City vs Burnley Post Match Thread

[Lancet Fluke]

Kolorov and Mangala were especially bad today, not sure how bad a player has to play to get the hook. Mind you that second half performance was just bewidering and not many of them came out of it with much credit. I can't understand how a team of players, most of whom have won the league twice in the last three years, can look so lacking in composure. We just needed to calm the fuck down and stay vaguely organised but we completely lost our shape and too many players at the back seemed to be panicking and we couldn't even deal with routine floated balls in to the box. Our defending today was like watching us under Mark Hughes at times today.

 

[3rdgenerationblue]

well the Xmas season of good will has truely gone.

For some to say that was a shocking performance have clearly forgotten the gasps of appreciation with some of the play. Quite brilliant some of it.

The problem was that we were so far ahead we forgot about the chaps from Burnley. The only team that can beat us is us.

But the poor performance of the day must be awarded to our fans and i was there being quiet too. How can we criticise the players when we couldn't hardly manage a chant ourselves.

We are in this together. Please remember where we came from.

Onwards together.

 

[bluemanc1994]

So incredibly frustrating, a rare chance to go within a point of top and that happens? Burnley were the better team, especially 2nd half and I wouldn't have begrudged them the win. We rarely threatened their keeper - I can only think of 1/2 chances where we forced a save. For a team like ours against a team like Burnley, that just isn't good enough.

Kolarov was just awful. Mangala, who for me has improved recently, was all over the place. Silly tackles, diving in and being outfoxed by a Burnley touch to take him out of the game to name a couple. Felt at the time that he shouldn't have taken Nasri off, he was one of our better players imo. Take the offside out of the equation and their 1st goal is just pathetic all round. Not seen it again but I couldn't actually believe how it had gone in!

The Yaya one baffles me. I don't understand how a player can pick up a muscle injury on Friday, and be back for the Thursday if we believe MP. I think he was rested, for some odd reason, as he thought we could win comfortably without him, and said he was injured just to cover it up afterwards. For those who say he'd be on the bench if he was being rested, Zaba wasn't away at Leicester. Not until Dzeko got injured anyway.

What does concern me is how we regularly take our foot off the gas when dominating a game. Today, CSKA away, West Brom (although conditions did play a part), United. Then theres the likes of Fulham and WBA away last season. That's just off the top of my head, id imagine there's others I can't think of. I don't see us as a team who can see out games well enough, we still give teams chances when 2/3 goals up. Suppose that doesn't matter as long as we win, but there'll be games like today where we're punished.

Luckily, we're as we were before the game, but if we constantly throw away commanding positions we won't win anything this season.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph!!!............"but if we constantly throw away commanding positions we won't win anything this season"

I've got news for you......we don't constantly throw away commanding positions.

Mean it as in we take our foot off the gas too often, not throwing away leads/results all the time etc. IMO, you wouldn't see top teams in Europe or Chelsea for that matter become sloppy when seeing out a lead like we do. We seem to keep the ball well but then try the impossible passes, concede chances which any decent team would eventually take, and make unnecessary decisions in the process. I know we won them games above bar Moscow, but there's too many times we take our foot off the gas. Not a regular thing in terms of 'we do it all the time', just think that the ones I mentioned are too many times. Id like us to see the game out by just being solid and keeping things simple instead of trying things we don't need to.

 

[MeatHunterrr]

So incredibly frustrating, a rare chance to go within a point of top and that happens? Burnley were the better team, especially 2nd half and I wouldn't have begrudged them the win. We rarely threatened their keeper - I can only think of 1/2 chances where we forced a save. For a team like ours against a team like Burnley, that just isn't good enough.

Kolarov was just awful. Mangala, who for me has improved recently, was all over the place. Silly tackles, diving in and being outfoxed by a Burnley touch to take him out of the game to name a couple. Felt at the time that he shouldn't have taken Nasri off, he was one of our better players imo. Take the offside out of the equation and their 1st goal is just pathetic all round. Not seen it again but I couldn't actually believe how it had gone in!

The Yaya one baffles me. I don't understand how a player can pick up a muscle injury on Friday, and be back for the Thursday if we believe MP. I think he was rested, for some odd reason, as he thought we could win comfortably without him, and said he was injured just to cover it up afterwards. For those who say he'd be on the bench if he was being rested, Zaba wasn't away at Leicester. Not until Dzeko got injured anyway.

What does concern me is how we regularly take our foot off the gas when dominating a game. Today, CSKA away, West Brom (although conditions did play a part), United. Then theres the likes of Fulham and WBA away last season. That's just off the top of my head, id imagine there's others I can't think of. I don't see us as a team who can see out games well enough, we still give teams chances when 2/3 goals up. Suppose that doesn't matter as long as we win, but there'll be games like today where we're punished.

Luckily, we're as we were before the game, but if we constantly throw away commanding positions we won't win anything this season.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph!!!............"but if we constantly throw away commanding positions we won't win anything this season"

I've got news for you......we don't constantly throw away commanding positions.

Mean it as in we take our foot off the gas too often, not throwing away leads/results all the time etc. IMO, you wouldn't see top teams in Europe or Chelsea for that matter become sloppy when seeing out a lead like we do. We seem to keep the ball well but then try the impossible passes, concede chances which any decent team would eventually take, and make unnecessary decisions in the process. I know we won them games above bar Moscow, but there's too many times we take our foot off the gas. Not a regular thing in terms of 'we do it all the time', just think that the ones I mentioned are too many times. Id like us to see the game out by just being solid and keeping things simple instead of trying things we don't need to.

Completely agree with this. Against West Brom even if bad conditions, we gave them hope and eventually conceded goal. When opposition sense hope, especially at their grounds, they start pumping endless balls into your box and the crowd will be up for it also and as a result we sometimes lose composure totally and keep gifting free kicks and giving ball away cheaply. Its important for goal difference also not to take foot off the gas.

 

[alberto0292]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdkfYCKkChk&sns=tw[/video]

 

[birchwoodgingerste]

strange second half today lots of players second to the ball all over the ptch and a lack of any real energy .But instead of pointing the finger at this player or that player we need to remember the previous game v west brom.terrential rain for over half of the game then heavy snow the pitch was really heavy and like pellegrini has stated it took its toll.But fair play to burnley and lets go again for our next game v sunderland keep the faith blues.

 

[Juan King]

It really was a tale of two halves. I thought we were really good at times in the first half, scoring two fantastic goals. Not sure what happened second half as the team were really sloppy & we gave the ball away too easily with unforced errors & poor passes. Credit to Burnley they had a go second half, not sure why they decided to take it into the corners at the end, to run the clock down though, they could have gone for it & tried to win the game. I think Pellers got his subs wrong today but not going to criticise him as we have just come off the back off 9 straight wins. Luckily Chelsea drew too, so we are no worse off as at the start of the day. Long way to go this season & I still think we are the best team in the PL.

 

[Bluemoonie92]

We need to get our ruthlessness back and stop taking our foot off the gas, it has happened a few times in the last couple of seasons but most of the time we have managed to scrape by but if we continue to do it, then we could have repeats of today. Lets hope that has woken the players up so they dont let it happen again. When you get out played by a more classy opposition then fair enough, but its a hard pill to swallow when we were so dominant in the first half and then simply throw it away.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdkfYCKkChk&sns=tw[/video]

Just a question, but why not put all the flags and banners in the singing section/corner bit. That bit of the ground your in now is shit for singing

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Kolarov looked half fit, Demichelis look weary and was completely bullied by the bigger Barnes, Zabaleta was just, as is kind of common in his current form, frail defensively.

MOTD were overly generous, but very good of them to focus on the great efforts of Burnley and how well they did, whilst being sympathetic to us. At the end of the day we were being bullied in the middle and Fernando wasn't made to sit in front to protect and when Lampard came on he was pushed too far up and should have sat with Fern just in front of Fernando, suckered Burnley in and punched them on the break like we do at our best, we didn't do that today, we didn't keep our shape, we didn't keep our focus or composure and we didn't do our jobs, and ultimately we switched off, let Burnley bully us and that was pretty worrying that we were so easy to make fold.

We thought we had the game won and were punished and couldn't get back in the groove, and it's results like these that will cost us at the end of the season, because I don't see Chelsea pulling the stunts we have at home to Stoke or Burnley, we have to do brilliantly on the road all season and win all our big away games, because our home form is comparitively poor and we're not banging in the goals like we do at our best, and like we do in title winning seasons.