City vs Barca - Post Match Thread

[der-bomber]

Got to play technical players who are comfortable in possession and can keep the ball against Barca , hence Nasri and Jovetic should have started .
Kolarov isn't suited to this kind of opposition and Navas would have been a great impact sub to stretch them as they are not the fittest team if starved of the ball ...
A very frustrating match .

 

[kp789]

Re: How do you feel after a defeat like that?

I'm absolutely disgusted. I thought we played well at times, worked hard when we didnt have the ball. Yaya, Negrado and Fernindinho got stuck in and covered every blade of grass. Kompany was magnificent. Again. And Silva brilliant and unlucky not to score. But Im still disgusted. And I blame Pellegrini. It was him that picked the team and him that picked DiMichelis. How can Pellegrini not see how poor MDM is? An absolute liability, wether it be in defence or midfield. I hope he never wears the shirt again.

oh dear!!! thought MDM played well until then

Probably because he did play well until that point. You cannot judge a players performance on 1 second of it, instead consider the other 53 minutes.

 

[Chi-town blues]

What happens if we are winning 2-0 in the 2nd leg? Does it go to extra time and pens?

No, the ref gives them a dodgy penalty to hand them the tie!

You never know ,the fat french toast will go to an extreme just to get back to us .

 

[steviemc]

Down to managers tactics
Pelligrini picking Demichellis was like Reid constantly picking Heath in the old days
Accident waiting to happen
May as well play with 10 men in my opinion
At least he will not play in the Return
What has Lescott done to upset anybody

The fact of the matter is that both MD and Lescott are not ideal. But we've known this for a while, so it shouldn't be a shock. Lescott had a good last game but was a bit poor again today, timidly giving the ball away too often, and not able to play a straight pass 50yds back to the keeper. MD was in a no-win situation, if he wouldn't have made a challenge we all would have been screaming 'why the fook did he let the man go clean thru on goal'. The situation came about because we switched off for a second, thinking that a foul would be awarded to Navas. That was the game-changing moment.

That said, I'm not gonna criticise anyone too much as we played with what we had available, and we certainly didn't look out of our depth. A lot of Barca's possession was rather ineffective and they didn't open us up very much at all. If anything, I wish we would have pressed them a little bit more, as when we played possession football they pressed us very early and gave us very little time on the ball.

 

[dctid]

Re: How do you feel after a defeat like that?

I'm absolutely disgusted. I thought we played well at times, worked hard when we didnt have the ball. Yaya, Negrado and Fernindinho got stuck in and covered every blade of grass. Kompany was magnificent. Again. And Silva brilliant and unlucky not to score. But Im still disgusted. And I blame Pellegrini. It was him that picked the team and him that picked DiMichelis. How can Pellegrini not see how poor MDM is? An absolute liability, wether it be in defence or midfield. I hope he never wears the shirt again.

To be fair i have been critical of Pellers (and get slated accordingly) BUT i think he picked the right team and i see little option other than play Demichellis - this was NOT a game for Lescott and to be honest the only centre half good enough at this level is Vinny

Disgusted is a bit harsh - had we been more attacking and open then theywould have picked us off - as it is we have to go Barca and try and win - personally i think it could be a cricket score because we will have to be more open

Barca are still on another level each and everyone of their players were technically outstanding and as a team retained possiession brilliantly.

At 1 down with two minutes to go we should have shut up shop but we didnt

 

[pudge]

Watching him score would have been fine with me...as opposed to watching him score from the spot with 10 men on the pitch.

True. Although he did take him down outside the area, so the real dilemma was should he save a goal in exchange for getting sent off. He decided he should, and they were wrongly awarded a penalty.

This De Michelis faced a choice about giving a free kick away potentially keeping the score at 0-0 OR let him run through and keep 11 players on the pitch but go 1-0 down

I would have done the same thing he did. You can't legislate for the referee f*cking it up and giving a pen.

Yet you're ready to assume Messi would have scored no problem?

 

[Maldeika]

We played better with 10 men

But a massive FUCK OFF DEMICHELIS

And you

As an experienced defender, which he is, he should have stayed on his feet and let messi go. He chose to slide in as per usual and bring him down. His choice, he chose to bring him down.

He should bring his own joypad out for fifa which every button just makes him slide tackle

He actually had a decent game up until that point but it was a daft decision. If it stayed 1-0 we are still in the game, but it's not and demichelis getting sent off for a stupid tackle he was never going to win is the main reason for that

Still - how could Demichelis come in a situation to be in a 1vs1 against Messi. That is what I do not understand. There is the mistake. Usually as a defender you then have to try to get the ball prior to the penalty box.

Yes, maybe Demichelis could have thought about leaving Messi to Joe Hart... Sorry, makes me laugh. An away goal from the opponent in the CL usually means going out especially if it is against Barcelona. As it showed after that 11 men often have difficulties to play against 10.

It is nice to counter attack - but not to leave yourself fully open in the behind against an opponent like Barcelona especially if Messi is there. Sorry, the problem has not been Demichelis - and not even the not called foul - but to leave the back like this.

 

[Theengelbert]

If MDM didn't bring messi down he was gonna score. When I first saw it and assumed it was a free kick I said well in you've done the right thing MDM even with the red card. Ref got it wrong for me, wasn't a pen

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Right. Positives from now. We aren't going to meet anyone anywhere near that class in our league, so come on lads, no sillies,
lets get these sides buried and win it. Also im over for the big one on Saturday. So looking forward to marvel at the Adam's, Crouch's
and Nzonzi's gracing our pitch. Think I might even buy an autograph book ;-)

 

[St Ives blue]

one word… proud