City v CSKA Moscow Post Match Discussion Thread

[Anonymous]

I see today that the "happy" pole of Bluemoon's personality disorder has returned. Good. Long may it continue.

Notwithstanding the 'high line' which is still making those with a penchant for a more catenaccio style a little nervous!

We looked ridiculously good last night. Played the way this City team should. Wave after wave of attack. High tempo, constant movement. Dominant in almost every aspect of the match.

As DD said a page or two back ... you can see something very special occurring before our very eyes with this team. We will win the PL, of that I'm almost certain. The question for me really is how many trophies can Pellegrini pick up in his debut season ...

The Champions League isn't beyond us either. We'll go to Munich and show the world and maybe one or two of our own supporters that.

 

[west didsblue]

Superb team performance tonight, best yet under Pellegrini, wonderful attacking football, and so easy on the eye, and often simple too, we're getting better game by game for me, and I'm not biting on the "defence were shite" I thought they were good, bar two lapses when it really didn't matter.


Pantillimon - 6
Clichy - 7
Demechellis = 7
Nastasic - 7
Zab - 7
Nasri - 9
Silva - 8
Fernandihno - 8
Yaya - 8
Negredo - 9
Aguero - 8

Agree with most but Aguero was a 10.

 

[DenisLawBackHeel74]

Great result, fantastic game of football by city.

If i'm not mistaken, we have become much more mobile and inventive in the final 3rd. During the past few games we play a much more expansive attacking game than under Mancini, the interplay in the last 3rd is breathtaking at times...Silva back to his best, Nasri, finally the player we thought we bought, Yaya and Fernandihio, fantastic understanding, aguero..well what can you say....the beast getting better with every game, he was immense again last night.

If we can sort out our defensive frailties, we will be absolutely unstoppable.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I see today that the "happy" pole of Bluemoon's personality disorder has returned. Good. Long may it continue.

Notwithstanding the 'high line' which is still making those with a penchant for a more catenaccio style a little nervous!

We looked ridiculously good last night. Played the way this City team should. Wave after wave of attack. High tempo, constant movement. Dominant in almost every aspect of the match.

As DD said a page or two back ... you can see something very special occurring before our very eyes with this team. We will win the PL, of that I'm almost certain. The question for me really is how many trophies can Pellegrini pick up in his debut season ...

The Champions League isn't beyond us either. We'll go to Munich and show the world and maybe one or two of our own supporters that.

The thing about the high line, though, it's that it's integral to the way we play. We compressed the play really tightly in the midfield area and so they had no room to play and every time we won the ball back - and we pressed really well - we had men available and could build an incisive attack. The thing is about our pass and move game is that it was never going to be the same with Kolorov, Milner and Navas on as they don't have the close control or passing ability of those they replaced. There is a big gap now between our first and second choice players. You could see it at Newcastle and clearly in the second half last night.

Even though they scored twice I never felt CSKA were a serious threat.

 

[Anonymous]

The thing about the high line, though, it's that it's integral to the way we play. We compressed the play really tightly in the midfield area and so they had no room to play and every time we won the ball back - and we pressed really well - we had men available and could build an incisive attack. The thing is about our pass and move game is that it was never going to be the same with Kolorov, Milner and Navas on as they don't have the close control or passing ability of those they replaced. There is a big gap now between our first and second choice players. You could see it at Newcastle and clearly in the second half last night.

Even though they scored twice I never felt CSKA were a serious threat.

Absolutely ... our best XI are beginning to look and dominate teams in the way that Bayern/Barca/Dortmund do - which is the benchmark we need to have. We're still very early in the season but what bodes well is that the improvements are now obvious and clear.

The form of Yaya, Silva, Nasri, and Aguero speaks volumes about how the season is developing and how the team is developing. Those players didn't once come close to reaching the heights they've hit this season at any point last season.

 

[Balti]

I have to admit to being impressed with the way Pellegrini has us playing on the whole

easier champions league group than Bobby had though ;-)

just the small matter of our away form in the premier league to be addressed

if he cracks that then we are flying

 

[aguero93:20]

5 Goal Agredo spectacular, best strike pairing going at the moment imo
knockout rounds here we come! :):):):)

 

[Kippaxblue5]

Pics and comments on the CSKA Moscow game are now online at
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.rtfract.com/citnov13a.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.rtfract.com/citnov13a.htm</a>

 

[NoahCity]

Only thing that worries me is the gap between our starting XI and bench players, particularly in midfield and central defence.

 

[aguero93:20]

Only thing that worries me is the gap between our starting XI and bench players, particularly in midfield and central defence.

I'm not so worried about defence, once we have all 4 fit and firing for me Vinnie is automatic first choice and the rest get rotated, apart from Garcia, who preferably gets moved on in jan.
but I agree about midfield, it was ludicrous we let barry go out on loan and i'd love to see us bring in the likes of Pogba, Gundogan or even someone like fabian delph from villa whos really impressed this season and is an upgrade on Garcia for me