spot on' and 'Mourinho's got his side playing brilliant football'? I'm pretty sure they are dished out every time we win. The victories against City, Liverpool and PSG last season were almost exclusively attributed to Mourinho's tactics.

Mourinho tends to get just as much praise as the players when we win if not more, especially against the big sides. So surely it is only fair he is criticised when things go the other way.

Disorganised/non-existent pressing + big gaps within midfield/between midfield and defence = allows opposition the ball in dangerous positions and closer to our box against individually weak defenders = more likely to concede. We see the above in most games and the fact that Jose still hasn't fixed this suggests he's either happy with the defensive system we have in place or doesn't know how to change it. Instead of trying to limit the number of times the opposition get the ball in dangerous positions he seems to prefer to blame individuals when we concede from those positions (e.g. Schurrle v City). There is little defensive stability in the side except for when we park the bus - and that doesn't always go well as we saw at City away this season or away to Liverpool in the COC. The bottom line is that we rely heavily on individuals for a good defence, notably Matic. And when those players have bad games or don't play then the limitations of the system are exposed.

And similarly even Burnley showed more ambition at the Etihad than we did. In fact I can't think of a team who showed less (maybe Sunderland?).

Dire in attack? They completely dominated and a goal looked inevitable, especially in the first half where Middlesbrough were having to scramble the ball clear on a lot of occassions. Still City should be grateful to us for deflecting the attention away from their result.

The 2012 side was awful if we're honest. So according to you Bad and lucky = belief and sheer determination Bad and not lucky = chokers

Middlesbrough are a good side and will likely be in the Prem next season. City had a lot of clear-cut chances and were unlucky not to score. We conceded 4 goals to a Ligue 1 side after going 2-0 up at home.

I've noticed and remarked upon our clear defensive woes even when we were winning while lots of people like to pretend they're not there. I would love to be proven wrong and for Mourinho to sort out our issues with pressing and compactness but it hasn't happened yet and doesn't look like happening anytime soon. Still I am surprised we conceded 9 to Tottenham and Bradford. That is some achievement.

Bitter about the CL victory?

I've been very upfront about the defensive issues actually.

Hate to say I told you so... Our defensive system isn't very good and has no clear structure! Even with our best players we look vulnerable defensively. I haven't seen the game but I can almost guarantee the usual disorganised pressing and lack of compactness was on show.

Who is he?