CSKA Moscow v City - Post match discussion

[Ballymagash Blue]

Micah has had a lot of experience. He isn't young anymore. He has played CB before and moved to RB because he is an attacking threat and his positioning isnt brought into question so often. Yes he can potentially recover but Pellegrini has used Garcia and Nastasic together before and had faith in them together. And they did the job. Richards at CB made Richard Dunne look a world beater. Any defence where Dunne was relied upon for positioning and recovery is not a good one.

Why would you even bother making asinine remarks like this? How can we claim to have a rich history, and be so ignorant of it at the same time? Dunne was an heroic figure for our club in much darker days, and deserves to be remembered as such.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

Javi Garcia is coming in for criticism again today. He has his weaknesses, at centre back certainly, but none of our back four look half the players they were last season. Nor did Vinnie in the Villa game. I think some of this will remedy itself as the season progresses, but not all of it will. City supporters "of a nervous disposition" will have to get used to the sight of a vulnerable backline, and, probably, to City conceding more goals than in the recent past. That's the way Pellegrini plays it, and he's never promised us anything different. It was obvious from the earliest, at home to Newcastle and away at Cardiff - we get more players into and around the opposition's box than we ever used to under Mancini. It's true at the Etihad, it was true in Cardiff and Birmingham: we've seen that it's true in Plsen and Moscow. I bet it will be seen to be true in Munich. The result is that City always seem likely to score and are leading the PL when it comes to scoring goals. We frequently see Ya Ya and Fernandinho getting forward, buzzing around the other team's 18 yard line. The result is that we don't play a DM. There is no player who watches the stable door, and certainly no NDJ with the sole task of destroying any "enemy" who got anywhere near our 18 yard line! So we are vulnerable to the long high clearance simply because, if we don't get in a good clearing header, there aren't as many City players to get the loose ball. Our back four also finds that there are times when there is no obstacle to the other team getting the ball and running straight at us, and with space to get a good head of steam up. I think Pellegrini's calculation is that our players are likely to take more of the chances we create than the other team's are to profit from our sometimes being left short at the back. So far he's been right, apart from Villa Park where everything went as well as it could for Villa and wrong for us, and at Cardiff, where we didn't know what we were doing at corners. He was right again last night. I think we can all recall instances of Barca in their pomp looking ragged as they tried to get back to cover a break. No top team is different - even Munich.

 

[Chippy_boy]

It was asking for trouble setting up as we did, but we fluked a win. Better opponents would have taken their many chances and beatn us again.

Don't know which game you watched, but we battered CSKA and didn't fluke anything. They nearly fluked a point they scarcely deserved, but thankfully Joe stood tall.

OK perhaps fluke is a wrong choice of word.

But the point is, we were lucky to win it. GIven the extent to which we controlled the game (which of course I don't dispute), that should never have been the case. We should have had the game put to bed after 30 minutes. But the fact remains that we didn't do that and in the end we were only a decent save away from dropping 2 points. And the save was in itself not luck-free: It hit Joe on the leg - he knew bugger all about it - and otherwise it could easily have gone in.

If the game were replayed 10 times and we played like that every time we would have lost half of them with defensive errors and wasteful finishing.

 

[grim up north]

It was asking for trouble setting up as we did, but we fluked a win. Better opponents would have taken their many chances and beatn us again.

Don't know which game you watched, but we battered CSKA and didn't fluke anything. They nearly fluked a point they scarcely deserved, but thankfully Joe stood tall.

OK perhaps fluke is a wrong choice of word.

But the point is, we were lucky to win it. GIven the extent to which we controlled the game (which of course I don't dispute), that should never have been the case. We should have had the game put to bed after 30 minutes. But the fact remains that we didn't do that and in the end we were only a decent save away from dropping 2 points. And the save was in itself not luck-free: It hit Joe on the leg - he knew bugger all about it - and otherwise it could easily have gone in.

If the game were replayed 10 times and we played like that every time we would have lost half of them with defensive errors and wasteful finishing.

The fact remains we still won. Despite all the ifs and might bes

 

[Didsbury Dave]

It was asking for trouble setting up as we did, but we fluked a win. Better opponents would have taken their many chances and beatn us again.

Don't know which game you watched, but we battered CSKA and didn't fluke anything. They nearly fluked a point they scarcely deserved, but thankfully Joe stood tall.

OK perhaps fluke is a wrong choice of word.

But the point is, we were lucky to win it. GIven the extent to which we controlled the game (which of course I don't dispute), that should never have been the case. We should have had the game put to bed after 30 minutes. But the fact remains that we didn't do that and in the end we were only a decent save away from dropping 2 points. And the save was in itself not luck-free: It hit Joe on the leg - he knew bugger all about it - and otherwise it could easily have gone in.

If the game were replayed 10 times and we played like that every time we would have lost half of them with defensive errors and wasteful finishing.

If that game wAs played on a proper pitch we'd have won at a canter, chippy. The missed chances aren't a problem. The players we have will sort that.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

It was asking for trouble setting up as we did, but we fluked a win. Better opponents would have taken their many chances and beatn us again.

Don't know which game you watched, but we battered CSKA and didn't fluke anything. They nearly fluked a point they scarcely deserved, but thankfully Joe stood tall.

OK perhaps fluke is a wrong choice of word.

But the point is, we were lucky to win it. GIven the extent to which we controlled the game (which of course I don't dispute), that should never have been the case. We should have had the game put to bed after 30 minutes. But the fact remains that we didn't do that and in the end we were only a decent save away from dropping 2 points. And the save was in itself not luck-free: It hit Joe on the leg - he knew bugger all about it - and otherwise it could easily have gone in.

If the game were replayed 10 times and we played like that every time we would have lost half of them with defensive errors and wasteful finishing.

If that game wAs played on a proper pitch we'd have won at a canter, chippy. The missed chances aren't a problem. The players we have will sort that.

 

[citytill1die84]

It was asking for trouble setting up as we did, but we fluked a win. Better opponents would have taken their many chances and beatn us again.

Don't know which game you watched, but we battered CSKA and didn't fluke anything. They nearly fluked a point they scarcely deserved, but thankfully Joe stood tall.

OK perhaps fluke is a wrong choice of word.

But the point is, we were lucky to win it. GIven the extent to which we controlled the game (which of course I don't dispute), that should never have been the case. We should have had the game put to bed after 30 minutes. But the fact remains that we didn't do that and in the end we were only a decent save away from dropping 2 points. And the save was in itself not luck-free: It hit Joe on the leg - he knew bugger all about it - and otherwise it could easily have gone in.

If the game were replayed 10 times and we played like that every time we would have lost half of them with defensive errors and wasteful finishing.

Lucky to win? Are u for real? They had about 6 shots all game we must of had close to 15 and we were away from home.

 

[Ducado]

I really can't see why some people are so negative about this game, the form of CSKA does not really matter, we would have been a major scalp for them, and I thought they played quite well.

Well I am happy, that's two away wins on the bounce by the way ;-)

 

[Skashion]

They were shit, and will have to be better than that against top opposition. Bayern battering us was no fluke either. That's the point I think some are trying to make, but agreed, the negativity was pissing me right off last night. We won, and we'll fucking dick CSKA at home, so we're through. We can worry about post-group stage later.

 

[Danamy]

They were shit, and will have to be better than that against top opposition. Bayern battering us was no fluke either. That's the point I think some are trying to make, but agreed, the negativity was pissing me right off last night. We won, and we'll fucking dick CSKA at home, so we're through. We can worry about post-group stage later.

Who's being negative?

I'm going to Munich to watch us win 3-0 and top the group. :-)