City v Stoke Post Match Thread

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

The guy sat behind me came up with a right gem on Saturday:

"Chelsea won in the last minute and this will end up 0-0 or Stoke will snatch a 1-0 win, today's where we lose the league."

20 seconds later... YAYA!!!!!!!!!!!

Did he look a bit sheepish, by any chance?
Our problem against Stoke was that it was a return to the bad old days of trying to play it up through the middle every single time. Now we have the best passing team in the league, hands down, and the Ferny/Nasri/Silva/Yaya unit on song is a thing of beauty, a Rolls-Royce of a machine, but there come's a point when there are just so many bodies in the way that you can't thread it through (although that sublime interchange between Yaya and David Silva should have led to a goal if only for God's sake David was a little bit more greedy and sure of himself sometimes!) I've said it before and I'll say it again. Width. Width. Width. Not every single time, but as an alternative to playing it up through the middle. That is what fucks up defences' game plan, because they simply can't cover for both options. When Navas came on we saw the difference.

Hands down? Swansea and Southampton have better passing stats than us.

Well of course, I can't argue with that if I don't know the stats. What I do know is that we've carved open defences time and time again this season — that's why we've still scored substantially more goals than anyone else — by virtue of our passing. It's not the sheer number of passes, it's the vision and quality of them that's been constantly produced by those four. Some of the triangular and quadriangular movements between them, one touch every time, in very tight spaces, have been breathtaking. I stand by what I've seen.<br /><br />-- Mon Feb 24, 2014 8:50 pm --<br /><br />I'd better stop watching that Dzeko miss on the OS. It looks worse every time — it's just unbelieveable. Then he compounded it by getting into a definite shooting position a few minutes later and choosing to pass it (I think to Silva, who was in a much worse position), because his confidence was shot to hell.

 

[dom]

The guy sat behind me came up with a right gem on Saturday:

"Chelsea won in the last minute and this will end up 0-0 or Stoke will snatch a 1-0 win, today's where we lose the league."

20 seconds later... YAYA!!!!!!!!!!!

Did he look a bit sheepish, by any chance?
Our problem against Stoke was that it was a return to the bad old days of trying to play it up through the middle every single time. Now we have the best passing team in the league, hands down, and the Ferny/Nasri/Silva/Yaya unit on song is a thing of beauty, a Rolls-Royce of a machine, but there come's a point when there are just so many bodies in the way that you can't thread it through (although that sublime interchange between Yaya and David Silva should have led to a goal if only for God's sake David was a little bit more greedy and sure of himself sometimes!) I've said it before and I'll say it again. Width. Width. Width. Not every single time, but as an alternative to playing it up through the middle. That is what fucks up defences' game plan, because they simply can't cover for both options. When Navas came on we saw the difference.

Hands down? Swansea and Southampton have better passing stats than us.

Source ?

 

[stonerblue]

they had 11 behind the ball then how are we supposed to hit them on the counter-attack??

They did have the ball the odd time themselves ya know? And when they went forward they lost shape and there was plenty of times we reclaimed the ball and could have exploited the space before they got back into shape, but we didn't.

Please watch the game for more information :)

Please re-read the first 2 para's of your own post before trying to be a smartarse. Thanks.