City v Saints post match

[Neville Kneville]

Pep said we weren't good enough after we'd won 10/10. Seems like the team have agreed

He also said he learn more from defeats and set backs than victories. Anyone seen any evidence ?

It seems you are questioning the idea that we will correct this, is that the case ?

We are fucked basically ?

If not, why the question ?

 

[Blue Hefner]

I'm not sure that's true. I have never seen a goalie sent off for two yellow cards for time wasting. It would take a very brave referee to be so controversial. Once he got the first he seemed to take longer on his goal kicks, almost saying " up yours! you wouldn't dare give me another one".

On a wider point about time wasting, how can anyone really time waste. The ref has the watch and the whistle, the ref should be in control

 

[crazyg]

We were wank in the first half but I actually think we played well second half.

Ref's got to be stronger with the time wasting and add 7 minutes on though.

They celebrated their goal for two minutes in the first half and time wasted every goal kick and throw in yet only two minutes were added on before half time.

Then Iheanacho was praying to his God (much to the dismay of David Silva who told him to hurry the fuck up and get playing again) for ages - from goal to kick off I bet nearly a minute had gone by, all 6 subs were used and they even took the piss with Tadic's fake substitution (should be 30 seconds for each of those so that should have been an extra 3+half minutes with Tadic added too), then all their time wasting every goal kick and throw in (I timed one goal kick that took 47 seconds and one throw in that took 25secs)... there should have been about 7 minutes on at the end of that game yesterday.

Quite agree. It goes back to the fact that the referee is the sole arbiter of time to be added on. In other sports, when the ball is out of play, the clock stops. When back in play, game on. There should be an independent timekeeper to ensure that this happens,and not left to the referee, who, in a lot of cases, makes it up as he goes along (Martin Atkinson anybody?).

When the players and managers realise that time wasting doesn't gain them an advantage, it will stop, and we may see something approaching 45 actual playing minutes per half instead of the 20 minutes we now see.

Don't hold your breath, though.

 

[JPAMCR]

Quite agree. It goes back to the fact that the referee is the sole arbiter of time to be added on. In other sports, when the ball is out of play, the clock stops. When back in play, game on. There should be an independent timekeeper to ensure that this happens,and not left to the referee, who, in a lot of cases, makes it up as he goes along (Martin Atkinson anybody?).

When the players and managers realise that time wasting doesn't gain them an advantage, it will stop, and we may see something approaching 45 actual playing minutes per half instead of the 20 minutes we now see.

Don't hold your breath, though.

There definitely should be an independent timekeeper. It's far too subjective to leave to the referee and would stop managers from pressurising them. I'd also like to see official ball-in-play stats more widely published. I've had a quick look and can't find anything.

 

[fergal_oc]

Lost 2 games, one against the best team in the world and one against a near rival for whom we were their home cup final.

A little worried about our ability to score against anti-football teams but I'm sure in previous seasons not only would we have failed to score enough in those games, we would have also gone on to lose many of them.

Will be able to judge better come January.

 

[Father Paul]

"Spurs anomaly aside" What makes you think that teams starting on Wed and beyond are not going to man mark our back five from restarts and force the keeper to kick long with the disadvantage of having our players back on their own goal line. Only exceptional talent can beat that sort of press and then transition forward progressively. We are seriously struggling at the moment to implement Pep's game plan and imo were lucky to get a draw yesterday. Southampton defended as well as Everton but seemed to get forward more quickly but still managed to retreat quickly enough to snuff our counters. We do manage to get the ball wide quite early but the wingers tend to get isolated and when they do get the ball in the box our forward men are usually marked and there are 2 or 3 defenders ready to mop up lose balls and clear. Silva seems to be in a bit of a rut constantly slowing down play and failing to find the killer pass. We lack steel and control in midfield and players seem rushed and unsure. The errors at the back now seem unending and make it really difficult to gather momentum within and between matches. Kun is devoid of confidence and is taking the wrong option all the time you get the feeling that if we got a penalty yesterday he would have missed again.

Can Pep turn this around. I don't think he can in the short term. However, we should not view this as a crisis we are not playing well but are still on top of the league. I think we are still 3 or 4 players light and need to accept the transitional nature of this season. Let's hope we can match last seasons yield and start to look more assured about what we are trying to do come spring time.

 

[Vic]

Quite agree. It goes back to the fact that the referee is the sole arbiter of time to be added on. In other sports, when the ball is out of play, the clock stops. When back in play, game on. There should be an independent timekeeper to ensure that this happens,and not left to the referee, who, in a lot of cases, makes it up as he goes along (Martin Atkinson anybody?).

When the players and managers realise that time wasting doesn't gain them an advantage, it will stop, and we may see something approaching 45 actual playing minutes per half instead of the 20 minutes we now see.

Don't hold your breath, though.

Often, when away teams waste time against us, it's their time they're wasting because we end up winning and they're chasing the game. The keeper yesterday was outrageous but if we'd had any sharpness he'd not have been timewasting at the end.

 

[Father Paul]

We were wank in the first half but I actually think we played well second half.

Ref's got to be stronger with the time wasting and add 7 minutes on though.

They celebrated their goal for two minutes in the first half and time wasted every goal kick and throw in yet only two minutes were added on before half time.

Then Iheanacho was praying to his God (much to the dismay of David Silva who told him to hurry the fuck up and get playing again) for ages - from goal to kick off I bet nearly a minute had gone by, all 6 subs were used and they even took the piss with Tadic's fake substitution (should be 30 seconds for each of those so that should have been an extra 3+half minutes with Tadic added too), then all their time wasting every goal kick and throw in (I timed one goal kick that took 47 seconds and one throw in that took 25secs)... there should have been about 7 minutes on at the end of that game yesterday.

Not sure it would have made much difference really. It is a bit worrying that as with Everton the previous week after we got back level we failed to press home the advantage. We had 35 mins to get a winner yesterday and I felt that they were just as likely as we were to score the crucial goal.

 

[Father Paul]

I'm not sure that's true. I have never seen a goalie sent off for two yellow cards for time wasting. It would take a very brave referee to be so controversial. Once he got the first he seemed to take longer on his goal kicks, almost saying " up yours! you wouldn't dare give me another one".

Clatt's might just have been the boy to make that controversial decision methinks!!!

 

[bellsouth]

On a wider point about time wasting, how can anyone really time waste. The ref has the watch and the whistle, the ref should be in control

Correct but it does slow down the momentum and quieten the crowd