City vs Bayern Munich Post match Thread

[Bottomless_Sailor]

It's all well and good blaming Pellegrini and saying that we should have played 5 in midfield, but 4-4-2 is the formation that clicked against Manchester United, did we really want to make a last minute change in formation in order to try and beat the European Champions at their own game?

There is no way we can compete in Europe if we are inflexible.

That formation worked against United because they were matched up and we have better players. Moyes made a similarly bad tactical error against us and ended up with the same result.

What happened tonight was that we completely surrendered the midfield to a team with better players - how anyone can think 4-4-2 would be anything but a disaster tonight, especially after five minutes of seeing how Bayern were lining up is a complete mystery.

We couldn't get the ball. Yet we changed nothing.

Pellegrini made an utter balls up of that tonight - simple as that. Not saying we would have won with perfect tactics, but we were close to humiliated as a result of decisions taken. It was almost amateurish.

If he had played 4-5-1 from the start, the result would have been the same with ol' Joe in goal and we'd have all been all ripping into Pellegrini for abandoning the formation that played to our strengths against Manchester Utd in order to be super clever against a Bayern side that were always going to be masters of the midfield.

Who would your extra midfielder have been, assuming Silva was not fit enough to play any earlier than he did? Anyone that was worth disrupting the usually-effective Fernandinho/Toure partnership for?

Everyone here loves to copy Jamie Hindsight Redknapp and Gary Red Nevil but in reality who was there to come off our bench and be a creative spark at the sacrifice of Aguero? Garcia and Milner.

 

[coastline]

This is Silly. Nasri tackles as well as Milner.

Ok let's have a bet then! Ball in the center spot Nasri and Milner take ten steps back and see who pulls out of the tackle first! :-)

 

[pudge]

Guardiola leaves his top scorer Mandzukic on the bench so he can have
really strong midfield, we could seen it worked to perfection inside
first 20 minutes.
Meanwhile Pelegrini starts with two forwards. and as much i like Nasri's
and Yaya's creativity going forward they are liability when it comes
down to backtracking and defending.Last 20 minutes just proves even more
how much Pelegrini missed with tactics.
With introduction of Milner and Silva we took control of midfield and
started creating chances. I just hope this is lesson learned.

Bayern took their foot off the gas. It wouldn't have mattered who started, they were just better. Sure Pellegrini screwed up starting with 2 strikers, coz this is just a poor way to set up. Strikers (no matter how hardworking) simply don't work hard enough the whole game to help wrestle possession. When you play 2 against a good team, you just put yourself at a dissadvantage.

Pellegrini, our board and policy on aquistition cost us this game. Teams who play with 2 strikers simply are porous. You just need 1 striker, possession, and high pressure. That is what every good team does today.

It is not only a well thought out starting lineup, but also a well thought out bench.

You have to make your mind up

 

[John.des]

I am worried about the CSKA game. If we lose the away game, they know a draw will be good enough for them in the Etihad. Get the tactics wrong in the away game and we will lose...

The way we fuck up away matches in the league well CSKA is a better side than Cardiff or Villa...

It will be hard and we have to give 120% agains them. Think they will be easy to beat and we end up like vs Ajax...

Pellegrini must earn his money in the CSKA matches also Everton at the weekend.

 

[Mr HJ]

Two things struck me tonight :
1. When we got to the game my daughter wanted to see the players get off the coach - I couldn't believe how nervous and tense they looked. They looked stressed. The one thing we needed to do was to have a really strong first ten mins this would help maintain the atmosphere which was popped like a balloon after the goal. The first goal was key and it was poor keeping again it bounced directly off Hart's arm - not good. I have to compare Hart's performance with Nauer who distributed the ball quicker which helped gain his team extra space, he dominated any loose balls in the area and gave his defence confidence. Jo needs a reality check before his career falters. I also believe that this was the wrong game to not play Zaba who closes space better than Micha being a better defender. Micha was picked presumably to rampage forward but to me he looked lost.
2. The change of Alvaro and Silva for Nasri and Dzeko should have been made at halftime. Just prior to the sending off (which was a terrible professional foul) we started to play by using Silva to move the ball more effectively - this helped both Navas and Toure to start playing.

In the end it was a let down and a bad day at the office and in truth they looked so much more accomplished . I still believe we will be ok but the time for believing they are world class without doing it week in week out is over for our lot. Get them to watch the replay MP particularly the desire, pace and will to win of Robben and Sweinstiger in particular. Finally I am sorry to pick out two English players for faults and I want them to be focal in our team but that was how I saw it.

 

[tijuana tev]

Just got home - I can't believe how wrong Pelle got this. If he had done any homework what so ever he would have known that-

a Yaya and one other in midfield against quality opposition just isn't good / mobile enough
b Dzeko just doesn't cut the mustard against quality

He should have started with aguero up front on his own and either of Milner / Silva in midfield to make 5.

Making the mistake was one thing to do nothing about it when you could see after 15 minutes was criminal. I thought this guy was brought in for his tactical nous in europe (sorry i haven't seenanything to convince me yet). Then to make a like for like replacement as your first sub just compounded the mistakes.

He needs to wise up quickly.

100 million pounds spent and the team for me has gone backwards. Ive said this before and i stick by it....THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE SACKED MANCINI. The two from Barca wanted him out , they didnt like him. He was our FERGIE and they fucked it up.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

You must be bloody joking. Silva had great chances in the second and 44th minutes to put us ahead against Dortmund. They played better than us admittedly, and had the better chances and more of them, but to compare the match with the mauling we got tonight is pathetic. Is anyone saying this marks an improvement on last season? We had our first shot on goal tonight in the 78th minute! And everyonecould see what was wrong - apart from the manager. He was brought in because of our poor performances in Europe, but we have taken a step backwards.

22 shots on goal and Joe Hart making about 7 or 8 blinding saves proves you are wrong.

We got slapped senseless that night.

Somebody buy that tedious rag **** a one way ticket to Turkey please!

We'll Billy, no argument as usual, just your cretinous dismissal of anyone who doesn't accept your prejudices as a rag, you retarded twat. Let's have your thoughts then. Are you satisfied with tonight? What exactly did you expect? When you were so keen to bring Pellegrini in, is this the kind of performance you had in mind? We're you happy with tonight's tactics and formation? How much "progress" did you detect in our display tonight? Or are victories over Plzen and (hopefully) Moscow the sum total of your ambition? Is 1 point from 9 away from home in the league and a thumping at home - our first defeat at home in the CL, and our first in Europe since Hughes was manager - something we should greet with delight? Or are you just going to say that Bayern are the best team in Europe, while you ignore that the manager's formation and tactics presented it to them on a plate? Come on, Billy, put your head above the parapet for once and let,s have something a bit more cerebral than your juvenile abuse. You refused all invitations earlier in the season to say what you expected from Pellegrini this season. Let's hear what you thought of his performance tonight.

 

[East Level 2]

Having calmed down we can now be positive:
If we assume BM will beat CSKA in Moscow and everybody will beat VP, then our route to qualification is simply to beat CSKA in the head to head games. A win and a defeat will do us if we win by more than we lose. The margins by which either side beats VP will be irrelevant if we beat CSKA in the head to head games. Obviously a win in Moscow will really set us on our way but my positivity isn't running high enough to suggest that yet.

 

[Tbilisi]

Having calmed down we can now be positive:
If we assume BM will beat CSKA in Moscow and everybody will beat VP, then our route to qualification is simply to beat CSKA in the head to head games. A win and a defeat will do us if we win by more than we lose. The margins by which either side beats VP will be irrelevant if we beat CSKA in the head to head games. Obviously a win in Moscow will really set us on our way but my positivity isn't running high enough to suggest that yet.

If nothing else tonight has shown us that the priority must be Premier League and Cup Double,go as far as we can in CL but we wont win it.

 

[mammutly]

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...

Not much point in qualifying if the next time you come across a good team, you set up like that again and get battered.

The knockout stages bring a cup final feel though, and we know that anything can happen in those games.

Moscow is a massive game now, because it is going to be between us and them for the second place spot.

What concerns me is that the powers that be at City have decided on a system and come hell or high water ( or lost matches) they are going to play it. If that is the case, I don't think we will beat Moscow because they'll have us worked out well in advance.