City vs Bayern Munich Post match Thread

[Marvin]

We were completely outclassed tonight but we will pick ourselves up. I admire mp for trying to attack against them. Ok it didn't work but we conceded so early on from a shot that hart should have saved that any game plan would have gone straight out the window. Also with silva only just coming back he probably wasn't ready for a full game. I would have liked mp to make changes sooner but I'm not worried about him he will be great for us.

Tactics don't come into it when your team are in shock after conceding a goal after 5 minutes

And then just when we looked like we had them on the ropes, or were at least in the game we go an concede a goal

Yes Bayern are an awesome team. Their power is difficult to appreciate until you see them. Not often you see a powerful City team swept aside and physically dominated. And then there was Robben and Ribery

They will win the Champions League again. They should do

I feel we had it in us to give them a game though but we didn't look mentally up to it for long stretches

It's a bit annoying when you see how City started and finished the 2nd half. We just don't believe in ourselves at this level. We're not at Bayern's level, but Chelsea would have given them a game

 

[Joycee Banercheck]

We played the European champions and also by far the best team in Europe who were utterly dominant. The manner of the defeat was extremely disappointing but even a point at home against them would have been an excellent result. We were never going to win this group and our key game was always going to be in Moscow. Anything there and we're through.

Not that getting through will make any difference because we are so far off the best teams in Europe it is scary.

However the last 15 minutes actually was much better. They probably took their foot off the gas but at least we had a go.

However the subs that were made late in the game should have been made at half time. Poor tactics, poor in game management and poor performances from too many players.

I agree changes should have been made at half time. Navas was doing nothing and Milner should have been on to shore up the midfield. Dzeko was having one of his shoulder shrugging games and should have been replaced by Negredo. Despite getting tonked, that game might have been rescued or at least we could have made more of a contest of it.

We did for ten minutes. Boateng doesn't bring Yaya down and it may have been 2-3. I'm clutching at straws, aren't I?

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

We played the European champions and also by far the best team in Europe who were utterly dominant. The manner of the defeat was extremely disappointing but even a point at home against them would have been an excellent result. We were never going to win this group and our key game was always going to be in Moscow. Anything there and we're through.

Not that getting through will make any difference because we are so far off the best teams in Europe it is scary.

However the last 15 minutes actually was much better. They probably took their foot off the gas but at least we had a go.

However the subs that were made late in the game should have been made at half time. Poor tactics, poor in game management and poor performances from too many players.

I agree changes should have been made at half time. Navas was doing nothing and Milner should have been on to shore up the midfield. Dzeko was having one of his shoulder shrugging games and should have been replaced by Negredo. Despite getting tonked, that game might have been rescued or at least we could have made more of a contest of it.

Agree. If they had been 5 or 6 up we couldn't have complained.

We did make a game if it just 25 mins too late. Pellegrini has to take the majority of the flack but the players really need to start showing him they want to ay for him because if they not then some of them need shipping out.

 

[East Level 2]

Men against boys, one way traffic, call it what you will but they were on top of their game while we were all over the place.
Playing two up front to give the opposition something to worry about is OK in theory, but it weakens the midfield and is a recipe for disaster unless there is a constant stream of ammunition for the forwards. It also fails if the forwards aren't perceived as a threat, and while Sergio might be the same can't be said of Edin when he plays like he did tonight.
The officials didn't help with what I thought were a couple of dodgy offsides in the first half (perhaps someone who watched on TV can comment) but we can't hide from the fact that it was a very poor performance against very good opponents. But FFS Bayern are a right bunch of whinging shits aren't they?
On the bright side there might be less demand from UEFA's corporate gerbils for CSKA and Plzen so I might get to use my own seat.

 

[sam-caddick]

Just seen on redcafe that apparently Robben said he didn't expect an easy game like that or something, that true?

We really let ourselves down tonight'

 

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

We were outplayed tonight by an awesome side.

Our managers tactics were dreadful, some if not all of the starting eleven didn't perform to boot.

Joe Hart needs to go and hang his head in shame and if he's selected against Everton then Pants might as well move on in January as he'll never get a game. Lets be honest tonight it was men against boys. Unbelievable!!

Not sure what else I can say other than:

Aston Villa put three past us.

Cardiff City put three past us.

Stoke City should have put three past us as well but didn't.

Talk about be careful what you wish for, and out of the frying pan into the fire.

 

[WickyWain]

We've still got to play them again in Munich :(

If we're going there needing a point to qualify....



:-(

Next game's the key, if we beat Moscow away then we should come through as runners up quite comfortably. We definitely need to qualify before we go to Munich though...

 

[Bluemoonie92]

completely outclassed, our tactics were appalling and we were lucky to only lose 3-1, At least silva and negrado looked good when they came on.

Did Negredo really look that good though? Was a good goal granted but he give the ball away with every other touch and dribbled one out of play at the end under no pressure. I think because the other strikers were poor people see what they want to with Negredo. Without that goal he was gash like the rest. But hes a striker and thats his job to score so well done to him. When our other strikers play shit but score they dont get the same credit.

well at least when he came on he looked more threatening than the rest of us!

 

[Manx Blue]

Tonight, we were beaten by Europe's best team, and arguably the best team of the past two and a half years. I reckon the stats tonight, other than the goals, were not too dissimilar to the night they lost in the final to Chelsea, and I challenge anyone to offer me any other English team who would beat them tonight.

Fair do's Arsenal beat them on their own patch last season, but Bayern smashed Barca over two Semi Final legs FFS! They also battered us in the Audi. Yes we scored first and they had a dodgy penalty, but the writing was really on the wall for me then.

I think I'm right in saying that if we can get two victories over CSKA then we're through.

Tonight was a disappointment, more for the fact that we didn't compete. But as I say, not unexpected as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Jimfv1]

Bayern didn't show any desire. They simply showed a level of professional expertise that we couldn.t match.

Of course, technically they're on a different planet to us. Tactically too at the moment. But they also showed masses of desire, not only to press and to (want to) work their bollocks off, but also to get on the ball and play, even under pressure. The lack of bravery on the part of our players - excluding the three subs - was mindblowing.

It had little to do with desire. Navas showed a lot of desire. He chased every ball. and when he got cornered on every pass he got in the first half, he tried to run with it to the middle looking for someone to pass too. Dihno showed desired. Slide tackled chased, try to harrass and all. So did Nasri and Aguero. Clichy too and Micah too. There were City players all over the pitch working their arses off. But the talent, tecchnique, and tactics were so superior, they were often left gasping.

This is a syndrome common to Very good teams that play Guardiola teams for the first time. The difference in class shocks you to your bones. Gi watch every Madrid/Barca battle under Guardiola, it was always the new big money Madrid buys that looked the most lost. Coz they'd have never witnessed anything like that before. Check out the 5-0 smashing of Madrid under Guardiola, Ozil, Khadera and Benzema all looked confused. Our guys looked proper confused and mind fucked. Aguero got the ball for the first time in 30 minutes and literally was too mentally drained to attack Boateng. The same Boateng that got eaten for lunch by alsorans in the prem. Nasri had the same problem, he had chased for 25 minutes and when he finally had his first possession of the ball, his mind was all fucked. He had turned into a defender. He simply turned around and passed to Clichy.

These consciensious possession and early pressure system, fuks with you on so many levels. It sapped the confidence right out of our players.

I still reckon playing with 2 strikers in any game is ancient and silly. Just like having 2 DMs is silly, or playing with a hardman DM who mostly tackles is silly. These are all static ideas. And we (like most teams in the Prem) adhere to one or more of these follies. Lahm was a DM for Bayern today, and I barely remember him making any tackles. Coz most often he was busy passing the shaite out of us. Same with Busquet at Barca. They really don't make tackles. They force turnovers by shrinking the field in areas. And it starts from the top.

I get sad, when all these clearly tactical decisions are designated as some unquantifiable quality like "desire" or "passion" or "effort." Rather this are tactical roles that players need to play or they wouldn't make the 11. Muller must always cut off one side of the field once the ball is played back to the keeper, forceing the keeper to either give it to the player Muller wants him to give it to, or punt it up field for a 50/50. He did this all game. This wasn't effort, it was tactical.

Alaba, Kroos, Ribery and Lahm, once Muller had forced eithr Kompany or Hart to give Navas the ball, immediately converge on him. The CDs Immediately step up and shorten the field, suddenly Navas is in a pickle and has to dribble his way backwards to find any daylight. This wasn't effort or desire or passion> It was simply tactics. A thing that was repeated time and time again.

Effort is when Milner chases the ball from Dante to Neuer to Rafinhna back to Neuer who then releases it to Lahm. Rooney did the same in the CL final against Barca a few years back, and tired out in 20 minutes and stopped doing it. Effort doesn't work against this kind of clinical football. Beating "effort" or "desire" is built into the system. Nasri Did the exact runnaround around minute 29, and had the exact same result as Milner. Nothing. Dzeko did the same (albeit he gave up After going from one defender to the goalie) but had he continue to run at all four, he would have achieved the exact same result.

It is their Tactical and technical superiority that is debilitating, not our lack of effort. On lucky days (with superior teams having an off day) "effort" might get you something. But on a day when they are up for it, you'd better be as tactically proficient and lucky!

We were neither today. So we got schooled.

I've not always agreed with your posts on here, but this one is spot on, Negredo was much better than Dzeko, we should have only started one striker, and we badly needed an extra midfielder. We have been shown how we should play, and it is very similar to Dortmund too. There are a few other managers trying to do this and Southampton and Swansea are probably the closest to this in England, (but without the quality of player as Bayern have). Awesome that they can still bring on Shaqiri and Gotze, and not even Thiago !