CSKA Moscow v City - Post match discussion

[cleavers]

Garcia and Nastasic were all over the place as was Zaballeta.

I wonder if some people commenting on our defenders really understand the reasons why we can look poor at the back, since Kolorov got some earlier in the thread.

I thought Zaba and Kolorov did what they were asked to do, and that is attack, which I thought they both did well. Unfortunately this causes problems in behind, and the centre backs get exposed. I thought Nastasic for the most part was good, and carried Garcia at times, but they get caught because we don't have covering fullbacks much of the time. The person to blame for this is the manager, but that is how he wants us to play, and if it keeps us winning then its working I guess, but it makes life uncomfortable.

 

[CatMan]

To be honest Garcia done better than any of us lot would have done.

Clearly he is not a defender, however he is not helped by speaking a different language than Nastasic and the subsequent chaos that causes. Of more concern to me was the fact that the manager did little to arrest our vulnerability to players running at us from deep.

It's so obvious that Garcia's stronger elements include his aerial strength, whilst Nastasic is more mobile. Seldom did I see Nastasic drop off and let Garcia challenge knowing that even if he missed Nastasic was there to cover. In short the play too flat and don't support each other. It seems the idea of playing a sweeper died with the onset of a defensive midfielder and that is fair enough. If however you play without a defensive midfielder one centre half must play deeper and in support of the other.

As this concept seems to have been forgotten by modern day centre halfs I think we really do need a defensive midfielder for away games like this.

 

[baildon blue]

In other news Souness is battering the rags on sky.

Always liked souness,he has tipped us to win the league,was sticking up for us when schiemichel was giving it sly digs before and at halftime...

Him and Neville are the best two pundits out there. Streets ahead of the tired old faces on MOTD and Soccer Saturday. Even Carragher isn't bad (if you can ignore that bloody accent).

Your right about Soccer Saturday that is a really tired panel . Carragher is poor . I like watching Neville when we have stuffed his beloved Man United .

 

[Ducado]

I am just happy for a decent enough win against tricky opposition on a crap pitch in the freezing cold, no injuries and two relativity easy games at home to see us into the next round

 

[taconinja]

Garcia and Nastasic were all over the place as was Zaballeta.

I wonder if some people commenting on our defenders really understand the reasons why we can look poor at the back, since Kolorov got some earlier in the thread.

I thought Zaba and Kolorov did what they were asked to do, and that is attack, which I thought they both did well. Unfortunately this causes problems in behind, and the centre backs get exposed. I thought Nastasic for the most part was good, and carried Garcia at times, but they get caught because we don't have covering fullbacks much of the time. The person to blame for this is the manager, but that is how he wants us to play, and if it keeps us winning then its working I guess, but it makes life uncomfortable.

Agreed. We aren't set up to defend effectively. This might just be a matter of learning to balance attack and defense under a new manager, though.

 

[cleavers]

Oh and apart from a high bounce at times, I thought the pitch played pretty well, it didn't seem to bobble much to me, balls on the ground generally rolled flat until fairly late on. It certainly wasn't the injury risk many were claiming it would be.

 

[Mr. Aguia]

and had 2 shocking passes to kun aswell lets not forget since we are all in this petty bitching party.

Does that make Dzeko's contribution any better?

na just making sure people dont forget it. kinda like how they will never let those 2 misses go till the end of fukin time. people are more worried about point scoring rather then celebrating the win. Since he came on nothing but bitching and moaning from supposed fans of the club slating one player relentlessly pathetic cant be used more then enough when it comes to some posters. and before he was on they where up javis ass (when he actually did a decent job considering the pitch and circumstances)

So it was just a coincidence that once Negredo came off we were unable to keep the ball? We dominated possession until he went off.

 

[cleavers]

Agreed. We aren't set up to defend effectively. This might just be a matter of learning to balance attack and defense under a new manager, though.

Possibly, but either way it makes for very exciting football, if its not necessarily the excitement we all want.

 

[IcriedwhenTueartleft]

Great win but it was a funny match, we should have been out of sight before they had their late charge. We seemed to vanish in the last 10 minutes, got a bit sloppy all over the pitch emphasised by Zab's awful cross pitch mis-pass in the 90th minute, Nastasic's customary stupid foul on the byline a minute later and Edin's poor two misses near the end.
Still, we won and we won on a pitch that must have been sapping plus again we came from behind to win...another plus point. Those slagging off navas may have a point but he did a lot of very good tracking back in both halves and set up Negredo for that hand ball non-goal. That's two away CL wins on the bounce and some valuable ranking points are being built up so come on, enjoy the result.

 

[S04]

Would have taken a draw before the game..Happy about this!