Porto (h) post-match thread

[Father Paul]

I personally think the fitness of the team is a bit fucked, more so than they’re letting on. Players seem to drop in and out randomly.
Keep your eye on the players this year, I think there’s going to be some very bad injuries across the board, not just here but all teams.

that’s what they get for treating them like slaves without breaks and straight into a more intense than usual schedule.

just think, if they weren’t so desperate to crown the dippers last year they could have finished it earlier and give the players a proper warm up for the season

Too true

 

[bluetonium]

There's a nice picture of Fernandino on the ground holding his leg in pain being told to go to the side by the referee on the BBC app, before the medical staff had even been on to assess him.

Personally I think the ref must have won a competition to be in the middle for the game last night, he certainly wasn't familiar with most rules of the game.

 

[waspish]

Pep should try Doyle in the rodri role he could save us a fortune

 

[madloaf]

I don't want to jinx it but can we just get really excited this morning for the Foden/Torres combination down the left for the next 5 years.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Many posters ignore the circumstances surrounding our games and are desperate to look for confirmations of their daft pet theories about what's wrong with the team.

We are playing every 3-4 days with key players injured out and others coming back from lengthy absences, e.g. Kun and Gundy. Would be miraculous if we played at great level right now. Show a little bit of understanding of what's going on.

Think we are slowly getting to where Pep wants us to be. We haven't seen this team with all our first-choice players available. A little bit of patience is required.

We've had no pre-season, are undercooked, not match fit and under strength and two weeks behind the rest. Given those factors, there's no way we we can play like a well oiled machine. We're doing well to play like we are. The Prem is going to be won with 80-odd points this season - well within our reach.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Last night, we were up against one of the most blatant organised cheating outfits I've ever seen from Pepe's Vardy-style fairy dive to imaginary head injuries and the crying like 7 year-olds.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Every game feels like a real slog at the moment and we just have to grind out results. Kun looks like an old man and hopefully with each game he will get his fitness/sharpness back as we lack a cutting edge at the moment. Get a fit Kun, KDB back, Laporte, Jeus back and hopefully we start to look a bit more like our old selves. As for Cancelo, he needs to improve dramatically as that was really bad yesterday on every level.

Even an unfit Kun gets into the heads of opposing defenders when he arrives in the box. He draws players towards him. Give him better serviceand he'll score in tight situations. Put it like this, if I wasn't a City fan, I wouldn't want to see Kun arriving in my team's box with a constant supply of short passes.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

There's a nice picture of Fernandino on the ground holding his leg in pain being told to go to the side by the referee on the BBC app, before the medical staff had even been on to assess him.

Personally I think the ref must have won a competition to be in the middle for the game last night, he certainly wasn't familiar with most rules of the game.

I've just watched the first half and how a guy used to wandering the playing fields of Latvia gets a City-Porto game, and has less than a passable knowledge of the LotG, just about sums up the CL and Uefa! When Bernardo gets booked for contact, why did Pepe Starfish with pike not get booked for what must be the most embarrassing dive of Matchday 1? The ref just knows that he has Uefa covering his back and can ref any fuckin' way he sees fit. The yellow cards we get are just laughable. Would any PL ref brandish those at Anfield or the Swamp?

 

[David Silva]

Foden/Torres working really well together already. We looked way sharper once they came on. Really hope wee see more of them on that left side and shift Sterling back over to the right.

 

[ancoats]

Last night, we were up against one of the most blatant organised cheating outfits I've ever seen from Pepe's Vardy-style fairy dive to imaginary head injuries and the crying like 7 year-olds.

yep

some of the stuff was like watching wwe and its so unsporting and cheating. it makes me wonder why players shake hands at the end of the game ? if it was me i would be giving a slap to pepe and others

 

[nmc]

The Rodri-Gungogan Taxi's proved as energetic and fluid as always.

Edited

 

[BM96]

I was happy with 1-1 at ht, considering our performance level, porto missed a good chance and pen could of been disallowed. Even if it was accidental he does catch him.

Second half we were much better and i think deserved the win overall.

Ref was poor. giving us yellows for things he didnt even give fouls for when porto did it.

Seen a few comments saying it wasnt a foul for the fk. I would disagree with that as he goes through gundo to get the ball.

 

[ancoats]

the officials last night was so so under orders from uefa to make the game hard for city
i lost count of how many cards he shown the city players ? the cards was out in a flash when a city player fouled

crazy to think uefa love to promote there fair play banner ? only to see them use all the powers they have in stopping us play, i even thought the pen was going to be over turned, but they will keep that card up there sleeves for a late date

 

[Sparkys-Army]

What shape was the team once Gundogan went off? It seemed more of a 433 and despite Porto needing to come out of their shell, the attacks started to flow 10x better. The link ups and passing triangles reminded me of what we can do!

 

[Neville Kneville]

The academy is almost comical in terms of the attacking midfield it produces. They just need to build up the stamina to press over 90 minutes and we are set.

I'm honestly starting to think as long as we have the stamina to press, pace and creativity, then defensive ability in midfield is overrated. Just consider Thiago Alcantara, his ball control and energy to run all over the field is what makes him amazing, but Bernie can do that, Kevin can do that, Foden has energy for days, just play all 3 and have them absolutely dominate the midfield, none of this single or double pivot with Rodri or Gundogan is necessary.

If the midfield isn't particularly great at defending, the secret is having a defence.

Last night we had neither.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Aguero I'd cut some slack he's coming back from almost four months injured.

Absolutely true. But still, absolutely true.

 

[David Silva]

What shape was the team once Gundogan went off? It seemed more of a 433 and despite Porto needing to come out of their shell, the attacks started to flow 10x better. The link ups and passing triangles reminded me of what we can do!

That’s what it looked like, at times with Mahrez inside and Silva wide though oddly.

It definitely helped us that Porto actually came out of their half once it went 2-1...

 

[Neville Kneville]

Laporte's injuries are stacking up don't you think.

Hopefully we can get him right & then keep it that way, for a while.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I was happy with 1-1 at ht, considering our performance level, porto missed a good chance and pen could of been disallowed. Even if it was accidental he does catch him.

Second half we were much better and i think deserved the win overall.

Ref was poor. giving us yellows for things he didnt even give fouls for when porto did it.

Seen a few comments saying it wasnt a foul for the fk. I would disagree with that as he goes through gundo to get the ball.

Totally sub-standard. Garcia booked for what wasn't even a foul, and Rodri got away with one which was a clear booking.

 

[Bozzie]

the officials last night was so so under orders from uefa to make the game hard for city
i lost count of how many cards he shown the city players ? the cards was out in a flash when a city player fouled

crazy to think uefa love to promote there fair play banner ? only to see them use all the powers they have in stopping us play, i even thought the pen was going to be over turned, but they will keep that card up there sleeves for a late date

It's not just UEFA to be fair, we had four bookings against Arsenal last Saturday. That makes 9 bookings over 2 matches during which we've been adjudged to have committed 30 fouls (15 in each match). Our opponents have committed 14 fouls (10 and somewhat incredibly only 4 last night) and received 1 booking each. I thought Garcia's was harsh and Bernardo's was laughable but, from memory, the others last night we're all for slightly late tackles where the player stood on the opponents foot which, in any league, generally earns you a yellow card. It's an issue that's going to cause us problems as the season progresses, particularly in the CL where 2 bookings means you miss the next match. Whilst I don't think we're refereed in quite the same way as others I also don't think it's something we can just ignore.