Barca v City Post Match Thread

[Keith Moon]

I'm actually very positive, we had the upper hand before the slip and we got back in the game and finished the first half strong, then we dominated them before the Bravo incident, without the individual misstakes I feel that we could have won this game, I think we'll have a good chance of beating 'em when the visit the cathedral of football. The tactic was spot on.

 

[MarsLlama]

Unfortunately what ferdinand just said was correct...some of the personnel don't have the level of ability to play the way pep wants and it will take time to fix that.

Zabba Kolorov clichy just cant do it and there is a question mark over ottomendi at times (though he played well tonight)...some of those on the bench also just cant do it (fernando being another one)

We played really well for big parts of the game but we had no cutting edge with sergio o

On the evidence of the Celtic and United games, I'm willing to bet that if Zabaleta hadn't gotten injured and we put Fernando on around 55 minutes, we wouldnt've conceded 4. He's important.

A mistake from Bravo cost us. Still rather him than Hart in this system though.

 

[bellsouth]

Tactics were fine, but we're struggling to win recent games because we're not taking our chances whilst the opposition is. I can put up with mistakes at the back as its such a huge transition for them, but the play in the opponents box hasn't been good enough, either not finishing or wasting good chances with a poor final ball. We were in some excellent positions last night but couldn't pick out someone in the box, or the movement wasn't good enough. We just have to take chances, starting again this Sunday.

 

[rabby]

I think our biggest problem is mental actually. Sure we have a couple of players in the squad who are not good enough and I don't mean to suggest otherwise. But that's not the main problem.

For some reason, we lack confidence and show a complete lack of composure unless we are facing a team we know are much worse than we are. So we can beat the bottom half teams for fun, and yet against tougher opposition, we are coming up short. It's been like this for more than a season now.

It's not about how the better sides play, either. Yes clearly they punish our mistakes more, but the big difference is not them, it's us. Last night was not unusual, it just highlighted it. But we are the same against Liverpool and Arsenal every time we play them away. Look at our record at Anfield and compare it to Chelsea's. We bottle it every season.

Fortunately, we have the best coach in the world and he will fix this, but it will take time and some new leadership in the side.

Can't work out what happens to us in games like this,as you say our composure seems to disappear and almost to a man a nervousness seems to take over and even basic passing seems to be a problem.
Overall the performance was ok but we need to overcome this mental block against certain opponents.

 

[Blue Llama]

What makes the Bravo mistake insane is that he had a defender 6 foot to his left with his hands in his pocket waiting for the pass and Bravo chose to try to pass it past the Barca player 3 foot in front of him.

 

[waspish]

Messi that was the difference!

He doesn't play Barcelona wont play with the swagger they do.

Saying that it was our own doing that lost us the game.

 

[daflanger]

What's with all the doom and gloom of us qualifying or not. And even if we lose to Barca again at home, I am still confident that we will qualify second

This game has to be forgotten. You cannot judge the players or coach on this game. Once Bravo got Red, the game was over. We need to move on and get back on our feet and win the next game. I am seeing great improvements and the team will reach great heights

On to the next game

 

[BLUEMATT23]

What's with all the doom and gloom of us qualifying or not. And even if we lose to Barca again at home, I am still confident that we will qualify second

This game has to be forgotten. You cannot judge the players or coach on this game. Once Bravo got Red, the game was over. We need to move on and get back on our feet and win the next game. I am seeing great improvements and the team will reach great heights

On to the next game

We could easily end up 3rd if were not careful.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I'm actually very positive, we had the upper hand before the slip and we got back in the game and finished the first half strong, then we dominated them before the Bravo incident, without the individual misstakes I feel that we could have won this game, I think we'll have a good chance of beating 'em when the visit the cathedral of football. The tactic was spot on.

Right, KM. I thought that was the first Barca v City match where I thought we matched them. I looked at their defensive back four and thought it was just as vulnerable as ours! But stroke for stroke we could have had 'em. I might be feeling a wee bit sorry for myself but is there another top flight club that just has the shittest of bad breaks in these games.

 

[supercity88]

Patience is needed. It's early days. We were spoiled with amazing early form and results. Those have stagnated. We've still played some incredible football. We battered Everton and for the first ten/fifteen last night we were the better side and we looked excellent. We were playing the Barca way, finding pockets of space and it worked. We probably lacked a central target in Aguero but Pep clearly is struggling to get the balance right with Silva and/or De Bruyne. That's our biggest issue in an attacking sense. Two incredible talents that can play together against lesser teams but on nights like last night De Bruyne is pushed out wide to accommodate Silva centrally and allow Gundogan and Fernandinho to play.

It fell apart with stupid errors. We need to eradicate those but Rome wasn't built in a day. It will take time and we will become a more ruthless and efficient side. The result isn't a fair reflection but it is a wake up call. We need to get back to winning ways this weekend but if we play like we did at times last night we will.