City v Bristol City 1st leg post match

[SWP's back]

Haha sides are splitting

Why did you think it was a joke?

 

[BLUEMATT23]

Very poor performance last night by some.
Mangala, Stones, Yaya awful. Bernado and Ilkay not great again either. Problem is now we have to play a full strength team to get through the tie.
Good job we didn't play Arsenal or Chelsea last night.

 

[Take im on Leroy]

Our amazing form this season doesn't preclude us from a bit of criticism when we have an off day, but some people are going way off the deep end. Also, massive credit to Bristol City. They made an absolute mockery of how United set up against us and they caused us problems.


Bravo - didn't do much wrong and sent a great pass to KDB for the equaliser. He's a step down from Ederson though and we lose a fair bit of attacking impetus by not choosing Ederson.

Danilo - Gone backwards after a promising preseason. Ok as backup but he does make you realise what a great job Kyle Walker has been doing all season.

Stones - A bit rusty but nothing to worry about. Will regain his form (especially playing with Ederson and the regular back 4)

Mangala - Probably the end for him. Could be a decent player at a team that sets up differently but he's a square peg in a round hole here. Doesn't make sense that having scouted him extensively, he was deemed suitable for us. Shouldn't have been bought but hope he does well elsewhere.

Zinchenko - jury's still out but he's growing in confidence in a role he's still learning. One of the better.lalyers last night.

Gundogan - Ineffective but after a MOTM performance at the weekend, it's crazy to me that people are so quick to lay into him three days later.

Silva - Needs to improve. Has the attributes and seems to have a decent attitude so hopefully with time he will settle. Isn't easy coming in and out of the team but we do need to see more from him.

Yaya - His time is up. Has offered nothing at all this season. Players get old, it happens, time to move on.

KDB - Excellent

Sane - Has had a dip in form. Some people have taken a dislike to his demeanor on here which means that when his form drops off (as happens with ALL players) his character and attitude are needlessly being brought into question. That said, even on an off day he represents a massive attacking threat. We could drop him for a couple of games or we could let him play himself back into form. Either way, it'll be fine.

Sterling - So often in the right place at the right time. Couple of over hit passes wasted some great chances but it was a smart.pass to KDB for the equaliser. No problem here.

Excellent post

 

[franksinatra]

Yup truth is bitter . Why not cut slack some with mangala as well ? He is not playing on the right side and not a regular .Why is stone more privileged ?

Because football is about opinions and although some will cut him slack others will not.

You can pop through my posts I have praised him over the couple of weeks but he has never looked fully comfortable playing for us.

Kolorov used to get dogs abuse in comparison to Stones last year as well no different to Mangala. I am not commenting on the rights or wrongs of that but imo ridiculous to think race is a factor

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

I was in the SW corner, and I'm a relative "old bloke", but the first half was depressing to me. It was also a shit view, even on row W.

Yeah I was ZZ back row. Terrible view compared with SS3 where I usually sit. I'm on the cusp of older too :-) but Christ the Hoof it up, clear your lines stuff was like something out of the 1970's! A lot of people don't sing down there and just yell abuse for 90 mins!

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

Why did you think it was a joke?

Didn’t know it was a joke

 

[inchy14]

Yup truth is bitter . Why not cut slack some with mangala as well ? He is not playing on the right side and not a regular .Why is stone more privileged ?

Why would you like this totally one footed centre half to play on the right? He's bad enough when he's got a touch line to aim at, God help him and us if he constantly had to turn inside!!

He's woeful and i'd argue Stones looked nervous and poor because he had him one side and Danilo the other. Zinchenko looked the best at the back last night.

 

[Blue Llama]

Credit, where credit is due, Bristol City posed a massive question, made us fluff our lines on numerous occasions when asked to deliver.
Anyone expecting another West Ham first leg drubbing clearly didn’t see Bristol City beat Man Utd, yet City have come away with a slender lead, and will have the measure of Bristol in the return leg, where we surely cannot be so wasteful in front of goal.
Pep put out a team he believed would win the tie, they did, they also wasted numerous chances to put this ties to bed and come away with a healthy lead.

Spoken with sense and maturity.

 

[blueinsa]

Very poor performance last night by some.
Mangala, Stones, Yaya awful. Bernado and Ilkay not great again either. Problem is now we have to play a full strength team to get through the tie.
Good job we didn't play Arsenal or Chelsea last night.

In what way was Yaya awful? I saw him sat in midfield, always showing for the ball and nearly always finding a blue shirt.

Mangala and Stones both fucked up for the penalty but that aside, were hardly the disaster being painted by some on here.

Gundogan played well enough and remember him against Burnley were he got similar criticism and his contribution then?

Bernardo again was always available for the ball and a world class ball helped us to win the game so again, not great?

Good job we didn’t play Arsenal or Chelsea? I keep reading rubbish like this. We didn’t play them did we? We played Bristol City and beat them 2-1 so what’s your problem and why try to create and non existent scenario or argument?

It’s similar to the “play like that 2nd leg and we are out” bollocks.

Play like that we win the game again no doubt and go through.

Horses for courses......

 

[Dribble]

We need somebody with quick feet, trickery and fast change of direction in the box. We get wide in and around the box so often but Sane is the only player who can consistently beat a man. We get into great positions but lack so much decisiveness. We create a weird situation because we arrive in these kind of positions so, so often and we do eventually stick one chance away, so any criticism then gets attacked. I still believe we are a level behind Pep's Barca and Bayern sides and that's because I don't think we have the same consistency in the final third....again sounds odd considering how often we score. I just think for the number of positions we get in, it's criminal that we don't score more goals, particularly considering it's easy final balls that are a constant problem for us.

So as I have said on a different thread, someone like Mahrez would help us so much against teams who have limited ambition. He is so good in one vs one situations and would create so much space as he can commit two/three players at a time.

All that aside, we won again which is great. We haven't learned anything really other than the fact that Zinchenko suits us well. He can be a find. Yaya, Mangala, Bravo are clearly not good enough. Stones looks poor next to Mangala. Danilo is very mediocre and Gundogan and Bernardo have so much quality but don't have the personality to dominate games in this system or haven't really displayed. I think we do have players who can dominate the stat sheet without dominating the flow of the game so when someone like Silva is missing (who is often the opposite) and a few players are off form, we struggle for any kind of tempo, which has been the case in the League Cup this season. That said, one foot in the final so can't moan too much I suppose. Hopefully we are saving our best for Sunday!

Good post!