City Vs Borussia Dortmund (CL) Post Match Thread

[bluebrother55]

We are unable to keep a clean sheet against anybody,we don't have any tactics,bizarre team selections and players not playing to anything like we know they can.
Even shite like Bate and Glasgow Celtic have more points than us.
It's obvious what the problem is, but unfortunately on this forum, Bob is bombproof.

 

[i8rags]

I was stunned by how bad we were last night. Dortmund were good, no doubt, but there is no excuse for defenders time and time again not following players who have made fairly simple straight runs or not bothering to go and pick up a player who is just standing in acres of space in dangerous areas around the box. Way too much following the ball rather than the man and frankly a decent but not amazing side made our team of top class players look like school boys. We were out thought and worryingly also out fought. Reminded me a bit of Arsenal away last season in the sense that it looked like a team of players who didn't want to be on the pitch to me.

Sorry mate but i totally disagree, we conceded one goal from a fuck up from midfield.
The system we play needs a goal so we can control possession whilst having a lead. Silva missed the best chance and a few rushed efforts from Sergio were also wasted. It was our attacking ability that was flawed last night, which kept the pressure on us defensively.

 

[Whitterz]

They had 22 shots! That says enough, we shouldn't be allowing that amount of shots !!!

 

[sh249]

I've just watched the first half again and we actually outplayed Dortmund by quite a bit. Strikers should have done better and put one or two in, but we were easily the better team. But from when Dortmund got a couple of chances late in the first half, they started getting hold of the ball, finding gaps, out working us, and getting dangerous chances to score. It was like they had figured us out all of a sudden and we couldn't do anything about it.

The thing that's concerning is that they pressed us high in the second half and didn't give us any chance to settle on the ball, the same way Madrid did. And we didn't have a plan b to counter this. Yes we tried a different formation and changed some players, but we couldn't find a way to deal with them, and it was frustration that led to the mistakes.

We need to press teams harder when they have the ball, move the ball faster when we have the ball, and be able to change the tempo when we need to. We did much better at this last year, but it's missing this year. And we need to learn fast or we wil be. Out of the Champions league again.

Agree with pretty much all of this. I've only flicked through the thread, but I'm surprised by how many people are saying the whole performance was shite. First half I thought we looked almost back to our best as an attacking side - we controlled possession almost completely and created a whole host of good chances. If we'd stuck one of them in, would have completely changed the game - first goal was always going to be absolutely crucial against a side like Dortmund who are so good on the break.

Towards the end of the half, they did catch us with a couple of really top, top quality counters - that's what they do, and have done for the past 3 seasons or so. Sure, we looked particularly vulnerable, but then that's what we do! Especially when Barry isn't playing. (Not helped by Yaya having one of his worst ever games for us - passing was woeful, got caught on the ball in dangerous areas at least half a dozen times, and then second half just looked injured or utterly fucked - can't recall him breaking into anything more than a jog at any point.) Early second half, they came out flying, but we were still more than holding our own, I thought. It was the substitution that changed everything for me, or rather the switch to the 3-5-2. Looked at the time like it could be suicidal and was. We only played it for 15 minutes - 15 minutes during which we didn't get out of our half, the defence looked all over the place, Silva barely touched the ball (after looking back to his best first half), and Dortmund were able to press us even higher up the pitch, leading (perhaps indirectly - certainly a fucking howler by Rodwell) to the mistake for the goal. Of course it's impossible to say how things would have panned out otherwise, Dortmund were certainly a match for us throughout, but those 15 minutes appeared to pretty much kill all hope of winning, robbed us of any rhythm whatsoever, and left us (after switching back to four at the back) having to chase the game, throw bodies forward and an extra striker on, all of which played directly into Dortmund's hands and they exploited it brilliantly. And if it weren't for Joe we would have ended up on the wrong end of an embarrassing hammering.

Can't really understand the thinking in Mancini making the switch. That said, I certainly don't think Dortmund are far superior to us (as the first half showed), and would give us a chance of getting something at their place. Whether it will be enough though is hard to say - certainly left ourselves with an uphill struggle.

 

[juanhunglo]

Passing along the back four is suicide stuff, you are bound to be caught out sooner or later. This is not the first time Rodwell has done this. YaYa, that was the worst game in a City shirt. I feel we should have started with Tevez and Aguero up front. We are just not good enough at this level yet.

 

[mancity1]

I was stunned by how bad we were last night. Dortmund were good, no doubt, but there is no excuse for defenders time and time again not following players who have made fairly simple straight runs or not bothering to go and pick up a player who is just standing in acres of space in dangerous areas around the box. Way too much following the ball rather than the man and frankly a decent but not amazing side made our team of top class players look like school boys. We were out thought and worryingly also out fought. Reminded me a bit of Arsenal away last season in the sense that it looked like a team of players who didn't want to be on the pitch to me.

Sorry mate but i totally disagree, we conceded one goal from a fuck up from midfield.
The system we play needs a goal so we can control possession whilst having a lead. Silva missed the best chance and a few rushed efforts from Sergio were also wasted. It was our attacking ability that was flawed last night, which kept the pressure on us defensively.

Fulham was the first game of the season where we have kept a lead and given the timing it was largely untested in that game.

QPR ( twice ), Southampton , Real Madrid, Aston Villa Arsenal and disturbingly three of them were home games we have been unable to put the game to bed.

We are nervous and unable to drive home the advantage unlike this year.

No matter the formation your argument carries little weight this season.

Giving away possession easily is what is killing us this season something we didn't do to near the degree last season.

We are creating chances like we did last year but we have lost the abilty to move forward quickly and press forward with pressure for any meaningful period of time.

1-0 wins or clean sheets are a thing of the past now and until we start managing to string a few clean sheets together we will struggle both in the league and the chumps league to match last years performances and results.

 

[bapi]

Ajax is not that shit and if somebody believes that Mou and Cristina will come to England to just lose... Naive! They'll want to win no matter how many points they'll have. I just don't understand why some people think we'll make 10 or 11 points. Because of our performances against RM or BVB? Our only good match was against Fulham but nobody will play like this in Europe.

 

[FantasyIreland]

It's obvious what the problem is, but unfortunately on this forum, Bob is bombproof.

Not with everyone,i remain convinced he's limited in his man management/motivation,communication,tactics and,to some degree,his scouting of players.

We shoud be better.

 

[Бравый Дератизатор]

It's obvious,that the most significant problem is Mancini.

 

[Lancet Fluke]

I was stunned by how bad we were last night. Dortmund were good, no doubt, but there is no excuse for defenders time and time again not following players who have made fairly simple straight runs or not bothering to go and pick up a player who is just standing in acres of space in dangerous areas around the box. Way too much following the ball rather than the man and frankly a decent but not amazing side made our team of top class players look like school boys. We were out thought and worryingly also out fought. Reminded me a bit of Arsenal away last season in the sense that it looked like a team of players who didn't want to be on the pitch to me.

Sorry mate but i totally disagree, we conceded one goal from a fuck up from midfield.
The system we play needs a goal so we can control possession whilst having a lead. Silva missed the best chance and a few rushed efforts from Sergio were also wasted. It was our attacking ability that was flawed last night, which kept the pressure on us defensively.

We conceded 1 goal but we let them have about 8 clear cut chances. We had about 2 or 3 clear cut chances. We were just about ok in the first half in the sense that at least we made a couple of chances and had a few sporadic moments of looking fluent but for the majority of the match we looked like a team of total strangers to me. Let's not forget, we were the home team yet we had no periods of concerted pressure whereas they utterly played us off the park for the whole of the second half. I accept that all teams have "bad days at the office" but it looked more than that to me at times last night. There is simply no excuse for a team of our calibre showing such poor levels of concentration, organisation and work rate (even Mancini admitted we didn't show enough fight). Let's make no mistake about it, Joe has saved us from utter thrashings in the opening two matches and if he keeps getting asked to do that then we have no chance of getting out of this group.