Crvena Zvezda (H) | CL | Post Match Thread

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

He’s been slightly off his finishing game so far this season. Still has 7 goals.

He’ll get back to his best soon. The finishing gods haven’t been with him for 2 games now.

We still win anyway!

The rather encouraging thing is that he has so many chances. We will no doubt see some statistic appearing in the RDAHMeedya that Hojlund is more prolific in that his goal to shot stat is twice the Erling percentage, although they won't dwell on the fact that our man has more goals!

 

[Grassland Blue]

Some say we were sloppy last night. I didn't see it that way. Yes there was some casual play where we lost the ball, but most of the time we won it back very quickly.
Some of our passes didn't reach their targets, but with new players in the team and them not being so familiar with where other players will be, that was understandable.
Alvarez and Haaland have got a really good understanding, they are on the same wavelength and will be our 'Sutton and Shearer' combo going forward.
The Red Star keeper had a great game I thought, bar that free kick mistake, and put his body on the line time after time, incredibly denying Haaland and Foden of what looked like certain goals.
(If any rags were watching our match last night they could be wanting a "Glazer in!" Haha).
All in all a very good win without the likea of Stones, Kevin and Jack available.
Alvarez a deserved motm.

 

[shevtheblue]

A few things shone out last night:

- Nunes, absolutely a City type player. Didn't look out of place, in fact he just seems like a younger version of Kovacic to me. Picked up some nice space as the free man, will take some time for him to completely get it but i think he pretty much does.

- Doku, fucking hell what a player we've got here potentially. There will 100% be games where he annoys us with poor end product, but if someone can teach this guy that back post tap-in like Sterling, we might have a winner! So direct, it was exactly what was needed on that left side.

- Rodri, what else to say about this guy? So calm, never phased when in trouble and it just sets the tempo again.

At some point you gotta think what is Phillips showing in training? Surely this game was tailor-made for him? Sit next to Rodri and control the game, but if he can't get in against these lot when we have all these injuries, when?

 

[dadnlad]

Nice to see Red Star Belgrade live - a famous old club. And that’s about it really.

Another fairly meaningless procession of a game against hopelessly overmatched opponents - yep it’s CL time again

And they’re expanding it next year to about ninety clubs. Brilliant idea.

come on keep up at the back tonights game has so much history and rivalry in european competition it's what we ALL apparently want to see
german rags v english rags YCMIU

 

[LongsightM13]

Enjoyed that, five seasons ago there would’ve been 10’000 less on the gate, no atmosphere & we’d of played at a much slower tempo, scraping a one goal win…..only downside was City giving them 100 seats in CB2 when there’s a thousand going spare in the away end

They have to give a certain number of seats in the main stand for visiting club staff, delegates and olayers families etc as oer UEFA rules

 

[lightning Rodri]

On reflection a fairly frantic game on account of us failing to take early chances, and that in turn leads to greater openness, which may leave us susceptible to tiredness and then to injuries. On such nights we miss the composure of Gundogan or Kovacic who can slow the game down and keep the ball.

With the squad already stretched thin, we now desperately need our attackers to be clinical and to start scoring with their first chances, but even that knowledge adds a little pressure to them which means they might have more such games.

That's why we need Haaland to come back to his best soon ish.

 

[blueparrot]

That's why we need Haaland to come back to his best soon ish.

Don't think he's off his best really most of these chances are headers and he isn't the best with his head.

 

[Gabriel]

That's why we need Haaland to come back to his best soon ish.

Not just Haaland. We are clearly going off at the sound of the trumpets and hoping to get games over quickly so as to rotate, but then if we fail to score, or worse concede, we need to be much more patient. We actually have an incredibly young attack and they need to relax more in front of goal. Anxious players are not going to score if they become more anxious; it’s little coincidence that we’ve scored immediately after the break in the last two games. A half-time break allows them to calm down, listen to the coaching staff, and re-focus on what needs to be done.

 

[No1 was Colin bell]

What a great feeling to follow this team now and when we go one down not worry about it being two soon, as we did for so many years. Having said that I’m still jumpy until 3-1 not just 2-1! Cityitis til I die!

 

[No1 was Colin bell]

We'll knock 10 past some team soon. Well played, happy to see Phillips get some minutes.

When is the derby : )

 

[Utter bobbins]

Not a very good performance, but we'll get better as the season progresses.

Lol

 

[Blueroses]

Great game and Alvarz continues to impress. Haaland didn’t bring his shooting boots. But great game enjoyed it!

Tactical breakdown from the game - interesting read.

Manchester City's constant triangles

September 20, 2023 — Constant triangles. The full-back pushes forward, and Manchester City forms a 3-4-3 diamond in possession. It was the most enjoyable match of theirs that I have ever watched.

tacticsjournal.com

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

On reflection a fairly frantic game on account of us failing to take early chances, and that in turn leads to greater openness, which may leave us susceptible to tiredness and then to injuries. On such nights we miss the composure of Gundogan or Kovacic who can slow the game down and keep the ball.

With the squad already stretched thin, we now desperately need our attackers to be clinical and to start scoring with their first chances, but even that knowledge adds a little pressure to them which means they might have more such games.

Not sure we could have slowed the game down more than we did in the first half!

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

The rather encouraging thing is that he has so many chances. We will no doubt see some statistic appearing in the RDAHMeedya that Hojlund is more prolific in that his goal to shot stat is twice the Erling percentage, although they won't dwell on the fact that our man has more goals!

Not sure we need to worry ourselves much about the Danish Darwin Nunez over at Old Toilet.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Not a very good performance, but we'll get better as the season progresses.

Imagine what we could do if we ever play well…

 

[IcriedwhenTueartleft]

Played really well but missed a lot of chances. Thought Nunes was very tidy in the 1st half, kept things ticking over.
Rodri immense…again.
Alvarez becoming very important for his goals and assists.
Doku adds something different, real pace.
Not Ruben’s finest night.
Pep’s face when Eddy did that semi-Cruyff turn…very funny
Job done.

 

[Utter bobbins]

It's certainly a time of rich and gluttonous attacking, this last few weeks, with chances coming in a blizzard at times.

All eyes on Haaland it seems, and you have to say his finishing is way off his best, in fact it's quite poor by a premier League player's standards, but he's always there to miss them, crucially.

Of course we should have battered them, and I think Pep will be having a lot of words about the sloppy passing and the manner in which we allowed easy and fast counters. The first half was almost arrogant in the way City went about it, which I think was bollocked out of them at HT as they were much more business like from 45 to 75.

Walker and Dias poor, in my eyes, Ake fine, Foden bit off it. Nunes played much better second half. Doku exciting, Alvarez fantastic.

Onwards, a really weird and chaotic way to win a football game, but enjoyable also.

Easy and fast counters or booting the ball in the air in the general direction of their only forward, who actually played quite well

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

Had Jonathan Pearce commentating on my stream last night.
Kyle Walker called Des.
City scored the most more PL goals team but not top yet.
Mentioned our spending 3 times...cost of squad compared to RBB, cost of our subs and something else he muttered about that slip my memory.
I felt something odd about his commentary, I actually wondered if he was at the ground or watching in a studio somewhere. Sounded like he couldn't be bothered.

 

[Ribble73]

Enjoyed that, five seasons ago there would’ve been 10’000 less on the gate, no atmosphere & we’d of played at a much slower tempo, scraping a one goal win…..only downside was City giving them 100 seats in CB2 when there’s a thousand going spare in the away end

I think they have to -some sort of UEFA agreement

 

[the blue panther]

Second game running where we created 30 chances, so I don't see why anyone should say we didn't play well. Sure, we weren't clinical but we've now had 2 similar games and won both very comfortably 3-1 - and, we're still bedding in, and under full strength.
Happy days. Another couple of gears to find; players to come back; Pep to fire them up further - it's all good.