Blackburn v City Post Match Thread

[Damanino]

Boyata is a joke, but that didnt surprise me. What is the strongest club where he would be a fix starter week in week out? We have to look that team in Championship or League One? Surely not in PL.

Milner was the another big joke today. He got everything wrong. Crosses, passes, tackles, headers, shots. Everything.

all in all passing accuracy was disgrace, also fielding such a strong team vs an average Blackburn side and in some periods there was chance Blackburn will go trough thats unacceptable.

Pellegrini clearly doesnt care about youth players, he didnt give any chance for them apart from a 24 year old Boyata but he no youngster is he?
Did we play any under 20 players this season? We had 20 league matches, 3 League Cup, 6 CL matches, 1 Fa Cup match, maybe its 0 minutes for the youngsters. And its about the same from now on until end of season...
Holistic maybe or I dont know what it is. Lol

Extra replay match, will be fantastic about 20.000 in attendance hopefully at least, huge risk of any important player getting injured, so it could be 3 extra matches more than chelsea is playing in January or Arsenal the two biggest rivals for title.
And with injuries to Rodwell, richards, Demichelis, Jovetic, Agüero, Nasri, we cant even rotate much, also because Pellegrini wont put in youngsters.
Lopes on bench is already a big thing from him. But doubt he would sub him on even if we would be 3-0 up...

Awful match, awful performances by our players.

 

[St Ives blue]

Conclusive evidence that Lescott, Boyata & Garcia are just not good enough.

And did we really make another ridiculous mistake in subbing off Negrado when Manuel intended to take off the poor Dzeko!?

 

[the talisman]

does this mean they dont play that friendly? If so its not to bad, at least it will save them from jetlag!

BBC are saying we won't now play the friendly, replay will be jan 15th. Hopefully newcastle away will move from sunday to saturday?

 

[sam-caddick]

Absolute dire performance, and a performance that showed it was a game too far for some players in regards to fitness.

Boyata and Garcia can be upgraded for me, simply not good enough even for back ups, and I think it's time to move Lescott on albeit he had an OK game.

I thought we would have a tough time today but I expected more from the team that was put out, now we have another game in an already packed calendar to contend with!

 

[Shaelumstash]

Everytime we play Dzeko and Negredo together we look absolutely dreadful, and Pelle refuses to learn from his mistakes.

Negredo played Dzeko a nice pass in pre season and I think this is clouding some people's judgement of how terrible they are together, makes the whole team look flat.

 

[inbetween]

A pain in the arse of another game but at least it's at home and we didn't lose so onwards and upwards. I think this game was the cost of playing so well over Christmas. The injuries we have sustained are starting to take their toll and this seems to be a game too many for some. Negredo was decent but I think he needs a rest, Dzeko I thought had a decent game but never really had a chance because we failed to create any. We looked jaded and the players looked complacent as though we could do the minimum, score and get through it.

Overall our creativity was extremely poor and I think that is down to a lack of options out wide, Kolarov is simply a million times better than Clichy and Boyata looked a bit out of his depth in a new role in an unfamiliar team. I don't think he deserved to get sent off though, it was a reckless challenge but his first yellow was never a yellow.

Not really any positive to take from this other than we are still in the cup... Hopefully we can have a good 4 days rest, hammer West Ham this week at home then it's all down to keeping it all going at Newcastle.

As for Garcia, I don't know wtf he did wrong, the goal wasn't his fault and the rest was down to the tactical shape of the team, he isn't a creative player and that is what we lacked most.

 

[Marvin]

I think all round we were poor today. The tempo was slow and we were incredibly sloppy in possession.

Having said that Blackburn worked incredibly hard and took advantage of our weak performance. They didn't look like a championship side today and you have to give them credit for fully deserving a replay.

Blackburn were poor did nothing but get men behind the ball. City were just lazy and lacking up front.

 

[oz1975]

The absolute last thing we friggin needed was a replay.. absolutely woeful performance from start to finish

I think the second string need the game time tbh.

Why not just play the EDS team for the replay, everyones scared to come to the Etihad anyway

 

[tidyman]

Why are people saying it is the last thing we wanted ?

You'd rather lose and be out of the cup than have a replay?

 

[adrianr]

Well it was poor, but that could have ended a hell of a lot worse. The replay is a pain in the arse but Blackburn are hardly going to be relishing the thought of coming to the Etihad.

The best way to look at matches like these is, despite the inconvenience of a replay, we've had an opportunity to recognise some clear deficiencies in the squad without really loosing anything. It's not like lost points in the league, or being knocked out of the cup. We're still in it.

Hopefully now we're looking very seriously at right back and central midfield for January reinforcements. If Richards is considered unreliable, Boyata considered not good enough, and it's hopefully clear enough to Pellegrini about all things Javi Garcia, a strong case can be made for sensible signings to ensure, at least as best we can, success this season. It wouldn't even matter if they were CL tied either, as improving the first 11 isn't necessary.