Let's Not Go Sucking Each Others Richards Just Yet...

[Fat Chance]

Palace and Fulham would have beat more than 2 top 7 teams with the way they flew at us (they come at us like thier ring-pieces were on fire in the very first minute and did'nt let up).
Non of the goals arrived via a long ball to Ade.
Bringing Vinnie on allowed Ireland further up the park, he was on the last man three times...which he was'nt before Vinnie arrived....how is that a negative?

And who was in front of Stevie when he broke? No fucker. Same when Tevez broke through a few times - no fucker in front cos evryone was too deep

'Wooosh'...if he's on the last man three times in one half then put whatever spin you want on it but it aint a negative, though it might be if it was happening at our end.

 

[halpo123]

Palace and Fulham would have beat more than 2 top 7 teams with the way they flew at us (they come at us like thier ring-pieces were on fire in the very first minute and did'nt let up).
Non of the goals arrived via a long ball to Ade.
Bringing Vinnie on allowed Ireland further up the park, he was on the last man three times...which he was'nt before Vinnie arrived....how is that a negative?

And who was in front of Stevie when he broke? No fucker. Same when Tevez broke through a few times - no fucker in front cos evryone was too deep

enoughs enough,just fuck off
your tactical acumen is too much, please go and support barca or the swampdwellers we`re not ready for your high standards just yet
we`ll give you a shout when we`re footballs version of Brazil circa 1970

 

[chedinho]

And who was in front of Stevie when he broke? No fucker. Same when Tevez broke through a few times - no fucker in front cos evryone was too deep

'Wooosh'...if he's on the last man three times in one half then put whatever spin you want on it but it aint a negative, though it might be if it was happening at our end.

cos other players peeled away giving him the room and space that he thrives on

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I agree with the original poster about the formation. We won despite it, not because of it. However I disagree about the substitution. The only criticism of it was that it should have been 75 minutes earlier.

When we went 4-5-1 for the last 15 you could see what a good team we really can be.

Delighted that SWP and Lescott showed the knockers what they can do too.

 

[Dhenry]

I agree with the original poster about the formation. We won despite it, not because of it. However I disagree about the substitution. The only criticism of it was that it should have been 75 minutes earlier.

When we went 4-5-1 for the last 15 you could see what a good team we really can be.

Delighted that SWP and Lescott showed the knockers what they can do too.

I'd disagree - the open play we created in the last 15 was due to Arsenal pushing forward and leaving more gaps, nothing to do with us.

The sub was just what people slated us for not doing in previous games - and to see Hughes by the touchline for most of the match as well, it seems as if he reads bluemoon and takes his advice from here, hehe.

The formation - I wouldn't blame that for how we played today. We won fair and square, but I'll give the OP the point that all of the goals were down to individual effort. Tevez, SWP, Bellamy.

We're not playing as a team. And from what I've seen recently, I don't think it has anything to do with formation. It's more about the phases the team goes through - and i've said this before:
a) Honeymoon period (the unbeaten series early season)
b) gelling (draws, today)
c) playing as a team (hopefully saturday)

4-4-2 is a great tactis and we've got the players for it to be very efficient. 4-3-3 may be more pleasant for pretty football but unless done really well, it will leak. 4-4-2 is a more solid safe bet, and the touted managerial alternatives I think you'll find are great fans of it.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

We'll have to agree to disagree, DHenry. Arsenal pushed forward for the last 40 minutes but it was only after Kompany came on that we started to look completely comfortable. And we were giving the ball away a lot less in attacking positions. The good news is that we do play 4-5-1 against the better teams so I expect it on Saturday and probably in the semi.

 

[Damocles]

Umm....we played 4-2-3-1 didn't we?

Wouldn't say Tevez played as an out and out striker, and I thought Ireland and Barry both played very deep, and the wingers played very high, for a 4-4-2.

 

[Dhenry]

We'll have to agree to disagree, DHenry. Arsenal pushed forward for the last 40 minutes but it was only after Kompany came on that we started to look completely comfortable. And we were giving the ball away a lot less in attacking positions. The good news is that we do play 4-5-1 against the better teams so I expect it on Saturday and probably in the semi.

Well by concept you are right, I mean, having 5 midfielders = easier to keep possession. But a 4-4-2 generally creates more chances unless the other team is pressing (hence credit to Hughes in my opinion for the well timed sub). So the possession play, definitely to do with the formation change, the prettier football - with the more counter-attacking approach.

Some say it automatically changes to 4-3-3 when attacking, but that's only when in real ascendancy. I think with Chelsea we need to be cautious and go for the counter (even at home).. Drogba is sadly on fire and Anelka is enjoying his football better than ever before. Which is a bloody shame, but hopefully the result tonight might have done something to change that for them.

Anyways, here's hoping for the change towards winning ways for good, eh?:)

edit: Damocles, I'd argue with that.. yes Tevez is not your straight-forward striker but his mobility is his skill. Ireland was not a defensive midfielder today, he switches positions with Tevez on numerous occasions. With modern football it's hard to judge the formation properly but I'd say Tevez was a deep lying forward and Ireland an attacking midfielder with the swaps in place to disrupt the defence.

Also, I say it's a 4-4-2, but with SWP and Bellamy, it's more like a 4-2-2-2 anyway, no?
So if you want to be techincal, I'd call today's formation 4-1-3-1-1...

 

[adelaidecity]

Gonna be frank now El Hombre, and goes against my apology to blues post today. Fuck off, go and be a red, rag, united bastard and get off this fucking forum. 18+k posts or not, I could not care less. I really thought I would come on here tonight and see joyfull blues, blues in harmony and not 1 blue dare to be critical. I am dumbfounded you have the nerve to be the latter. I am guessing you cheered when the goals went in though, rather than march your way to Hughes and air your views to him in the glory of the 3-0 victory? Thought as much. You, to be honest, deserve no success from this investment and based on the sheer nerve you have had to be critical of us in such a decent win, I hope Mansour sells up, leaves us crippled in debt and we get screwed to fuck, just so YOU have some real reason to complain. Any comment you make from now on is a nonsense. Simple as that. You should be afuckingshamed of yourself.

i dont understand why people get so abusive to fellow members when it is just their point of view,then to call them a rag,this site can get nasty sometimes,mods should have a word IMO

 

[NPBlue]

Or something like thast as Mr Wolf once said

I sat in the 3rd tier tonight, as opposed to just a few rows up off the ground, so I could see things much clearer than usual. And I have to say that what I saw was not the most pleasing of things I've ever seen. The 4-4-2 formation is strangling us. We are not getting the best out of our players with this formation and we are relying on individual bits of excellence to try and score us goals and win us games. The constant long balls to Ade and lack of ideas is soul destroying considering the amount of talent we have on the pitch. We were up against a very weak Arsenal squad who, let's face it, anything less than a win would have been a disappointment. Now I don't wanna take anything away from the players because individually once again they all played very well, but as a team we are just not playing to the best of our abailities

We're all too keen to just hoof it up to Ade and try to pick up the pieces, and considering the team we've got and what we're capable of this just isn't good enough and we're gonna come up short against any team that is anywhere near the same standard as us. Grinding out results and huff and puff just doesn't do this team justice. The only way we were ever gonna score was through individual bits of skill as opposed to quality team football and luckily tonight we were playing a team so weak that Tevez, SWP and Bellamy could carve out goals all by themselves out of nothing. This won't be the case evry week and it's been like this for too long now, hence 7 draws some of which were against far inferior teams.

Bringing Vinnie on for Tevez (who was right to be subbed) and switching from 4-4-2 to 4-1-4-1 was an other negative move although this will be overlooked (possibly rightly so) considering the result and the fact we saw out the game, but negative tactics designed to contain the other team and not designed to get the best out of ours are becoming all to frequent.

Now I haven't got anything against Hughes and I want the guy to do well, the way he punched towards our fans when they were singing 'Hughesy Hughesy give us a wave' showed how much he wants to succeed at City, but I just can't see it happening with the way we're going and we are gonna have to have a much more intelligent set up against the rags and in future league games if we want to progress much further

Kudos to SWP, Tevez and Lescott in particular for superb individual performances.

Ecstatic to get to the semi's, but not looking forward to playing the rags

There always has to be one, does'nt there!

I'm buzzing about tonight. Maybe you are, I don't know. And I don't care. I'm happy, we are in a semi final,and I could'nt give a monkeys arse about tactics.

City played well tonight, and they were hungry. Bollocks to your your tacticul acumen, what we saw tonight was City fight for everything on offer, and they deserved the win, but hey, Hughes is a tactical mess.

The last time I saw City in a semi final was in 76 and I was 17 years old. I'm 52 now!

Are you really so miserable you can't enjoy the moment?