City v Sunderland Post Match Discussion Thread

[Marvin]

Re: Poor defense

What we need is a central & strong midfielder that has the PACE & WIDTH to cover or help our overlapping FB's such as AK who going forward (which is good from my POV for the excellent crosses or service to our strikers) lacks the mobility or pace to backtrack.

Sadly what we have now is inadequate. We need a top notch midfileder like Alex Song. He is the reason too for the resurgent gunners.

If not we should have VK playing a higher defensively & to protect or cover the back 4. We have reliable CBs in Lescott, Kolo. Micah & Clichy for the wingbacks.
That will be an awesome defensive quintet force.

Today we didn't that cover!

Silva and Nasri have pace and width. Our midfield is the best by far in the country. We missed our best players today, and other normally reliable players had poor games.

Your post is ridiculous

 

[salfordpaul]

Re: Poor defense

Our current formation relies too heavily on our defenders moving up to help with the attack, particularly Kolarov who has to help provide width and shoot some crosses into the box. While this can be effective to put pressure on opponents, it leaves us too vulnerable to counterattack, especially this far into the season when players are getting more fatigued. I was amazed with how little space our attackers have to deal with compared to Sunderland who were able to run onto balls easily around the box when they attacked. IMO, our attacking players are asked to track back too much while defenders are expected to come up to support the attack which means they have to cover a lot more ground than the opposition. Consequently, they have less energy and less focus to play tighter defense which explains a lot of the stupid goals. I think too much pressure has been put on the players to score goals that we've lost focus at the back. Mancini should clean this up going forward and look for our attack to be more efficient. I'd rather win 1:0 than have to score 3 goals every game.

i think this is a fair assessment !

 

[LoveCity]

At least our tremendous under-18s side did Sunderland today and continue to dominate their group, holding their nerve with relentless wins. Could get used to league tables like this at senior level...

(think it's one game outdated but we're still top by 5pts)

 

[Anonymous]

shambles team selection, shambles performance. need drastic changes if we're to win the league.

fucking wank today city, as were the crowd.

 

[ForzaMancini]

Re: Poor defense

What we need is a central & strong midfielder that has the PACE & WIDTH to cover or help our overlapping FB's such as AK who going forward (which is good from my POV for the excellent crosses or service to our strikers) lacks the mobility or pace to backtrack.

Sadly what we have now is inadequate. We need a top notch midfileder like Alex Song. He is the reason too for the resurgent gunners.

If not we should have VK playing a higher defensively & to protect or cover the back 4. We have reliable CBs in Lescott, Kolo. Micah & Clichy for the wingbacks.
That will be an awesome defensive quintet force.

Today we didn't have that cover!

Great shout with Song, another one of Arsenal's players for us to raid! :D

 

[Tommy_Catons_Perm]

Re: Poor defense

I agree with the poster.

We have started conceding again. If we kept clean sheets we would have won the last 4 games. Problem is probably disruption to central defence due to injuries which is beyond our control. But many mistakes have been made by the club overall which, in my opinion, will cost us the league title.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

3rd game this season we've done the heroic "comeback" without actually completing the comeback.

We're not going to win the title so the boss has 7 games to decide what he wants to do and sort out the plans for next season.

That wasn't a performance from a team united together and with a manager who had control and authority, a clear Plan A, Plan B, everyone working off the same hymn sheet with confidence.

I'm concerned, we're too 1 dimensional and I think that comes straight from the manager.

I either want Mancini to have accepted his failings and to sort out the squad and have width, pace and several clear and different plans and ways of playing, a squad on the same page that can be treated even handedly to not cause issues or I want him gone if he's clearly not going to shift his mentality.

We'll finish 2nd, but I can't help feel very dissappointed, because we had so much promise.

and if anyone says I'm being defeatist, I'm just being realistic, there's no way we can win at Arsenal/Norwich/Newcastle or beat United and them drop the necessary points anyway the way we're playing, we were so lucky today and gave ourselves the slimmest hope, but we didn't deserve it and Sunderland will be kicking themselves.

 

[Nelly's Left Foot]

Was it my imagination or were Kolarov and Kolo Toure actually arguing with each other while they were "trying to get back" during the build up to their third goal?

Not sure. But know Kolarov was pissed once it went in. That said that was a Kompany screw up.

Yup, stepped up needlessly and let Bendtner run behind him

I think all 3 of them played a part in that one but add to that Yaya who lost the ball in the first place.

 

[pudge]

Not sure. But know Kolarov was pissed once it went in. That said that was a Kompany screw up.

Yup, stepped up needlessly and let Bendtner run behind him

I think all 3 of them played a part in that one but add to that Yaya who lost the ball in the first place.

Yeah, the third was a shambles altogether. How does a throw in halfway inside their half result in them scoring within 2 passes? Alarm bells

 

[Balti]

3rd game this season we've done the heroic "comeback" without actually completing the comeback.

We're not going to win the title so the boss has 7 games to decide what he wants to do and sort out the plans for next season.

That wasn't a performance from a team united together and with a manager who had control and authority, a clear Plan A, Plan B, everyone working off the same hymn sheet with confidence.

I'm concerned, we're too 1 dimensional and I think that comes straight from the manager.

I either want Mancini to have accepted his failings and to sort out the squad and have width, pace and several clear and different plans and ways of playing, a squad on the same page that can be treated even handedly to not cause issues or I want him gone if he's clearly not going to shift his mentality.

We'll finish 2nd, but I can't help feel very dissappointed, because we had so much promise.

and if anyone says I'm being defeatist, I'm just being realistic, there's no way we can win at Arsenal/Norwich/Newcastle or beat United and them drop the necessary points anyway the way we're playing, we were so lucky today and gave ourselves the slimmest hope, but we didn't deserve it and Sunderland will be kicking themselves.

if he gets another season as expected then I agree he has to sort out the obvious need for width and pace

we lack options currently and AJ is not the answer