City v Arsenal Post Match

[Corky]

Hopefully it will get rid of some of the glory fans - like the Seattle guy on the radio crying about us going to get beat 8-0 at Chelsea.

 

[malg]

Hopefully it will get rid of some of the glory fans - like the Seattle guy on the radio crying about us going to get beat 8-0 at Chelsea.

Haha.....he was quality. Didn't he also say leave Yaya in Africa? Someone actually said get rid of the manager, maybe the same bloke.

 

[FanchesterCity]

I can't see any variation in our play.

We never invite teams onto us in order get THEM on the break these days. If we're not in our comfort mode of stroking the ball around in their half we are found wanting.

Navas is supposedly a pocket rocket. Yet he rarely knocks it past a left back and gets around him, and we rarely use his speed on the break either.
I think I can recall just once today when he did manage to use some speed on the break, but got the edge of the box and stopped, one assumes waiting for the cavalry.

We've not had an aerial threat for ages, Dzeko included, and yet there's still high balls going into the box. Aguero's not a miracle worker.

I suppose it's just after a loss, so the negative outlook's foremost in my mind, but all the same, I don't feel we've really made much improvement down the right since Johnson went, and we're worse down the left that when we had Bellamy. That seems to be forcing so much down the middle, and there's a limit to what any team can do down the middle when teams defend with 9+ men behind the ball.

Navas was our only threat to their defence

Missed Yaya and Nasri, and Aguero was well below par. The only thing good about today was that Aguero got 90 mins under his belt

Arsenal defended well.

I would agree he was pretty much our only threat, but he was an ineffectual one. Paradoxically, that's no threat at all.
I'm not saying he's a lousy player though, I'm saying that we've lot players like Johnson go because we wanted to raise the standard... significantly. He's in his second season with us now, but I can't say he's taken us to the next level down the right wing.

I don't particular want to single him out, as others were below par today too, but for me, he's not at the level required to play in a team challenging for the title and with CL winning aspirations.

 

[jimharri]

Hopefully it will get rid of some of the glory fans - like the Seattle guy on the radio crying about us going to get beat 8-0 at Chelsea.

Well; we are going to get beat 8-0 at Chelsea.

 

[Corky]

I honestly don't think he was on the wind-up either, such a spoilt 'fan' of the franchise.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

I can't see any variation in our play.

We never invite teams onto us in order get THEM on the break these days. If we're not in our comfort mode of stroking the ball around in their half we are found wanting.

Navas is supposedly a pocket rocket. Yet he rarely knocks it past a left back and gets around him, and we rarely use his speed on the break either.
I think I can recall just once today when he did manage to use some speed on the break, but got the edge of the box and stopped, one assumes waiting for the cavalry.

We've not had an aerial threat for ages, Dzeko included, and yet there's still high balls going into the box. Aguero's not a miracle worker.

I suppose it's just after a loss, so the negative outlook's foremost in my mind, but all the same, I don't feel we've really made much improvement down the right since Johnson went, and we're worse down the left that when we had Bellamy. That seems to be forcing so much down the middle, and there's a limit to what any team can do down the middle when teams defend with 9+ men behind the ball.

Navas was our only threat to their defence

Missed Yaya and Nasri, and Aguero was well below par. The only thing good about today was that Aguero got 90 mins under his belt

Arsenal defended well.

I would agree he was pretty much our only threat, but he was an ineffectual one. Paradoxically, that's no threat at all.
I'm not saying he's a lousy player though, I'm saying that we've lot players like Johnson go because we wanted to raise the standard... significantly. He's in his second season with us now, but I can't say he's taken us to the next level down the right wing.

I don't particular want to single him out, as others were below par today too, but for me, he's not at the level required to play in a team challenging for the title and with CL winning aspirations.

When he arrived I thought his crossing was fairly impressive. It was good to see someone actually pick people out rather than just banging it in without looking. We seem to have successfully coached that out of him.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Hopefully it will get rid of some of the glory fans - like the Seattle guy on the radio crying about us going to get beat 8-0 at Chelsea.

Doesn't sound like a glory fan - they'd be saying we're going to thrash them.
Sounds old school pessimism to me.

 

[Corky]

Hopefully it will get rid of some of the glory fans - like the Seattle guy on the radio crying about us going to get beat 8-0 at Chelsea.

Well; we are going to get beat 8-0 at Chelsea.

So what, we got beat 6 there not long ago with Joe in goal.


We are used to it.

 

[bridgeblue]

All that work to catch Chelsea gone so easily.

We are different team without Yaya and Nasri, our 2 most important players.

Spot on. Without those 2 Silva a shadow; we need at least 2 of those 3 in our side[/quote
Plus Kompany and Aguero not being match fit didn't help matters.

 

[FanchesterCity]

Navas was our only threat to their defence

Missed Yaya and Nasri, and Aguero was well below par. The only thing good about today was that Aguero got 90 mins under his belt

Arsenal defended well.

I would agree he was pretty much our only threat, but he was an ineffectual one. Paradoxically, that's no threat at all.
I'm not saying he's a lousy player though, I'm saying that we've lot players like Johnson go because we wanted to raise the standard... significantly. He's in his second season with us now, but I can't say he's taken us to the next level down the right wing.

I don't particular want to single him out, as others were below par today too, but for me, he's not at the level required to play in a team challenging for the title and with CL winning aspirations.

When he arrived I thought his crossing was fairly impressive. It was good to see someone actually pick people out rather than just banging it in without looking. We seem to have successfully coached that out of him.

I thought his debut against Newcastle was precisely that. Just what the doctor ordered... speed, crossing, not afraid to run past people, but as you say, it seems to have been knocked out of him.
I also think that because we usually play so high up, there's no space for him to run into, or behind and use his pace, but all of that said, when we are on the break, he should be a prime outlet to either skin a defender, or beat a defender to the ball after it's been played into empty space behind the oppositions defence. More often that not he's playing the ball back inside to midfield, or overlapping with Zabs. It just doesn't seem to utilise his number one asset... his pace.