City v Bristol City 1st leg post match

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I didn't sleep well last night.

Mangala is like the bogey man who would even get stuck under the bed.

 

[OB1]

I thought he had a decent game too, but he does make idiotic mistakes nearly every game, 1 cost us tonight, another didn't. IF he could cut that out he's a very good back up, but its 3 years now, and he shows no sign of cutting it out sadly, when we're free scoring it doesn't mater so much, but when we're finding it hard to score it can make a difference to the result.

His wasn't the only error that cost a goal tonight though, the 'future captain' then made a stupid and needless tackle, compounding his mistake on Saturday, though I'm sure Pep will discuss that with him.

I hadn't / haven't read the whole thread but it was good to see someone raise the point. Mangala was put in a difficult position because he had limited options but he also has limitations as a player. Without reviewing the situation again, I'm not sure if he could have given the ball back to Stones or turned and gone back to Bravo. Maybe his best bet was to try and run the ball out but he chose to try and pass (this being a Pep team) and that meant playing the ball at a narrow angle, which the Bristol player was able to block. Shit will happen when you play like this and it doesn't and won't just happen to Mangala - just wait until Eddie presents the ball to an oncoming striker who plops it into an open net!

Mangala also had some struggles when given the ball in other tight situations but I'm not sure there was too much wrong with his defending; I know he made plenty of clearances.

I thought Stones was a little unlucky on the penalty offence in the sense that I felt he was very close to getting the ball - may even have got a very faint touch - and so, whilst he took the wrong decision, I can see why he thought he could make the tackle.

Let's hope the incident will be useful experience for both our CB's.

 

[OB1]

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......

IMO, we have a lot of supporters who lack perspective. Obviously, I don't apply that view to you :)

 

[hihosilva]

Not upto the usual standards but we take a lead to Bristol.
Again DeBruyne ran the show, absolute world class but some poor individual performances by Mangala, Danilo & Sane.
Mangala is simply not good enough for this team & Danilo has yet to impress.
If Pep can bring in some more quality players in the summer to replace Mangala, Yaya & possibly Danilo then we'l have an unbelievable squad.

 

[OB1]

Yaya is still a great instinctive footballer with the ball at his feet (like Rooney)
However he failed last night on numerous occasions to make himself any space to receive the ball. The number of times he was stood in the centre circle five yards ahead of our centre halves waiting for the ball, but the two front players for Bristol had cut that pass off. He also hasn't the legs to get up and down the pitch

I totally agree with you regards Mangala and Stones. If anything it was our forward players who really messed up by making the wrong decisions time and time again

Isn't that a tactic a lot of teams have adopted against us (since Wolves)? Pretty sure Dinho has been targeted by opposition forwards too. Obviously, Yaya is less mobile than Dinho so probably easier to mark but there seems to have been a concerted effort to prevent our holding player getting the ball off the CB's and it might be that the holding players are under instruction not to move too far out of position? Us using positional play and all...

Yaya's time is up though; or will be at the end of the season.

 

[BLUEMATT23]

I didn't sleep well last night.

Mangala is like the bogey man who would even get stuck under the bed.

Agreed - He hacked at everything, a complete £32 million pound liability. Truly dreadful defender.
I'd even have JF Evans than this guy.

 

[Bozo]

We played poorly and still won, only conceding due to a penalty. Not bad, I'd say. Hope the Bristol fans enjoyed their day out.

 

[mosssideblue]

You can’t blame bravo for stones giving away the penalty or miss kicking v Burnley but it’s obvious if you watch that the whole defence is so much more calmer and organised when ederson plays. That might be more to do with ederson being so good but if you actually watch the games bravo causes panic. I’ve been sticking up for bravo for a year, but I’m sorry he’s not good enough.

I'mnot defending Bravo per se, but anyone who is blaming him for the penalty last night has nothing but hatred for the fella. I agree Eddy is the better keeper but he regularly plays with a well oiled back four.

 

[mosssideblue]

Reading some of these posts is embarrassing anyone would have thought we'd lost,ffs give your head's a wobble you sound like spoilt children we have no Divine right to turn every one over 5_0 can't you just show your support instead of whinging like some fans down the road not to far from here

This all day long. We have some very entitled fans who cannot accept a good team performance against us

 

[fergal_oc]

Ha some perspective on my train back - considering the love-in for BC, they could only score a pen against Mangala and Bravo!

Does that mean they weren’t that good or Mangala and Bravo ain’t as bad as we’d like to make them out to be?