City v Arsenal Post Match

[goatinho]

Just got back. For me.

First of all, I thought we were poor. Possibly the worst performance this season.

I don't think Ive ever seen an arsenal team come to the Etihad and let us have the ball like that before. It was deliberate and wenger has finally learned. When he brings his teams and goes toe to toe he will be beaten. I think we were shell shocked in the first half because we just weren't expecting it. Its not an excuse, but explains some of the performance. It got me thinking on the way back. The last 4 home games have all gone the same way. Teams are learning how to play against us. At the moment we are suffering in a big way from injuries and I don't think any other team would be where we are with the same situation. That is testament to the club.

I think all of us now are beginning to understand how we operate. Have a gander at the conference with Feran. Its on youtube, I think it was posted on here not long ago. It was done in the UAE for a group of government people. He was advising how to operate a successful team/Business.

In a nut shell. It doesn't matter if you are 5 or 25, if you play for Manchester city then there is a way of doing things. We play football on the floor, we press high, the fullbacks are wingers and there centre backs spread out and make the pitch big. Its what Barcelona do. They are just much better at it ATM. Its not a coincidence when you look at who runs us. You know who they are and they were the brains behind barca for a long time. We have a blueprint, it has been developing for the last 2/3 years and is why bobby got the boot. There are many bosses, we are a team. From the director of football, to paddy with the EDS and Manuel. If you don't like the method, then you know where the door is.

You could argue, and its why Im putting this across, that you need to mix your game up when you have injuries and come up against a system like today that you were not expecting. For me, I say stick with how we do things. Instead we need to look at where we are strong and where we are weak, and replace the players that don't deliver. The football we play is often outstanding and with a fully fit/firing squad I think we win this league.

We do need to look at the weakness though. Like not being able to defend, or take set pieces. How our play is generally central, and our strongest side is down the right. For me we need a new left back that is as good as zabba is on the right. He is the best full back in the world, genuine. The academy may eventually answer it, but atm when we are missing parts of the chain like yaya and nasri then we cant replace them, and still play the same way.
We have had fucking terrible luck this year, and today is only one game. We are still well in the mix, but we need to keep our best players fit if we are going to defend the league.

Its swings and roundabouts, we are top team, have good days and bad days and today was just a bad fucking day at the office.

amother one who left early

 

[bluemoon27]

we got outplayed in every department simple as that,its over now,time to concentrate on sheff wed

 

[Manc in London]

Really surprised by some of the comments today. I thought we were much better than them today, but we lost. Shit happens, Play that 10 times and we'd win 7 or 8 of them.

They defended well, but created little. By and large, we controlled the game.

Spot on! We were not poor! Poor would have been getting dicked 5-0, Arsenal having numerous chances and ripping us a new one.

I don't understand some reactions sometimes!

We move on and start again!

I don't think we were poor, all things considered. No need for kneejerk reactions. However, in no way were we better than Arsenal. Even if we were, it would have meant nothing. You get no points for moral victories.

 

[Mancitybluemoon1]

We were miles better at keeping the ball but completely ineffective going forwards. What we lacked today was the influence of Yaya who is so powerful in the middle. Having Yaya just beyond either Fern gives us that extra space for Silva. Today we couldn't break them down because their entire gameplan revolved around nullifying Silva and it worked perfectly.

When Silva is taken out of the game we then have to rely on quality out wide and unfortunately Navas/Clichy/Zabs did not deliver what was required. You also have to factor in that Aguero was also completely taken out of the game and with the poor delivery, nothing was ever going to get created. Again the weakness in squad depth is exposed where we take out Yaya and Nasri and we are a top 4 team at best. Those people wanting to sell Yaya must be off their rocker!!

We had lampard, jovetic, navas, dzeko, aguero, silva all there to create things. Our squad is amazing and is probably the best in the league. Myabe we should just go and buy ronaldo and messi and rues ......

even Pelle said "we didn't create today".......even with injuries we have spent enough money on enough good players that we should still be creative in front of goal.....if you have all those top players on the field and we still cant score a goal...we have a big problem....

 

[3rdgenerationblue]

We need a plan B

We need someone who can take a fucking corner

And we need to take defeat like a man. They got a bit lucky and defended well.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

We were miles better at keeping the ball but completely ineffective going forwards. What we lacked today was the influence of Yaya who is so powerful in the middle. Having Yaya just beyond either Fern gives us that extra space for Silva. Today we couldn't break them down because their entire gameplan revolved around nullifying Silva and it worked perfectly.

When Silva is taken out of the game we then have to rely on quality out wide and unfortunately Navas/Clichy/Zabs did not deliver what was required. You also have to factor in that Aguero was also completely taken out of the game and with the poor delivery, nothing was ever going to get created. Again the weakness in squad depth is exposed where we take out Yaya and Nasri and we are a top 4 team at best. Those people wanting to sell Yaya must be off their rocker!!

We had lampard, jovetic, navas, dzeko, aguero, silva all there to create things. Our squad is amazing and is probably the best in the league. Myabe we should just go and buy ronaldo and messi and rues ......

even Pelle said "we didn't create today".......even with injuries we have spent enough money on enough good players that we should still be creative in front of goal.....if you have all those top players on the field and we still cant score a goal...we have a big problem....

well it was only one game, we usually create loads. Arsenal were just better than us

 

[goatinho]

we got outplayed in every department simple as that,its over now,time to concentrate on sheff wed

???????????????????????????

 

[ZZmaestro]

It is january 2012 again. Acon will take its toll, and we will again pay the highest price.
Difference is now we also miss Nasri, which leaves David by his own to do the job, with the likes of Navas and Milner not helping at all.
With that same squad, we will have to park the bus at Stamford Bridge and hit them on the counter. We just can't play as we're used to when we have the big fella with us.

 

[Mancitybluemoon1]

Really surprised by some of the comments today. I thought we were much better than them today, but we lost. Shit happens, Play that 10 times and we'd win 7 or 8 of them.

They defended well, but created little. By and large, we controlled the game.

Spot on! We were not poor! Poor would have been getting dicked 5-0, Arsenal having numerous chances and ripping us a new one.

I don't understand some reactions sometimes!

We move on and start again!

I don't think we were poor, all things considered. No need for kneejerk reactions. However, in no way were we better than Arsenal. Even if we were, it would have meant nothing. You get no points for moral victories.

Think I would feel better if we did just have a bad day but we didn't...we played well but they were still able to control us and stop us from being dangerous in front of goal...whats more worrying is if teams can just game plan to stop us....

 

[tonea2003]

CARZOLA - MOTM...........

I wonder how many will agree.?.

Me he was superb, outsilvered silva today