Post Match Thread: Barca vs City

[Bozzie]

Don't know if it's been mentioned, but Neville made much of how the game was even for 20-25 mins, and then 'Barca kicked up a gear' - bearing in mind that the ref had booked half our team by then, I think that had a major effect, everyone knew that if they dared tackle Barca, they would be booked.

To be fair it's hard to tell from 10,000 feet up whether the booking were justified or not. That said, he definitely seemed keen to give the Barcelona players as much protection as he could. At half time we'd committed 6 fouls and had 4 yellows albeit it it looked like he gave Nasri the benefit of the doubt and gave him a yellow when he could have shown a red.

 

[sh249]

i think we played OK last night, against outstanding opponents who would win our league by 20 points clear. Reflect on that: the side we just got beaten by, are better than anything we face in England, by a country mile.

They bossed the game for sure and obviously they are much, much better than us. But we had 15 goal attempts including a missed penalty, and we lost onky 1-0. It was not that bad! We weren't composed and settled on the ball because they hunted in packs and gave us no time nor space to settle. Their workrate off the ball was as impressive as what they did when they had it.

Barca were simply incredible, but look at their line up. How many of our players woukd get into their side? When in form, Kompany. That's probably it. On present form, possibly no-one would.

This pretty much sums it up for me. We got beat 3-1 on aggregate by a team who are clearly far, far superior to us. No great shame in that. There were spells in both games where the gulf in class was obvious; by the same token, there were periods in both during which we took the game to them and caused them problems. At 2-1 in the first leg, with 20 minutes or so to go, we were on the front foot and they were clearly rocking - unfortunately, the red card put pay to us being able to apply any real sustained pressure in that last period. Last night, had Sergio not lost his bottle, we could again have been set up to have a real go for the final 15 minutes or so. Of course, that's not to suggest that we were simply unlucky - over the two legs they were clearly well deserving of the win.

Perhaps the most sobering aspect of last night was seeing again just how far away we are from teams like Barcelona. Their composure on the ball is fantastic, their movement incredible. Players like Iniesta and Rakitic are so good at receiving the ball in tight areas, playing it off first time, then moving to receive it again - our midfielders are ridiculously laboured in comparison. Their defenders are so comfortable on the ball, too - their centre halves pass the ball back to the keeper, then split immediately, often both ending up in positions wider than the penalty area. Our centre halves never take up those kind of positions - they just shunt the ball back to Hart, consider it job done and turn their backs, forcing him to play long and invariably leading to us turning over the ball. Their work rate and pressing without the ball is also excellent; ours is, quite frankly, crap - we have far too many players who are happy just to stand off and allow the opposition to play. Of course, that they have a player like Messi goes some way to stretching the gap between us further still, and I think, in terms of expectations, we also have to be realistic about the calibre of player we have in our own ranks - the likes of Kolarov, Milner, Demichelis are, to my mind, simply not good enough to be consistently playing at that kind of level. Navas always poses a threat but lacks quality (as we saw again last night with that pull back that perfectly bisected Aguero and Silva). Toure is (was?) obviously a fantastic player, but he has always struggled in Europe for us against the best teams - we certainly saw last night the gulf between him and Iniesta, for example.

What's clear is that it's still going to be some time before we reach the kind of level that Barca and Bayern are currently playing at. We certainly need to find a way of becoming more compact and defending more aggressively. Whether that means switching systems, or whether it can be achieved via bringing in new players with greater energy and desire, I'm not entirely sure. At the very least, I'm glad that we saw some fight in the team last night and that they didn't just simply cave - which I half expected once the goal went in. They now have to carry that over into the final 9 league games and so to try and salvage some pride from what looks like it will probably end as a fairly disappointing season (though if we do win all 9, as we're eminently capable of doing if the players are at it, there's still every chance we would end up as champions.)

 

[Dribble]

The sad fact is that City have never hit their stride this season. Moral victories and a few individual performances don't make up for the fact that, with the money that's been spend, City need to be much closer to moving forward in the CL.

This is at the heart of my frustration with the 2012-2013 transfer window where we spunked £50m on Rodwell, Garcia, Sinclair, Maicon & Nastasic (who was the only decent player imo) and we haven't really done much better since.

We needed to concentrate on proven quality not squad fillers and we're still counting the cost now. I hate Maureen, but it can't be denied that he knew what was needed for the chavs and that's where he concentrated his his transfer kitty.

I was just asked what the match was like by a colleague and how big a distance there is between us and Barca. After thinking about the ease with which they went about their business last night, I had to concede the gap in quality was akin to us playing a mid-table Championship team........ Now that's a sobering thought!

 

[Stephenhakin]

For me, what was obvious is that Barca had 11 men playing as a team, each with a will and desire to work as a unit. We on the other hand, had 11, not playing as a full team, with two or three preferring to do their own thing.

It must be totally demoralising for the manager and others on the pitch when you are carrying players in such an important match, players who think they have a divine right to play.

I’m convinced there are two or three bad apples in the camp and they are slowly dragging their team mates and City down, and they need to be shipped out ASAP, even at a financial loss, if only to restore harmony and get a team that want to play as a team.

Our new signings haven’t exactly shone thus far. There not shite players and must be wondering what the hell is going on at City. Again, I put it down to the one or two bad apples not performing with the rest of the team, not allowing these new players to thrive in a team oriented environment.

We all have a view as to who these bad apples are, but our views don’t count. Pellers and the board will know exactly who these culprits are, and hopefully will show them the door this summer. Personally, I hope they don’t play again in Blue, but that’s just my way.

If we are to compete in Europe, we need a team, not half a team and a bunch of individuals making up the 11.

Care to name names? You are spot on I think regardless. We all know who the culprit it.

Yaya was poor last night, but your hatred for him is unreal. Calling him a whore and a mercenary. Get behind the players ffs.

Hatred? Far from It i loved the guy. How on earth anyone Blue can defend that performance from him last night is beyond me. I suggest you study the goal....watch him tracking back. I have no respect for someone earning that amount of money who can't break their neck trying to help out his team. I also believe he is poison in the dressing room. He's a disgrace. And yes mate I do get behind my team I always have and always will. Never negative at the game but cannot accept that from a supposed world class player. In the last 12 months his standards have slipped and thats without all the silly little money grabbing games he has been playing. Once he goes City will be a force again.

 

[CityFan94]

Don't blame FFP.

Since we won the league in 2012, we've spent:

- £32 million on Mangala

- £24 million on Jovetic

- £26 million on Negredo

- £27 million on Bony

- £30 million on Fernandinho

- £12 million on Fernando

- £16 million on Javi Garcia

- £15 million on Jesus Navas

Only Fernandinho and Demichelis (£4 million) started last night that weren't here when we won the league in 2012.

We've spent a lot of money horribly, horribly wrong. Literally hundreds of millions spent and we haven't improved.

I strongly believe this summer will make or break us.

 

[cheddar404]

We're just miles away from their standard. It looked like they were playing a different sport to us. Unless we fluke it like Chelsea did, we are light years away from being a threat to winning this competition. Having said that, after being battered in the first half, we gave it a go in the second and it was far from an awful performance.

 

[blueinsa]

Please with the effort from the boys ( except the money grabbing whore ) . Fernandinho did the work of two men outstandingly. Vinny picked up after a shaky start. Single best performance by a goalkeeper I have seen in years...take a bow Joe. Thought Silva did his job quite well considering he was picked up by two all night, tracked back when needed. They are simply too good especially when we played with ten men. Like I said yesterday we'd of been better off playing Fernando then Yaya. Jimmy worked his socks off and MDM did fair.

Your last 2 posts have you calling a player a mercenary and now a whore.

Are you on the fucking wind up?

Yeah aimed at the one City player who is both those. Don't come out and try me that he is anything but those two things. A money grabbing whore who couldnt give a fuck about City.

I'm not enamoured by Yaya right now but whore and mercenary?

Get real fella.

 

[Stephenhakin]

Your last 2 posts have you calling a player a mercenary and now a whore.

Are you on the fucking wind up?

Yeah aimed at the one City player who is both those. Don't come out and try me that he is anything but those two things. A money grabbing whore who couldnt give a fuck about City.

I'm not enamoured by Yaya right now but whore and mercenary?

Get real fella.

Ok well not here to offend anyone and know people have feelings for Yaya. I loved him too though ffs. But all this pissing about in the last year or so, making the club a laughing stock at times on top of his piss poor performances is enough for me.

 

[mosssideblue]

For me, what was obvious is that Barca had 11 men playing as a team, each with a will and desire to work as a unit. We on the other hand, had 11, not playing as a full team, with two or three preferring to do their own thing.

It must be totally demoralising for the manager and others on the pitch when you are carrying players in such an important match, players who think they have a divine right to play.

I’m convinced there are two or three bad apples in the camp and they are slowly dragging their team mates and City down, and they need to be shipped out ASAP, even at a financial loss, if only to restore harmony and get a team that want to play as a team.

Our new signings haven’t exactly shone thus far. There not shite players and must be wondering what the hell is going on at City. Again, I put it down to the one or two bad apples not performing with the rest of the team, not allowing these new players to thrive in a team oriented environment.

We all have a view as to who these bad apples are, but our views don’t count. Pellers and the board will know exactly who these culprits are, and hopefully will show them the door this summer. Personally, I hope they don’t play again in Blue, but that’s just my way.

If we are to compete in Europe, we need a team, not half a team and a bunch of individuals making up the 11.

Care to name names? You are spot on I think regardless. We all know who the culprit it.

Yaya was poor last night, but your hatred for him is unreal. Calling him a whore and a mercenary. Get behind the players ffs.

I know your post was not aimed at me, but I find it incredulous the amount of credit Yaya seems to have gained from some on here. He has been good for the team, but he no longer is and each game he plays where he doesn't show up, reflects on the rest and the teams performance. His time has come and gone with City, and whilst he is drawing the salary he is, if he cannot be arsed to get behind the team, I cannot get behind him.

That doesn't make me a poor supporter, but a supporter who wants City to exceed.

 

[SilverFox2]

It would seem to me that City have built a hybrid team around possession and physical presence rather than possession and a tracking back ethic that others like Barca continue to display.
This leaves us vulnerable to refereeing decisions specially in CL where anything physical is likely to be punished.

Regarding Barca match we could not match their teamwork so possession was not as useful to us as it was to Barca. Don't get me wrong certain of our players were as active off the ball as on it but unlike Barca this was not evident with every player.
When Barca combined their individual talent superiority to a teamwork willingness to chase lost possession they were obviously superior to City.

Unfortunately for the City style we may have the majority of possession when we play others in the PL but most of our opposition have realised that we rely on physical domination rather than tracking back, in yer face tactics by all our players to defend.
The result is that some of our opponents defend in depth then breakout quickly to maximise any gaps our style presents resulting in direct raiding against our sometimes static defence causing last ditch tackles that are sometimes over physical and are being increasingly punished by PL referees.

We all applaud Joe Hart's heroics against Barca but surely his last ditch saves should be reserved for a goalkeeper and not used as an example of how the rest of the defence should operate ?

Tracking back allows our defence time to defend in a more constructive way than physically lunging in risking fouls or mistiming's.