Craig Bellamy

[bluemoondays]

why is it that whenever we lose people come on here claiming the players didnt care and didint try could it not be that all the players tried thier best but were unlucky and got caught by a sucker punch when pushing forward to take the lead?

I agree. We had one piece of poor defending by Bridge that gave away the goal. A goal which was completely against the run of play. Then Stoke left 8 men back and it is always going to be difficult to breakdown 8 players in front of goal. Too bad Micah did not get his penalty.
I though Elano looked great today, better than Ireland. He should be rewarded with a start against Middlesboro. Some complaints I have is we continue to try to be too cute when we get in the box, and we always seem to push up the center. Richards also looked a little uncomfortable playing so far forward. We always seem to struggle against teams with a man down, and I blame that on tactics.

if it's difficult to break down 10 men how come we got beat by the bin dippers after being 2-0 up, got beat by the jids after being 1-0 up and only managed a draw against the bar codes when they went down to 10 men after being 1-0 up? face facts we are a soft touch with little idea how to break down teams that get behind the ball.

Yup, why is everyone making excuses for the fact we can't beat 10 men when we perform like shit when we are down to 10 men. All this crap about teams being difficult when down to 10 men.... why the fuck does it work the other way when we are down to 10 men!!! Does this excuse only work when we are attacking a 10 man team then?

 

[Dancini]

To put this into perspective only Chelsea, United and Everton got all 3 points at Stoke. Stoke are one of the best home teams in the league, I agree we need a plan B but that will come as Hughes gets them playing how he wants. The crucial thing against teams like Stoke is not conceeding first.

 

[simon23]

the two times we have been down to 10 men (liverpool and wigan) we lost a defender....zabaleta and dunne

delap is a midfiedler so this didnt disrupt their defensive capabilities at all.....in fact they just brought more and more defenders on...think they had 6 recognised defenders on at the end of the game.

they defended very well and some people need to give stoke some credit.....

 

[allblues09]

why is it that whenever we lose people come on here claiming the players didnt care and didint try could it not be that all the players tried thier best but were unlucky and got caught by a sucker punch when pushing forward to take the lead?

I agree. We had one piece of poor defending by Bridge that gave away the goal. A goal which was completely against the run of play. Then Stoke left 8 men back and it is always going to be difficult to breakdown 8 players in front of goal. Too bad Micah did not get his penalty.
I though Elano looked great today, better than Ireland. He should be rewarded with a start against Middlesboro. Some complaints I have is we continue to try to be too cute when we get in the box, and we always seem to push up the center. Richards also looked a little uncomfortable playing so far forward. We always seem to struggle against teams with a man down, and I blame that on tactics.

if it's difficult to break down 10 men how come we got beat by the bin dippers after being 2-0 up, got beat by the jids after being 1-0 up and only managed a draw against the bar codes when they went down to 10 men after being 1-0 up? face facts we are a soft touch with little idea how to break down teams that get behind the ball.

The problem in those games is we continued to try to score goals, whereas Stoke were content to sit back with 8 me in their box. I agree we looked lacking in ideas today, but surely you must agree that they were content to leave as many men back as they had on the field and knock the ball up the field (to no one in particular) to clear the danger. How would you feel if City had done similar in those games you mentioned? I imagine that many on here would still be complaining about the "style" of the play.

 

[allblues09]

Yup, why is everyone making excuses for the fact we can't beat 10 men when we perform like shit when we are down to 10 men. All this crap about teams being difficult when down to 10 men.... why the fuck does it work the other way when we are down to 10 men!!! Does this excuse only work when we are attacking a 10 man team then?

To be fair, I am not saying we lost because they had ten men. If they had 11 it would not have mattered, due to their style of play (putting all their men in the box and not attempting any attack). When there is a concentration of men in the box it becomes difficult to breakdown.

 

[allblues09]

the two times we have been down to 10 men (liverpool and wigan) we lost a defender....zabaleta and dunne

delap is a midfiedler so this didnt disrupt their defensive capabilities at all.....in fact they just brought more and more defenders on...think they had 6 recognised defenders on at the end of the game.

they defended very well and some people need to give stoke some credit.....

not only that, Stoke had about 6 defenders on the pitch for the majority of the game.

 

[Why so blue]

why is it that whenever we lose people come on here claiming the players didnt care and didint try could it not be that all the players tried thier best but were unlucky and got caught by a sucker punch when pushing forward to take the lead?

I agree. We had one piece of poor defending by Bridge that gave away the goal. A goal which was completely against the run of play. Then Stoke left 8 men back and it is always going to be difficult to breakdown 8 players in front of goal. Too bad Micah did not get his penalty.
I though Elano looked great today, better than Ireland. He should be rewarded with a start against Middlesboro. Some complaints I have is we continue to try to be too cute when we get in the box, and we always seem to push up the center. Richards also looked a little uncomfortable playing so far forward. We always seem to struggle against teams with a man down, and I blame that on tactics.

if it's difficult to break down 10 men how come we got beat by the bin dippers after being 2-0 up, got beat by the jids after being 1-0 up and only managed a draw against the bar codes when they went down to 10 men after being 1-0 up? face facts we are a soft touch with little idea how to break down teams that get behind the ball.

The problem in those games is we continued to try to score goals, whereas Stoke were content to sit back with 8 me in their box. I agree we looked lacking in ideas today, but surely you must agree that they were content to leave as many men back as they had on the field and knock the ball up the field (to no one in particular) to clear the danger. How would you feel if City had done similar in those games you mentioned? I imagine that many on here would still be complaining about the "style" of the play.

no one would remember the ''style'' of play only the result and the points, sometimes you have to dig in and fight for a win, teams like stoke will never let you play flowing football especially at home, if its an ugly game so what, ultimatley it's points that count, thats what keeps you in the prem, pushes you up the table and gets you in to europe.

 

[PaleBlue]

the two times we have been down to 10 men (liverpool and wigan) we lost a defender....zabaleta and dunne

delap is a midfiedler so this didnt disrupt their defensive capabilities at all.....in fact they just brought more and more defenders on...think they had 6 recognised defenders on at the end of the game.

they defended very well and some people need to give stoke some credit.....

Yep agreed - they aren;t going to stand around and let us knock it in. Bindippers couldn't beat them home or away and they've done OK at home but god I hope they get relegated at the end of the season.

 

[allblues09]

no one would remember the ''style'' of play only the result and the points, sometimes you have to dig in and fight for a win, teams like stoke will never let you play flowing football especially at home, if its an ugly game so what, ultimatley it's points that count, thats what keeps you in the prem, pushes you up the table and gets you in to europe.

are you suggesting that stoke are going to get into Europe?
It is from scoring goals that will keep a team in the Premier League and into Europe. We were playing a positive style of football in both those games you referenced (rather it was tactically intelligent against Liverpool is questionable), but the intent was correct. Sitting with 8 or 9 men in the box will lose more games than it wins. We were just inept in our shooting and tried to be too creative with our passing today (in other words, not firing on all cylinders). If you are saying we should play in a similar style to Stoke, then we will have to agree to disagree. In my opinion, that is a sure route to relegation.