City v Chelsea post match

[blue_paul]

I was as angry about the refereeing performance as I was about our defence.
Individual errors not withstanding, and some of those were bloody woeful, the manager has to take his sizeable share of the blame.
We here a lot of conviction talk from Pep, telling us this is how he plays and that's that but he'll have to learn to be more pragmatic
when we're ahead. A high line against a superb attacking side when we're 1-0 up doesn't make sense, especially against players as quick as Hazard
and the brilliant Costa.
15 minutes either side of half time we looked the better outfit though and were moving the ball superbly, onlya complete bottle job by the referee
and inept finishing meant we didn't have the game wrapped up before Costa made a fool of Otamendi.
I get the feeling that this might be the beginning of the end for Aguero too. Yes, he's been phenominal for us at times but I just don't see him being
all aboard the Pep bus and we've seen how ruthless the gaffer is with those who he feels aren't pulling in his direction.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

I honestly think Bravo is taking too much flak on this thread. Over and over again, Joe said that he had almost nothing to do most games because he was so well protected by what was in front of him (I'm obviously not referring to European games like Dortmund and Barcelona). That pairing of Vinny in his pomp with Joleon Lescott (an obviously limited footballer, but one who had an exceptional understanding with his partner), with the enforcer NDJ giving them protection in front – we've simply had nothing of that quality since. And Claudio Bravo certainly doesn't benefit from anything like it. I'd like to see what he does with a decent defence in front of him.

 

[Father Paul]

Really don't think Chelsea are that good , the media are building them up to be the new invincibles , but we ripped them to pieces for most of the game , if we had taken half our chances it would have been a cricket score . One thing is for sure, when we do start taking our chances some poor bastards are going to be on the end of a Huddersfield and then people will sit up and take notice

No reason to believe this is likely to happen in the next few weeks at least. The poor defending is the biggest problem. You cannot win the league unless you are capable of keeping clean sheets. We are a million miles away from this at present.

 

[blue wang]

Only just managed to regain my composure after our this weekends game.
Towards the end of the 90 minutes, I was resigned to the loss and was really frustrated.
We played well, for large portions of the game we were by far the better side. The referee didnt do us any favors and our defence is still weak. Whats new?

Whats new is that it seems that our players actually seem to care, for the last 2 season there has been very little aggression and intensity, almost apathetic at times. On Saturday I could see that the team was really hurt by the loss.

Aguero hasn't been in the best of form, I suspect the body might be showing a little were and tear ( I hope he can adapt his game)/ coupled with the fact that Pep obviously has given strict instruction to play off the shoulder and not get involved in the play. This leads to him receiving the ball less than what he is used to. If this is the case and the referee is not blowing your way and your defense is letting you down. This can be frustrating for some one that wants to win the game. When Aguero put that tackle in against Luiz, It Was dirty, ugly and malicious and could have even broken his leg. Its something you never want to see happening to a player on your team. It was from a player whose emotion was welling up, he was probably more frustrated with himself than anything,He was feeling it like I as fan felt it. He cares and we can see he is putting his heart and soul into it. He is not getting quite the results/ performances that he expects, we just need to back Aguero and hopefully he comes out on the right side.

When the Chelsea lad ( not sure what his name was )pushed Aguero, Nacho my Hero made his present felt and wanted to protect his colleague. Love how he doesnt shy away, gets stuck in and I kind of feel as though he looks up to his team mates as his older brothers.

Fernandinho, the boss.

Played one of the best games I have ever seen from him, Played brilliantly in attack and defense.
Did not deserve to be on the losing side.

Before the game a lot of Bluemooners where comparing him and Kante
You need to give your head a wobble, not even close.

As for the Fabregass incident, Luckily no punches where thrown as the suspension could have been lengthy.
You could see Fabregas got more than what he bargained for and was beginning to panic towards the end there.

Love Dinho intensity , and doesnt take shit from no-one attitude. A real hard man, if needs be.
We lucky to have him.

So in summary, the team looks as there is unity and desire, the melee at the end showed that. I felt as though the fight could be a turning point and was glad they got stuck in. We have long way to go in the season. If we going to come out on top the team needs to show that they are up for the fight.

 

[Father Paul]

I suspect the old guard have patience (we have had to), but you just have to read the posts to suggest there is an element of of the fan base that certainly don't have it, and it really comes across as entitled. The PL has moved on and other teams have improved significantly.

Entitled is not a term I like. Critical discourse is essential in all areas of life including football. I have been watching City for a very long time and patience has been an absolute requirement.
There are a number of clear issues with our performances this year which does not inspire confidence. The fact is large amounts of money has been spent in the last few windows and if our home form does not improve immediately we will be out of the race for the title early for the third season in a row. However, the manager must be given until next season before anybody should start calling for his head. But if we spend another 150-200 million results should be expected regardless of the competition.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I was as angry about the refereeing performance as I was about our defence.
Individual errors not withstanding, and some of those were bloody woeful, the manager has to take his sizeable share of the blame.
We here a lot of conviction talk from Pep, telling us this is how he plays and that's that but he'll have to learn to be more pragmatic
when we're ahead. A high line against a superb attacking side when we're 1-0 up doesn't make sense, especially against players as quick as Hazard
and the brilliant Costa.
15 minutes either side of half time we looked the better outfit though and were moving the ball superbly, onlya complete bottle job by the referee
and inept finishing meant we didn't have the game wrapped up before Costa made a fool of Otamendi.
I get the feeling that this might be the beginning of the end for Aguero too. Yes, he's been phenominal for us at times but I just don't see him being
all aboard the Pep bus and we've seen how ruthless the gaffer is with those who he feels aren't pulling in his direction.

Up to Saturday joint top scorer. Unless we need to have him ten goals in front of second place I would have thought that position would make Pep think he was contributing a fair share of endeavour. What worries me is that there is a little niggly side to Sergio that creeps out when the frustration increases whether it is from constant fouls that are unpunished or not scoring goals that he would wallop in training. I write off the Luis episode because I think there is some history with these two. He kicked Luis up the arse a season or so back, got away with it, despite Luis suggesting that he required an abject apology from Sergio. Perhaps he didn't get it and the barge on Saturday was delivered before Sergio kicked the other buttock!

 

[caseball]

I don't mind players having a nasty streak. He doesn't show it often and he takes it without complaint most games.
The post about the quality of the defenders is correct. Also the midfield was better balanced with de Jong, Barry and Toure available as well as the smaller players.
There were more big personalities in the team as well. Maybe this is frowned on by the Barca Boys.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

We have gone from the highest scoring team in the league this season to the lowest in the current top four.

Our defenders are hardly the worst set out there, but they can be easily bullied for both pace and aerial ability.

It becomes more pronounced when they need to be nigh on perfect, every week, because we are committed to leaving the back door open, far too many unintelligent players who get ahead of the actual ball, and a world class striker who, despite having a scoring rate which is unmatched in Premier League history, is far from ruthless and misses more than he scores.

It's a team which has always scored goals - it won us two titles - it also lost us two - failing to add van Persie in one particular year.

The team is devoid of a helper for Fernandinho and it requires a hardman defender who can do most of the basics to help out Stones.

Jose Fonte is a season campaigner and surplus to requirements. I would take him and van Dijk in a heartbeat.

Otamendi and Kolarov will never be good enough and whilst I am on the subject, Clichy is so far "off it" this season, I have come to detest a seemingly very likeable and honest pro.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

The rolling pull back to the near post, each and every time, is about as telegraphed as it comes.

The word is out and it's very easy to defend against when you only have one man permanently in the box trying to attack it.

It just smacks of trying to deliver the perfect picture goal.

I would argue that if we put Greizmann in this team, instead of Aguero, the goals would be about the same, but so would the problems.

 

[flb]

We have gone from the highest scoring team in the league this season to the lowest in the current top four.

Our defenders are hardly the worst set out there, but they can be easily bullied for both pace and aerial ability.

It becomes more pronounced when they need to be nigh on perfect, every week, because we are committed to leaving the back door open, far too many unintelligent players who get ahead of the actual ball, and a world class striker who, despite having a scoring rate which is unmatched in Premier League history, is far from ruthless and misses more than he scores.

It's a team which has always scored goals - it won us two titles - it also lost us two - failing to add van Persie in one particular year.

The team is devoid of a helper for Fernandinho and it requires a hardman defender who can do most of the basics to help out Stones.

Jose Fonte is a season campaigner and surplus to requirements. I would take him and van Dijk in a heartbeat.

Otamendi and Kolarov will never be good enough and whilst I am on the subject, Clichy is so far "off it" this season, I have come to detest a seemingly very likeable and honest pro.

One thing is for certain Im my eyes is that Gundogan doesn't work paired with Fernandinho, there has been a noticeable drop off in that position since he came back from Injury, Silva is far far better at covering the space in there and at least puts a challenge in-and ghosts in from deep-I just don't see what he brings to the party playing there, hes better in the 10 role but we all know who's better off playing there.

Its seems like a luxury signing and shoehorning both him and Silva just doesn't work-its like hes playing three at the back to fit him in-fine if you have three top drawer defenders behind him which unfortunately we dont.