CSKA Moscow v City - Post match discussion

[SuperSilva]

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. :-)

Good man Danamy... spoken like a true blue sir!

Holy shit, just realised a complimented a blue with my 1000th post!!!

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

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.

And if we'd played the 6-1 again it would've been 10.
We won we move on.

 

[Len Rum]

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

Too simplistic an analysis. The fact remains that we still lost against Cardiff and Villa 'despite all the ifs and might bes'. Thats not good enough and was down to the defensive errors and wasteful finishing that Chippy boy referred to. We got away with it last night even though 'overall' we deserved the win.

 

[grim up north]

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

Too simplistic an analysis. The fact remains that we still lost against Cardiff and Villa 'despite all the ifs and might bes'. Thats not good enough and was down to the defensive errors and wasteful finishing that Chippy boy referred to. We got away with it last night even though 'overall' we deserved the win.

We won

 

[Marvin]

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.

I don't know where you got this impression from

I watched a Russian stream and thought City played well, then I watched the SKY highlights show, and wondered what game Schmeichel and co were watching

These are the match stats from the MEN:

City had 59% possession and 20 shots to CSKA's 8. We controlled the game, and the only problem was not finishing them off which meant that the last 10 mins was always going to be nervy.

Teams have come to City before and won without having a shot on goal, so of course anything can happen in a game, and almost did in the last minute, but overall we did well. Of course we can do better, but on a proper pitch I think we would have won by a bigger margin

 

[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. :-)

Good man Danamy... spoken like a true blue sir!

Holy shit, just realised a complimented a blue with my 1000th post!!!

I feel honoured to be included in such a milestone

*Raises glass

 

[Len Rum]

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.

It's too early to say that Pellegrini has got it right. The defeats to two of the weakest teams in the division Villa and Cardiff were not flukes or aberrations , They were a direct failure of our high risk strategy of we'll create and convert a lot of our chances to offset our defensive weaknesses. And don't forget we were rocking against the Hammers at 2-1 despite having dominated and again last night in the final ten minutes. If we continue to defend like last night we will get taken apart by the better teams and even the lesser teams will always fancy their chances with a quick punt over the top as a quick and easy way to score against us.<br /><br />-- Thu Oct 24, 2013 7:54 pm --<br /><br />

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

Too simplistic an analysis. The fact remains that we still lost against Cardiff and Villa 'despite all the ifs and might bes'. Thats not good enough and was down to the defensive errors and wasteful finishing that Chippy boy referred to. We got away with it last night even though 'overall' we deserved the win.

We won

Yes and we lost against Villa and Cardiff.

 

[LoveCity]

Well, any win over any half-decent side from Russia in Russia is to be celebrated. It's no stereotype that it's tough to get a result in these places...

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17120340" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17120340</a>

... and also, they had two of their best players back in the team. Had we played them a week earlier it might have been easier.

 

[NoahCity]

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.

It's too early to say that Pellegrini has got it right. The defeats to two of the weakest teams in the division Villa and Cardiff were not flukes or aberrations , They were a direct failure of our high risk strategy of we'll create and convert a lot of our chances to offset our defensive weaknesses. And don't forget we were rocking against the Hammers at 2-1 despite having dominated and again last night in the final ten minutes. If we continue to defend like last night we will get taken apart by the better teams and even the lesser teams will always fancy their chances with a quick punt over the top as a quick and easy way to score against us.

-- Thu Oct 24, 2013 7:54 pm --

Too simplistic an analysis. The fact remains that we still lost against Cardiff and Villa 'despite all the ifs and might bes'. Thats not good enough and was down to the defensive errors and wasteful finishing that Chippy boy referred to. We got away with it last night even though 'overall' we deserved the win.

We won

Yes and we lost against Villa and Cardiff.

All three goals against Cardiff had very little to do with high line. A cross that fell to opposition player and poor marking at corners. At Villa, one goal was offside,a free kick and a long punt where our defenders had a big cock up. Some people seem to really want MP to fail, very little evidence so far to back up that claim.

 

[Bill]

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.

we were lucky to win, well more keep our lead. we were sloppy at times and could easily have let that lead slip, they didn't deserve to peg us back but they very nearly did. sloppy and lucky. keep missing those chances coupled with porr defending and against a better side we'll get whacked.