City v West Ham CoC Semi-Final 1st Leg Post Match Thread

[FredTilson]

Barcelona mentioning this victory on their official twitter. Is this normal practice?

<a class="postlink" href="https://twitter.com/FCBarcelona/status/421069723091369984" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">https://twitter.com/FCBarcelona/status/ ... 3091369984</a>

 

[Goater=Legend]

Superb stuff. Definitely getting our moneys worth watching the great football we have been playing.

Negredo is perfect for this league, no way will he have one of those 'second season struggles' that a lot of players have.

Special mention to Dzeko. You could tell he really wanted a goal, put himself about a lot and was unlucky not to add to his two goals with a few good saves from Adrian, brilliant goal with his left foot (he seems to score more with his left than his right).

Perfect time to play some of the youngster's, especially Guidetti and hopefully Jovetic will get some valuable gametime.

 

[Dribble]

Training ground stuff - you have to look at WHU. Beaten before they stepped onto the pitch.

I think that's pretty unfair on our lads Marvin, West Ham started pretty well I thought, but it was only because we allowed them to. Rather than have 90% possession near the half way line, whilst creating nothing, and struggling to break teams down, we once again sat deep in the early minutes, and allowed them to come onto us, we're doing this very successfully, it opens the game up so we can attack.

West Ham looked poor because we took them apart, it was ruthless stuff, even having slept on it, I think it was as good as we have played in any game this season, especially considering it was a semi final.

TBF on Marvin, WHU played a major part in this win, but you can only beat what's in front of you. At one point Nasri, Silva & Yaya were playing football tennis between themselves about 20 yards outside WHU's area & I couldn't fail to notice they had THREE midfield players just walking back toward defence whilst the ball was being played around them.

The brilliant thing is that we took full advantage and gave them the hammering their effort deserved. I'd hate to be a Hammer this morning, because getting beat can happen to anyone, but no-one can ask anymore from a player than effort so to back Marvin's point, West Ham were turgid.

As for City, we were supreme and what I liked more than anything else is that we kept our concentration until the final whistle and never took our foot off their throats. Dzeko's goals were striking greats and as for Negredo's first 2 goals, well what more can be said about either. The hardest skill to execute in my mind is to volley a long pass which has come from over your shoulder & my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw the pass and finish!!

What delighted me is the humility MP showed toward WHU after the match but this was tempered by Fat Sam going on about how much our players were worth and how much we paid for them as some kind of excuse. All I have to say to Fat Head is look no further than one of your previous teams (Blackburn) to see what can potentially be achieved if you have a tactical plan and your players are committed. The fat bastard has NEVER said anything similar all the times he bent over and took it up the shitter from ManUre or the Chavs, so why is the value of our squad and how much they get paid an excuse for defeat where City are concerned!!!

There's more to last night's defeat for Fat Sam, because what I saw is a group of players who weren't even trying for their under-pressure manager. The fat **** would be better employed concentrating on that rather than how much we bought our players for and how much we pay them. Like I said, we showed concentration and a ruthless streak that has been missing in some matches this season and long may it continue.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Training ground stuff - you have to look at WHU. Beaten before they stepped onto the pitch.

I think that's pretty unfair on our lads Marvin, West Ham started pretty well I thought, but it was only because we allowed them to. Rather than have 90% possession near the half way line, whilst creating nothing, and struggling to break teams down, we once again sat deep in the early minutes, and allowed them to come onto us, we're doing this very successfully, it opens the game up so we can attack.

West Ham looked poor because we took them apart, it was ruthless stuff, even having slept on it, I think it was as good as we have played in any game this season, especially considering it was a semi final.

Exactly how I saw it. A masterclass in how to play a defensive side. We drew them out playing passing football, often in little triangles, quite deep, then sprung on them. Even though he was misfiring a bit first half, Silva was instrumental in this, by suddenly lifting the tempo on a couple of occasions early on with bursts from deep. We varied it and kept them moving and unsure. And, having watched the game a second time on telly when I got in last night, our movement was superb all over the pitch. Nasri, Silva and the forwards were dropping into little pockets of space all the time, and West Ham couldn't keep a lid on us at all.

Wonderful, wonderful football. The best I've ever seen. The training ground work is paying serious dividends.

 

[Rodney Marsh's Hair]

Two outstanding highlights for me were Yaya's perfectly floated pass for the beast to finish on the volley. What a finish it was with the ball coming from behind him, over his shoulder.

Lopes' back heel, nutmegging the West Ham defender, allowing Negredo to run onto it setting up Edin for his second and the sixth of the night.

Two beautiful pieces of skill I've been watching over and over again.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

We were good last night but I think the fact West Ham were so appalling made our performance look a lot better.
We have performed better than that this season in fact a lot better and the saying goes you can only beat what put in front of you. It was a big fat sam team though so happy days

 

[Didsbury Dave]

We were good last night but I think the fact West Ham were so appalling made our performance look a lot better.
We have performed better than that this season in fact a lot better and the saying goes you can only beat what put in front of you. It was a big fat sam team though so happy days

We have been hearing this all season. United, Spurs, Norwich, Moscow etc.

In reality when we click we make teams look appalling.

 

[Bill]

full marks to the west ham fans. they were brilliant throughout. as we knew they would be. proper club.

 

[flb]

Might seem a bit odd when you've watched a game with 6 such fantastic goals, but my favourite bit of the whole match was that one touch interplay between YaYa, Silva & Nasri towards the end of the first half. Just fantastic.

Agree mate, Barcelona mark 2

Anybody care to put up that passage of play on here for another drool.

 

[adrianr]

We were good last night but I think the fact West Ham were so appalling made our performance look a lot better.
We have performed better than that this season in fact a lot better and the saying goes you can only beat what put in front of you. It was a big fat sam team though so happy days

We have been hearing this all season. United, Spurs, Norwich, Moscow etc.

In reality when we click we make teams look appalling.

Exactly. We're going to go through the whole season at this rate just playing a load of shit teams! If only we were so lucky.

It should also be stressed that we've earned our reputation at home, it didn't become a daunting fortress overnight. We've had to fight like fuck to win that many games.