City v Newcastle post match thread

[jauganaut]

Anyone see that french lad who ran unto the pitch and pulled the Barcodes pants down late in the game last night?
Mutant!

 

[MCFC-alan88]

Was anyone in the ground last night for about 45 mins before kick off until just before?

I'm sorry, but me and my Dad were just sat there cringing at some of the stuff going on. It was pretty embarrassing. That thing with the 3 kids and Agueroooooooooo shouting was woeful and is apparently going to happen every home game and then having a singer come out and scream at us before singing bluemoon just felt a bit Americanised, let us sing it.

Anyway, moaning over, we were absolutely immense last night. Looked brilliant from the off and pressed them all the way to the end. Few mentions:

Kompany - looked awesome, gutted about another injury for him, hopefully won't be too long because he looked more than ready after that game at Bayern for the new season
Fernandinho - broke up the play brilliantly at times, looks like he has bundles of energy and a good passing range. Still early doors, but was very impressed last night.
Navas - WOW. I've watched him for many years in La Liga and was over the moon when we signed him, but didn't expect him to hit the floor running like he did. Offered genuine width as expected, but even came more central at times (maybe under instruction) and his work rate was excellent covering for Zaba.
Dzeko - probably the best I've seen him play, never seen him chase as many balls down as he did last night, genuinely looked hungry and deserved a goal for his efforts

Overall we looked fitter, leaner and sharper. The tempo was brilliant and when the Toon had the ball we pressed them quickly in the right way and it paid off. You can't judge much based on the 2nd half with the red card and all, but there was enough from the first half to show some very promising signs.

Only issue I had last night is we were quite easy to read towards the end of the 2nd half, everything came down the right hand side (effectively, to be fair) and as Silva and Nasri played centrally there was never really genuine width on the left, so everyone became clumped over to one side of the pitch. Only a minor point though and even if teams read it they still have to stop it.

Pretty much the perfect start.

I was in as soon as they opened the gate. The band wasn't too bad (Hunter and the Bear) but the rest of it was cringe worthy. Fortunately I had my headphones with me and just listened to music until the match started.

 

[KnaresboroughBlue]

Excellent start. Well done to all involved. Hopefully we can build on this for the much tougher games that lie ahead.

 

[WritingChris]

Just wondered what you guys thought of this. An in depth look at just how Manchester City played last night, what has changed since last year and how Pellegrini has moulded the team to be so mobile in the final third.

Cheers

<a class="postlink" href="http://chriswinterburn.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/first-look-at-the-manuel-pellegrinis-manchester-city/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://chriswinterburn.wordpress.com/20 ... ster-city/</a>

 

[Kippaxblue5]

Pics and comments on the Newcastle game are now online at
<a class="postlink" href="http://rtfract.com/citaug13.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://rtfract.com/citaug13.htm</a>
sorry if the United TV ad comes up -there must be a United fan at Google!!!

 

[Braggster]

Lots of positives last night, obviously. It's not as if we never produced performances like that under Mancini - we did, especially in the title winning season - so we must reserve judgment until the team has played matches in which it has to overcome the problems we struggled with last year, which we didn't really face last night. However, there was enough in the performance to be very optimistic about our ability to do that.

A crucial difference for me was the tempo and weight of our passing in front of the back four. Yaya-Fernandinho has the potential to be an exceptional partnership that can feed our creative players more quickly and more accurately with easy-to-control passes, allowing them more time and space to work in. That's a huge difference to what we saw both last season and, at times, the season before and is potentially a huge positive for us.

He's understandably not got some of the attention that Edin, Navas and Ferna have got in the post match analysis, but I thought Yaya was exceptional last night. The subtlety and touch of his basic passing is simply wonderful and he'll be the best deep lying creative midfielder in the league this season if he plays there regularly (which it looks like he will). His accuracy and unerring ability to find quick, incisive passes - long and short - that make life easy for the recipient of the ball, is astonishing. He gets attention for his bulldozing runs and goalscoring ability but his basic passing, for me, is his best attribute. Just a special player, who gets in an all time premiership XI for me.

 

[Platini Pollock]

ARRRRrrrrrrgggghhhhh.

just found out that my tenner on City to be highest scorers in first weekend of prem at 7/1 doesn't pay out full amount.


Bloody crap liner and refs cost me big time.

 

[kun]

Player ratings:

Hart 6

Zabaleta 8
Kompany 8
Lescott 7
Clichy 7

Yaya 9
Fernandinho 8
Silva 8
Navas 7

Aguero 7
Dzeko 8

Nasri 7
Garcia 5
Negredo 6

Fucking hell, if Hart got 6 for not having to do anything why've you given Garcia a 5? Granted he didn't have to do much either, he did nothing wrong. Would have give Navas at least an 8, ripped them apart

Fair enough, but Hart did make one good save and played a whole game, I think I generally give subs lower ratings.
Navas gave the ball away a few too many times in easy possession but he did rip holes in their defence throughout the match so I averaged it out to a 7, could have been an eight but whatever.

 

[Impeccable One]

Just another example of the quality of journalists today. Chris Wheeler (Daily Fail) gave Coloccini, Sissoko, Tiote, Anita, Sammy Ameobi & Dummett THE SAME PERFORMANCE AS JESUS NAVAS = 6

Exactly what game was he watching ?

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent start. Well done to all involved. Hopefully we can build on this for the much tougher games that lie ahead.

Are your jaws getting sore having to do so much posting through gritted teeth ... :)