I disagree. Was one of my pet peeves watching those matches.
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He was always saying how we can't concede, not even one goal.
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Well, the proof is sort of in the pudding here. We've had a lot of really good squads over the years, especially Capello's. Yet it amounted to nothing in Europe. Not saying we should lose "grinta", but we need something more, especially when taking the match to the opposition.
Oh please.
In Max’s first 3 years I can give majority of examples of us taking the game to big time opponents in CL. First year, we took game to Real Madrid in both legs, went to toe-to-toe with them and came away with well-deserved win. Against Barca we had a poor opening 20 minutes than took the game to them for the next 50 minutes. Tied it up and were pressing for the go-ahead goal, with majority of pressure on their end before they hit us on the counter with their world class attack of Messi-Suarez l-Neymar in their prime. A good example of how playing “proactively” doesn’t mean you are going to win against the best teams.
The next year against Bayern, we had a poor opening 65-70 minutes, but then dominated them for the last twenty to tie 2-2 in first leg. We could have gone to Allianz and played for 1-0 win, with our injury depleted squad it would have been understandable, but instead we dominated them for 70 minutes, scoring twice, and also a third that we were robbed of by a blind incompetent linesman as Morata was a metre onside that time. We burnt out due to that 70 minutes of running our asses off dominating them with multiple starters out injured or just come back from injury and not fully fit, and they made the come back thanks to Evra brainfart. Again, perfect example that proactive game doesn’t mean you gonna win against teams with players just as good as yours.
Third year we cruised past Porto easily in Rof16, then smashed Barca 3-0, and scored a 4th that got called offside even though it wasn’t iirc. In return leg We also dominated at camp nou, and only very poor finishing allowed that game to finish 0-0 instead of another 3-0. We then smashed a Monaco team 4-1 over two legs that all the pundits were saying played the best and most beautiful footie that season. In the final we controlled the tempo for first 45 minutes, Madrid hit us on the counter again to take 1-0 lead, we pressed hard still and tied it up, before two of our most important players picked up knocks, Mandzukic and Pjanic, and we absolutely collapsed and were destroyed in second half. Didn’t help that two of our best players in CL that season Dybala and Alves choked and were absolutely terrible that game. We were also playing one of the greatest CL teams of all time with 3 straight wins and 4 in 5 years.
The last two years under Max we definitely played more reactively on the counter but that was in part due to squad declining further and further.
It’s like you guys are naive enough to think we were gonna go up against teams with inarguably superior squads like Real Madrid and Barca, and possibly Bayern too, and dominate them for the full 90, and they just wouldn’t be able to do a thing.

They have top players, coaches, and tactics too. It’s not like they just gonna roll over and die if we press them.