warringtonmcfc said:
Having had time to calm down a bit, a few thoughts on yesterday:-
1) I genuinely don't think that those players went out and thought they could win that game yesterday. Not enough belief, on the whole not enough experience of winning big games. Not enough players who went in to the game thinking a draw is not good enough. Not enough winners.
2) Sick to death of hearing that we're "not far away" from being better than them. We may end up closer in terms of points when the final analysis is done but our recent record in head to heads against them is awful. Generally the teams that beat United to the title beat them in the head to heads during the season.
3) Our lack of a proper left back is becoming more and more of a problem. Zabaleta is a good right back but at left back against proper quality he struggles.
4) We don't test opposition keepers enough in games against the big teams. At times we resemble a poor mans Arsenal - plenty of nice play up until the edge of the box but no end product in terms of making keepers save the thing.
5) Our build up play looks slow and laboured at times. This is partly a product of having Barry and Milner in midfield. They just aren't good enough for a team that is aiming for the Champions League.
6) Kompany was outstanding yesterday as he has been for most of the season. He is the leader of the side. Recognise that with the armband. We need to get another centre half in to play along side him.
7) The midfield and attack that started yesterday had a distinct lack of pace. This needs to be sorted out and in part links to 5) above.
8) Why are we so appalling at coming from behind to win games? Lack of bottle / leaders? When we go a goal down away from home I certainly think that we are playing for a point at best and I suspect in games like yesterday some of the players do as well.
9) We are going to look back on this season as our big chance and ultiamtely one that we have blown. United, Chelsea and Liverpool will all be stronger next season. Okay, I am sure we will be too but I just think that this was the season.
Anyway, sure I will get slated for a lot of the above but had to get it off my chest! Plenty will be more optimistic but I just get tired of hearing that we are close, nearly there. The table shows that if the teams around us win their games in hand we are down to 5th which doesn't feel like a massive amount of progress to me.
SIck of hearing we're 'not that far away' !! F*ck me, we're only two years into a total rebuild of the whole squad. You think you just spend a load of money and then we should be ripping a team like the rags to shreds !?
I'm sick of hearing about Kolarovs lack if pace, sure he's no Walcott or Micah Richards but I guarantee he's no slower than Zabaleta. Kolarov has quality in abundance, is comfortable on the ball and has as sweet a left foot as you are likely to see. I don't see the left back spot as one that is an immediate priority.
Anyone could see that we more than matched the rags and if anything were the better team it was one piece of magic that seperated the teams and the rags created nothing else of note.
I'm extremely comfortable with how we are developing - particularly as for a lot of these players it is their first season in a totally different league.
A lot of City fans would have had Evra binned off after his woeful debut against us and Nani would have been sold or written off long ago.
They say patience is a virtue and its something that City fans could well do with learning. In the space of two short years you could say we have surpassed Chelsea at this point in the season. Who could have foreseen that two years ago ?
A post further down even suggests we have mid-table away from !! Wtf ! Last time I looked we had the best away record in the prem ! Again, who else could have foreseen us being the best team playing away from home ? Sort our home form out and we would have been challenging for the title.
Depsite the result I was extremely encouraged by the way we controlled large parts of the game and that told me just how far we have come. Blue Army.