Kiev post match reaction thread - PLEASE keep it in here.

[Blue Mooner]

Here's my (big) rant.

Our main problem for me is the reliance on adaptable players. We have Yaya trying to play an attacking midfielder role sometimes, sometimes he plays like last night the De Jong role but it stifles the possibility of a true natural midfielder because Mancini knows Yaya can play as an attacking midfielder so therefore won't buy one i mean christ we've had Zabs and Kolarov in midfield recently, 2 players who have played as defenders all their careers.

Our distribution is woefully slow and teams are finding it far to easy to just park the bus and they know they'll get time to organize themselves for anything. It's so predictable, we are always going to be looking for Silva and they just match the runs made off his passes or mark the space he passes into and that is our only outlet, except for when Micah is forward they don't need to worry about width as the chances of a cross coming in onto Dzeko's head are practically zero. We just don't look dangerous at all, we pick off chances from scraps and mistakes by the opposition rather than look to create an opening ourselves, we just seem to rely on something special from Dzeko,Tevez,Balotelli and when it doesn't happen we have to rely on striking lucky (see Wigan game).

Dzeko is never going to score big for us unless we use him PROPERLY, at the moment he picks up the ball and has to do everything himself because he has no support play, what happened to the give and go's, a pass a run and a ball over the top, he's bloody massive why can't we use this to our advantage, instead he gets the ball and then has to become Lionel Messi.

I understand we have a very fluid system in the sense that Dzeko can come out wide and make space for someone else but he needs to be given chance after chance, not messing about on the left. His strengths are finishing and aerial ability so stick him in the bloody middle and force the strikers who naturally come deep out wide, having Dzeko collect on the left or right basically means there is a gap in the middle filled by 2 centre halves. Any player of ours moving into that space can easily be tracked.

Corners we are clueless, randomly hitting the ball into the box with the hope it meets a City player, same for free kicks there just isn't a plan, Kolarov,Balotelli both couldn't beat the first man. We have the tallest player on the pitch in the middle and surely these lads can take a corner and put it on his head, don't they work runs for example to the near post like the Notts County goal at their ground? I've never seen any movement when we get corners yet we have some big lads in there who can cause hell. I seriously don't think we even practice any form of set pieces movement because there isn't any, its just so predictable.

The whole point of a fluid system like ours is the fact you can't truly man mark anyone yielding unpredictability but we constrain creativity by being forced out wide yet we don't have anyone who can cross and no-one gets in the box.. Then the person forced out there is the tallest person on the pitch, where is that going to go? We can't lump it into the box because no-one will be there and again we start going backwards and playing short passes around their area before being picked off and like last night an opposition counter begins.

As of late i've found City very frustrating to watch, i'm all for Mancini's philosophy of not conceding etc but last night we conceded 2 stupid goals and looked largely average going forward, it's like we are constraining creativity in favour of possession and decreasing risk. Tevez changed the dynamic a little but he just tries to beat everyone and he gave the ball away several times. We played last night like a team that knows how to stop the goals coming in but is a bit clueless when it comes to scoring. Some may quote oh yeah we scored 3 against Aris etc but those teams were shite and don't have well organized defenses. Put us against Spurs,Arsenal away and we hardly get a chance on goal, i can't see us scoring at Chelsea.

We come up against teams like Arsenal... Teams with some sort of well organized defence and suddenly we are having to play for the point, these lads are all top international players, some have already won it all. We shouldn't be having to defend for our lives against teams we should be matching them and soon we need to do more but i just can't see it happening no matter who we buy.

I know it's a work in progress and they need time but something needs to change in terms of attacking play. I'm not saying we should be battering these teams at all but we should at least have a respectable attempt or we will never win anything. The United game for example was a good display by us, it could easily of been a win but we were undone by a great goal, shit happens i'll take that any day. But losing so easily last night for example and not really mustering anything in return is not good.

I'm all for Mancini's way of playing, i've said many times i'll be fully happy with 4th and any run in the cups are a bonus and we'll be much better next year. We are well managed but sometimes i just wonder if we just took a few risks and played a bit more to some players strengths we'd have a lot more success.

Dzeko has scored for fun at every level, breaking record after record, International, Europe and club so it's funny how he comes here and hasn't really scored. I don't think it's him i think it's us, the way we play.

Excellent post, I expect its unrealistic to expect everyone on here to make such reasoned, well thought through analysis.

I agree we are struggling to get balls into the box and that is not helping Dzeko who is undoubtedly a quality player.

There really isn't a lot wrong, its just some tweaks and maybe a couple more players (And Johnson back !) that would help us move from being on the cusp of 4th to challenging

However, I think getting your teams defensively tight always gives you a better chance of winning games, although I think there are games where we are just better and he should let the shackles off now and again.