Nothing new last night. Good football, against a team which is clearly far better than us. Our strikers suck. Our play is generally good, great patterns in midfield. What sucks is our lack of pace of and penetration on counters.
But the worst aspect is the conceding of a goal around 75th minute, something we have seen time and again, whenever we face a high quality opponent. Be it Real, Juve, or even someone like Lazio.
When we face a dogged defence in a Cagliari or someone, we keep trying and trying and more often than not, we get a goal somewhere. The same happens in reverse when we face Juve, Liverpool, or Real. Two reasons this happens are
1. Mental strength - against some teams, we are the mentally stronger one and keep going. But it's clear that some of these clubs are mentally stronger than us. That's the mentality that we need to build, and miss dearly. You would think that a defending champion should have it. I think we need some more big game wins and another title to have it.
2. Squad depth - no matter how strong you are mentally, your body has to be up for it. Inzaghi's style is very demanding. While athleticism of players could be an issue, in our case it is more on the lack of depth. The players will tire out when pressed as much as Liverpool did. And it's a shame that the only change we can make is Sanches for Lautaro.
The management has to work on 2nd point, and Inzaghi on 1st. Till then, we will be 2nd favourites when it comes to such matches.
Here is the hierarchy in Europe today.
A - Elite level
Mancity and Liverpool. PSG would just make it there cos of the quality of players, but are unpredictable cos of the coach. Bayern as well belong here today, irrespective of current form.
B - Top tier
Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Dortmund (the latter two are not really there, but I'm putting them here since they would go in as favourites against any club from the next tier)
C - Good-not-great tier
Manu (purely for quality of their squad), Inter, Juventus, Atletico
We need two midfielders for depth, and a world class forward to move to Tier B.