Bodo/Glimt (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

[Bluemanc100]

Stubbornness closely followed by loyalty.

His loyalty to Haaland and Foden while they are seriously underperforming is damaging us... Erling has an excuse if there is no service but I'm not sure what the answer / excuse is for Phil

 

[citymad]

Trying to imagine what Arsenal's team would have looked like if they'd played the Bodo game last night in our situation.

Gvardiol, Kovacic, Stones, Dias, Bobb, Gonzalez, Savinho, and Nunes are all injured for City - that's the equivalent of them losing Gabriel, Norgaard, Mosquera, Saliba, Nwaneri, Zubimendi, Madueke, and Timber. Bernardo was suspended, so that's the equivalent of someone like Merino being suspended for them. Guehi and Semenyo aren't eligible, so that's the equivalent of them losing Hincapie and Martinelli. Ake, Doku, and Rodri are still recovering from injuries, so that's Calafiori, Eze, and Rice not being fully fit. That would leave them with:

Raya
Calafiori, Salmon, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly
Saka, Rice (ACL), Odegaard, Trossard
Jesus, Gyokeres

That's about the best I can come up with.

Thank you making sense of all this. It’s been a terrible run of bad luck with personnel.

 

[paulchapo]

Agree but who is to blame? We went into this season with no recognised right back, and kept Stoned and Ake. Last January we invested £60m in two central defenders - neither of which is capable at this stage. Promising but not ready. That is called poor planning and strategy. The injuries mean zilch - all clubs have them.

Which was exactly the points i made. Pep admitted he was too loyal to his experienced players last season as he thought they had one more year in them, they didn't.
Sadly Stones and Ake will be on huge wages and under contract so we couldn't just get rid of them. I think those contracts expire at the end of the season when i doubt they will be renewed.
Last January our injury situation was even worse and we desperately needed some bodies in. Nobody sells their best established players in January so we had to make do with what was available. We went for promising youth, Marmoush being the oldest and it worked as we made the champions league and reached have the fa cup final.
We took our eye off the ball like a lot of highly successful clubs do and its caught up with us. We are now in the process of rebuilding which will always be painful at times until we get it right. Until our injuries we were doing okay and we could still turn this into a good season but we need Nunes, Dias and either Rodri back as he was ( If that will ever happen ) and/or Nico back. I'm sure eventually the form of Haaland, and Foden will return and Semenyo will chip in with goals. We might still have a decent season vome the end, time will tell.
Injuries do mean zilch they affect all clubs that get them, particularly to key players.

 

[roach3]

I didn't expect Bodo / Glimt to be as good as they were. They were very good in what they did.

Is that a pep quote ?

 

[Roachy]

Trying to imagine what Arsenal's team would have looked like if they'd played the Bodo game last night in our situation.

Gvardiol, Kovacic, Stones, Dias, Bobb, Gonzalez, Savinho, and Nunes are all injured for City - that's the equivalent of them losing Gabriel, Norgaard, Mosquera, Saliba, Nwaneri, Zubimendi, Madueke, and Timber. Bernardo was suspended, so that's the equivalent of someone like Merino being suspended for them. Guehi and Semenyo aren't eligible, so that's the equivalent of them losing Hincapie and Martinelli. Ake, Doku, and Rodri are still recovering from injuries, so that's Calafiori, Eze, and Rice not being fully fit. That would leave them with:

Raya
Calafiori, Salmon, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly
Saka, Rice (ACL), Odegaard, Trossard
Jesus, Gyokeres

That's about the best I can come up with.

What's the point of the comparison though?

 

[youngbob]

What's the point of the comparison though?

To show the kind of situation we're in with injuries. Sometimes we become so familiar with our own players that sometimes we can forget what we're actually dealing with. We're down to the absolute bear bones at the back. We're down to our third choice CBs and we're playing a left-back at right-back. It's worth putting things in perspective.

 

[roach3]

Trying to imagine what Arsenal's team would have looked like if they'd played the Bodo game last night in our situation.

Gvardiol, Kovacic, Stones, Dias, Bobb, Gonzalez, Savinho, and Nunes are all injured for City - that's the equivalent of them losing Gabriel, Norgaard, Mosquera, Saliba, Nwaneri, Zubimendi, Madueke, and Timber. Bernardo was suspended, so that's the equivalent of someone like Merino being suspended for them. Guehi and Semenyo aren't eligible, so that's the equivalent of them losing Hincapie and Martinelli. Ake, Doku, and Rodri are still recovering from injuries, so that's Calafiori, Eze, and Rice not being fully fit. That would leave them with:

Raya
Calafiori, Salmon, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly
Saka, Rice (ACL), Odegaard, Trossard
Jesus, Gyokeres

That's about the best I can come up with.

Which is a good point apart from one thing
Would arteta carried on playing the same way throughout the 90 ?

This is what has me worried about pep right now.

 

[paulchapo]

Hurts to say it but Arsenal are streets ahead of us now, excellent recruitment by them at last has seen them assemble a top squad, 2 quality players for every position like we used to have

When we were beating Arsenal to titles they were a young team whereas we were at our peak with established world class players. Those players of ours have now moved on and their young squad have matured and are battle hardened. They have a stronger squad too meaning they've coped with injuries well.

It's not all doom and gloom. We sre rebuilding and in spite of all the points made above this supposedly superior Arsenal team are only seven points ahead of us. I'd say that gap would be less if recent injuries hadn't decimated our whole defence. Arteta will know next season we'll be much stronger so they'll never have a better chance to win it. They are now favourites and have to get it over the line. Can they do it? I think they will, but mainly because of ours and Liverpool's struggles this season meaning there will be less pressure on them. We shall see, there may yet be a twist.

 

[Sebi]

What strikes me is that for many years, we were one of the best teams at turning a game around after falling behind (like Bayern and not so many others). Even five minutes before the end, you always had the feeling that we could still score. But now, when we're behind, I never feel like we can turn the game around. You don't see that passion in the players anymore, which isn't nice to see.

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

When we were beating Arsenal to titles they were a young team whereas we were at our peak with established world class players. Those players of ours have now moved on and their young squad have matured and are battle hardened. They have a stronger squad too meaning they've coped with injuries well.

It's not all doom and gloom. We sre rebuilding and in spite of all the points made above this supposedly superior Arsenal team are only seven points ahead of us. I'd say that gap would be less if recent injuries hadn't decimated our whole defence. Arteta will know next season we'll be much stronger so they'll never have a better chance to win it. They are now favourites and have to get it over the line. Can they do it? I think they will, but mainly because of ours and Liverpool's struggles this season meaning there will be less pressure on them. We shall see, there may yet be a twist.

There will be. A twist I mean.

 

[mancity111]

Haven’t recruited well? Most of the signings have been good. This month has been very good.

Some players like KDB are irreplaceable.

No one is irreplaceable when it comes to winning titles , I should have clarified that by saying as well as in the past KDB being a case in point.

we need more than good we need great.

Too early to say on this months transfers but other than Haaland and our keeper and perhaps Josko in time none of those we have bought in have established themselves as first teamers yet.

I hope that some will in fact all of them as unlikely as that will be and yes we have had our share of injuries to deal with but there was a time and considerable time when we had 2 players arguably of equal impact consistently in each position.

 

[pauls]

Try being a Liverpool fan then. They won the title at a canter, spent half a billion on shiny new toys in one window, and are now fighting for a CL spot.

My point is that there hasn't been some enormous drop off. There's been two very bad games in a moment where there's a ton of injuries and a makeshift back 4. A week ago we went to Newcastle and played and ran them

Thank you making sense of all this. It’s been a terrible run of bad luck with personnel.

Not to mention playing at -9 on a surface the opposition are extremely familiar with.

 

[BolinCell]

And do what? Sack the manager? Tell the FA, PL and UEFA that we refuse to play a match every 3-4 days? Ban injuries?

This "rot" equates to defeats in the last 15 matches, which until this month included 8 straight wins and since then has seen us score 10 in the FAC and go 2-0 up in the semis if the League Cup with a home leg to play, and wee still 2nd in the league behind the "runaway leaders".

Get a grip man.

followed by 3 draws and loss that virtually ends this years title challenge. Also its not the defeats its the manner of the defeats. The rot just refers to the messy scattergun transfer policy where 40-50 million for average joe has become the norm.

 

[Lavinda Past]

What strikes me is that for many years, we were one of the best teams at turning a game around after falling behind (like Bayern and not so many others). Even five minutes before the end, you always had the feeling that we could still score. But now, when we're behind, I never feel like we can turn the game around. You don't see that passion in the players anymore, which isn't nice to see.

True. I thought we were dead in the water as soon as their second goal went in. We didn't look remotely capable of coming back.

Too many heads dropped after their first goal. Many looked beaten at that point, as if they knew it was going to get worse.

Once that self-belief has gone in a player, there's no coming back.

 

[johnny crossan]

Cheer up for goodness sake :-)

 

[Bluemart]

Pep is the greatest manager City have had and one of the best ever in the world.
Sometimes he selects a team with players playing out of their normal positions, more often than not it works. Sadly, we know how stubborn Pep is and if it’s not going to plan, he hardly ever changes it. I think we all know just moving the 3 players around ie Alt-Noor, Lewis & Nico would have made us more stronger.
I do believe the team are trying albeit they look knackered, bewildered & lacking leadership particularly the last 2 games whether that on or off the pitch.
We do need to find a midfield player who can produce the killer pass to Haaland or instruct Doku & Semenyo to hit first time crosses into the box for him to feed off. If not the you may as well cash in on him.
Rodri is clearly not 100% fit as he can’t protect the back 4 at the moment but good p,Ayers don’t become bad overnight and I think he needs a rest.
Our list of injuries is bizarre but we have just signed to players who will give us a massive lift.
Bot much has changed in the last week, we have only lost 1 point to Arsenal and we can still qualify for the next stage of CL.
Let’s get behind the boys on Saturday and give them a lift

 

[Ric]

Fair play to them.

 

[Marvin.]

Is that a pep quote ?

Pep said that they played as well as he expected. He did say that we struggled to contain their transitions, and that they played a very narrow game and we missed our wide players. He was complimentary about how City players continued to fight. The press invited him to criticise Rodri and the players in general but he refused to do so.

 

[mancity111]

True. I thought we were dead in the water as soon as their second goal went in. We didn't look remotely capable of coming back.

Too many heads dropped after their first goal. Many looked beaten at that point, as if they knew it was going to get worse.

Once that self-belief has gone in a player, there's no coming back.

Which is why the top players or the players that will go to war with you are not always the ones with the best natural talent , skill set and highest wage.

They have the mindset that 0-2 is identical to 0-0 and play accordingly.

 

[Ric]

Fair play to them.

Statement from captains Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Erling Haaland, and Rodri:

"Our supporters mean everything to us. We know the sacrifice our fans make when they travel across the world to support us and we'll never take it for granted. They're the best fans in the world.

"We also recognise it was a lot of travelling for fans who supported us in the freezing cold throughout a difficult evening for us on the pitch. Covering the cost of tickets for the fans who travelled to Bodo is the least we can do.

"We're ready to fight on Saturday against Wolves and again next Wednesday when we face Galatasaray in front of our amazing fans at the Etihad."