Cup final will be as difficult as today!

[Abbeygoo]

Everton were torn apart by us in the first half, we played some really good football and David Silva was on fire. His control when Kompany boomed a 60 yard crossfield ball to him was out of this world ... if Bale had done that, he instantly would have been named European Player Of The Year.

Everton concentrated on getting the ball wide and putting crosses into our box. We looked in control up until this point and the miss from Yaya when he was clean through would have wrapped it up.

Keep the faith. We haven't come 35 years to muck it up at this point.

 

[Sky Blue]

Our player lack of winning mentality

Correct, I can't stomach watching Utd v Stoke in the Final next week.

 

[Exmancunian]

I'm interested to see your reaction to today's result. I was hoping for a City win just to continue the sense of over confidence that seems apparent from MCFC. That will play right into our (Stoke's) hands. Maybe a defeat today will bring a more realistic approach to your approach next Saturday (bugger!)

Just a couple of observations from some of the posts I've seen. The size of Wembley's pitch didn't make much difference to how we played against Bolton (surprisingly). If anything Stoke used the extra width far more productively than Bolton, our two wingers seemed to revel in the extra space they had. Rory only took about three throw-ins, he easily reached the 6 yard box.

Etherington is still touch and go for the final, the intense treatment he's been having seems to be having an effect. He's been doing fitness work with the squad and they'll leave the decision until the last minute.

Apparently Mancini has been bitching about Everton being long ball, long ball, long ball. With the arrival of Matty and Pennant Stoke mix it up much more now, Glen Whelan (one of your cast offs, we thank you!) has really come into form in the last couple of months in central midfiled, we now have a midfielder with a bit of a brain.So perhaps it's best not to simply expect long ball, long ball from us, if he does then Signor Mancini maybe in for a bit of shock.

We're really strong at set pieces as everyone knows but Kenwyne's header at Villa the other week is the only goal from a set piece in the last 18 we've scored.
Subscribe to "we only score from a throw in" at your peril.

The one who worries me is David Silva, how we cope with him will be crucial.

Before the Bolton game I thought it was 50-50 as to who would win, next week I think it's more 60-40 in your favour, we shall see.

May the best team on the day win.

As everyone says at Wembley "Wembley Saps your strength" we play possession football as good as any top team! Second half Stoke will feel it! Like the scum did and we dominated them! This is how we will win the game possession and control!

You have a valid point regarding possession and control. Hence the reason why I think how we deal with Silva will be a deciding factor.

However Stoke have a tendancy to almost allow teams to have possession so long as it's no nearer than 40 yards from goal. The wingers will track back and close down space (Pennant and Matty have said they've never worked as hard as they have at Stoke), as will the other players, City will be faced with 10 man block between them and our goal when you have possession. As a Stoke fan it drives me insane sometimes to see us back off and defend especially if we are in front with about 10 minutes to go but Stoke have been doing this for 3 seasons and are very adept at it and have the fitness levels to cope.

If you look at our match stats you'll see that Stoke don't keep possession for long periods of the game, when they do have the ball they look to get it out wide and move forward quickly to feed the front 2. The midfield won't move up in case it breaks down, the front 2 are expected to work on their own.

Against Wolves last home game the stats were something like 65% possession to Wolves, 35% possession to Stoke, we beat them 3-0, enough said. (Granted the Dingles aren't exactly top notch but hopefully you get the idea). The figures were similar vs The Toon, we beat them 4-0.