City v Stoke Post Match Thread

[hgblue]

Just watching Chelsea and if we want to win the League this season we're going to have to fight for it. I'm still not convinced 442 is the way to go, especially if Yaya is one of the middle two. Be interesting to see if he goes with that against Arsenal and Chelsea.

 

[Dynamo11]

Yaya was poor again, and he wonders why we haven't given him a new contract. Having said that the ref was diabolical and Stoke got a lot of the luck (booking Yaya for a dive when it's a stonewall pen?!).

Have to do better against these teams that sit behind the ball

 

[doomgob]

No:
pace
authority
energy
drive

Why can't we rip into sides like that sublime 40 minutes at Spurs last season?

With us 60, 70, 80% possession stats usually do not give out the right message.

 

[Feed the Elk]

Oh fuck it. These things will happen against parked bus sides. Same fucking story every year. I swear I am less nervous playing the dippers or someone wanting to be up for it than against Sunderland or this six-fingered lot of mutants. That's football. It happens. And that is why sides of third-rate thugs like Stoke park the bus against clubs like ours. Sometimes it works.

Those fucking NBC commentators can just fuck right off, by the way. That sweaty in the number 2 chair just deserves to have his teeth knocked out. He was shocking. And then twat #1 immediately rubbishing the Yaya (semi-soft) penno as "the right result." Then catches himself "the right result for Stoke."

I can't wait until there is universal adoption of the no-commentator/field mic model. Listening to these biased twats + loss winds me up far more than the loss alone would.

Agreed on the NBC commentator. That stupid fuckwit from Scotland was so obviously hoping Stoke would win it was unbelievable. Somehow Kolarov barely brushing someone who dove at the edge of the area is a penalty but it wasn't when Toure tripped over a leg that was stuck out three feet.

Diouf left his foot in and didn't need to go down. To be honest, i think that the majority of fouls these days are given too easily encouraging the player to go down under the slightest of contact (or perceived contact)

 

[remember arthur mann]

Typical Stoke, dirty, route one football, got the result though. City very pedestrian till Navas came on, like I mentioned last season can't see Joe keeping his place, much like Nasri, stops the game dead.

 

[jared]

So much flapping early in the season. Playing zaba would not make a lot of difference in this game. They set up well, defended well, and parked the bus even deeper after a goal up. Kudos for them executing the plan well.

Rotating Sagna and zaba is absolutely correct. It's a long season and we don't need to burn our players out. Unlucky to lose Fernando and their goal was alit if things going right for them and wrongly for us. No biggie, we are still right on track. The aguero jovetic partnership did not go well but still early days.

 

[MSP]

But to be honest, we weren't exactly amazing in first two games too. Good scores masked the fact we're nowhere near fit and nowhere near our top form.

Newcastle gave us good game but we're just too clinical for them. Liverpool dominated for most of first half but we've been extremely clinical in that game too, scored at perfect moment, and broke them with taking most of our chances.

It's bit worrying with games we have to play soon. Have to be much better vs Arsenal, Bayern and Chelsea or things could get nasty too soon.

 

[bugsyblue]

We lost today because of our full backs and obviously a bit of bad luck and good strong defending from stoke. They deserve credit for their organisation and resilience today. However Kolarov didn't overlap more than once or twice all game, it was the poorest attacking game I've seen from him in a long time. And Sagna proved today how vital zab is to us. His runs are one dimensional and he very rarely gave us any options down the right.

 

[stan bowles]

Very bad day at the office. Credit to Stoke who stuck to their game plan (as boring as it was) and gave us no space at all. Not that we made it difficult enough for them.

Losing Fernando was a major blow and taking off Jovetic was a surprise move from Pellegrini. He looked our liveliest attacking player by far. The trio of Toure, Silva and Nasri were all out of sorts and had little impact. Until the last 20 minutes were just didn't look sharp enough or like we wanted it enough. I'm still waiting to see the benefit of Navas too.

Their goal though ? How does a top team concede a goal like that ? Shocking from all concerned. I wouldn't ever imagine a team like Stoke conceding the way we did

Thought Sagna did ok but clearly not yet up to Zabaleta's level.

 

[DTKOAG]

Deserved nothing
Hughes got tactics spot on.
Give Stoke some credit ffs