Tomo, are you not overreacting a little because Lampard did not go with the approach that you want against Manchester City in ONE game? When you play against a Pep Guardiola side, there is basically no foolproof approach. There is always gonna be a risk regardless of whether you take them heads on or you play on the counter against them and like it or not, you are always gonna need some luck against his sides, because of his style and players at his disposal. The important thing is finding the right balance in the approach. Sure, the counter attacking approach on Thursday might not be the most eye catching but we still managed to find the right balance between being defensive and still being threatening going forward. Least we did not turn up passively like what Conte did at the Etihad in 2018! Furthermore, it is worth remembering that ever since we went up against Guardiola in 2008, the counter-attacking approach has more often than not worked for us against him. So it is not like the approach does not have a good track record and if anything, I wonder if Lampard had that 3-0 spanking by Bayern in his mind when he came up with the plan for Man City. Given our how open we were and how defensively porous we looked in that game, it is probably not a surprise that Lampard decided to take a slightly more pragmatic approach given Bayern and Man City are rather similar in the way they play and that we are not at the level to play them at their own game yet.
Also, I disagree that we played on the front foot in those 2 games you mentioned against Man City last season. The approaches were very similar and both the match stats of the 2-0 win and 0-0 draw in the cup final were very similar to this 2-1 win. Less than 40% possession in all 3 games but ironically, we had more shots and shots on target than City in the 2-1 than in the 2-0 win or the 0-0 final. Heck, we did not even have a single shot on target in the final and had to play Hazard as the false 9! In fact, if we look at the average positions of the starting XI in the 2-1 and 2-0 wins (don't have the 0-0 game), we looked much more offensive in the 2-1 win than the 2-0.
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The one thing I would agree with you is the use of Kante as the lone midfielder in front of the back 4. From a defensive point of view, the move made sense but from an attacking perspective, it did not but I guess that wasn't exactly the plan on Thursday. We could not pass out from the back and it resulted in Kepa, Rudiger etc having to kick it long. But I guess that is the problem we have with our midfielders, someone to play in front of the back 4 in a 4-3-3. Either we have Jorginho in there who is better with possession than Kante but worse defensively than Kante. We suffer one way or another regardless of the approach. We need to find a midfielder who can do both roles well. He does not have to excel in both aspects but great in one and at least good in the other will do. Otherwise, there is arguably too much of a trade off between the choices we have right now.
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