City v Stoke Post Match Thread

[Manchester_lalala]

I'd like to say it's very harsh to single out individuals when the whole team played awful as a unit but Yaya was really off, again.

His usual laziness, lulling on the ball and moving the ball too slow. When he's really off it he just leaves his midfield partner in the shit having to do his job defensively as well.

Like someone said above, we just seem to struggle against certain teams like Stoke, Palace & Sunderland at home once they come and just set out to defend with 2 banks of four and work non stop. It isn't helped when we don't up the pace from kick off though.

I can't believe you and I were watching the same game. I don't have the stats available to me, but I would bet my house on

1) Yaya making the most passes in the game
2) Covering the most ground on any player in the game
3) Most shots on target
4) Creating most opportunities (Hitting post, forcing save, couple of deflections forcing corner, penalty shout, etc)

Of all the players who had bad game, I think Yaya/Kompany were the best of bad lot.

Correct, kompany was our best player along with yaya. Some people don't have a clue.

 

[ninjamonkey]

Where has our tempo and pressing style gone? We seem happy to settle behind the ball this season and don't press high up like we did against teams last season. Our play when we get the ball is distinctly lacking in tempo and there never seems to be a third runner right now. Don't really think we can blame it on early season because our attack is the same as it was last season. If we rediscover these 2 key things quickly we'll be fine. However, i'm still a little worried about a lack of plan B especially against teams that pack the defence like Stoke did today. Navas is supposed to be the outlet we give the ball to to get balls into the box but he just flatly refuses to take a man on and we don't seem very eager to get bodies into the box even if a cross does come in. Hopefully this is just a bad day at the office. Need to be substantially better the week after the internationals. Could leave us struggling otherwise.

 

[bluechampion7891]

I think you will see a different performance against Arsenal where a team coming on to us an attacking will suit us more, unfortunately this was coming as the team have been starting very slowly in recent games , but luckily we got the first goal against Newcastle and Liverpool and that makes all the difference, no need to panic just yet

that will come after the Chelsea game...or not

 

[Joe Hart's Dandruff]

Nasri does fuck all unless someone puts it on a plate for hm a la Jovetic last week. He is a keep the ball merchant that creates very little. He will have the odd moment of course, but in general he will slow play down and offer no width. A game like today was crying out for Navas, when it was obvious things congested were as fook up the middle.

 

[halfgoathalfotter]

either everyone lives within minutes of the stadium or no one on here goes anymore, never realized how busy it is on here on a match day

don't go anymore because of fertile sperm and empty wallet.both ways fuck off bellend

 

[GoMancini7]

Really disappointed in this, wanted 9 points from first 3 games as I do not expect 6 points from Arsenal/Chelsea games coming up. Even last season that two fixtures gave us only 1 point,

But Stoke was beaten last year at home, game was not much dissimilar to today's. But today we didnt have the urgency until we were fucked trough a horrible counter. After that we raised the tempo (why only after that?), but still we didnt create much.

We maybe hoped its 0-0, they will get tired while we raise the tempo only last 25 minutes and will score a winner. Be comfortable like this and you gonna get punished. Not something we couldnt learn earlier many times.

Beating Pool was great, but we did that last year too, so at the moment we are 3 points worse than last year from same fixtures.
Arsenal, Chelsea coming up, perfect chance to put this awful game right. Getting 4 points is the minimum for me now from that two big games. That would put us 10 points after 5 games with 3 big teams already played.

We have to come up with different ideas vs parked bus defences, as Stoke not the only one will do this, especially as they seen so early in the season how much they stopped us doing what we like to do, other teams will try to copy Stoke now.

Start with the faster/more direct players like Navas than Nasri as keeping the ball is good when we already are 1-0 up vs Stoke, but until its 0-0 they are hapy to sit back and us passing ahead of them and hardly do anything with it as they close the gaps really well. with 11 men.

Some long shots, more use of width, also our crossing was unreal, really bad, I get that Stoke is really good defending corners and crosses, but Sagna picked a long cross up in the air when only Aguero/Silva was in the box between lot higher defenders. Instead of trying to put in a strong not so high cross that only needs a touch to put into the net or can take a deflection and cause trouble.

Make sure that Arsenal/Chelsea games will get us at least 4 points. Certainly that cant happen what happened in the Community shield vs Arsenal...

 

[Rammy Blue]

Sagna not up to speed with how to work the overlap, definitely missed Zab.

Thought Yaya was gash.

One of Merlin's worst games in a blue shirt.

Just don't rate Nasri, doesn't influence the game enough for me.

Kolarov was poor.

Lee Mason is a ****.

 

[Gray]

Complete and utter garbage, quite the worst game I have seen since the Sheik arrived.

Not one player out there performed to even fifty percent of their ability.

 

[Damien10]

Evertons pressing and energy has been brilliant. Shame about the freak start.

 

[The Flash]

Really disappointed in this, wanted 9 points from first 3 games as I do not expect 6 points from Arsenal/Chelsea games coming up. Even last season that two fixtures gave us only 1 point,

But Stoke was beaten last year at home, game was not much dissimilar to today's. But today we didnt have the urgency until we were fucked trough a horrible counter. After that we raised the tempo (why only after that?), but still we didnt create much.

We maybe hoped its 0-0, they will get tired while we raise the tempo only last 25 minutes and will score a winner. Be comfortable like this and you gonna get punished. Not something we couldnt learn earlier many times.

Beating Pool was great, but we did that last year too, so at the moment we are 3 points worse than last year from same fixtures.
Arsenal, Chelsea coming up, perfect chance to put this awful game right. Getting 4 points is the minimum for me now from that two big games. That would put us 10 points after 5 games with 3 big teams already played.

We have to come up with different ideas vs parked bus defences, as Stoke not the only one will do this, especially as they seen so early in the season how much they stopped us doing what we like to do, other teams will try to copy Stoke now.

Start with the faster/more direct players like Navas than Nasri as keeping the ball is good when we already are 1-0 up vs Stoke, but until its 0-0 they are hapy to sit back and us passing ahead of them and hardly do anything with it as they close the gaps really well. with 11 men.

Some long shots, more use of width, also our crossing was unreal, really bad, I get that Stoke is really good defending corners and crosses, but Sagna picked a long cross up in the air when only Aguero/Silva was in the box between lot higher defenders. Instead of trying to put in a strong not so high cross that only needs a touch to put into the net or can take a deflection and cause trouble.

Make sure that Arsenal/Chelsea games will get us at least 4 points. Certainly that cant happen what happened in the Community shield vs Arsenal...

Nobody, absolutely nobody, gives a shit what you think.

Football is a lottery.

What are your plans now we haven't got 9 points from 3 games?