Mancini: Fight Fire With Fire!

[dasblues]

WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you already forgotten where we were not too long ago? Are we already Barça and too good for teams like Stoke?

Man City post of the thread so far.

I would guess that what Mancini means is that he doesn't necessarily want your side playing long ball, but he does want you to be a bit more committed, a bit stronger physically and matching every Stoke player yard for yard instead of lounging around. Don't forget that your team against us last week seemed to have been picked by putting your outfield players in a line arranged according to height, before picking the ten tallest players. It didn't work because you didn't match us for work rate and we were able to disrupt your play with ease. Vieira's idea of matching Stoke physically appeared to be to give the ball away and make clumsy fouls, or to run into a corner, dive and then stamp on Whelan's testes. The key to the game will be Kompany and Toure. If Kompany plays in midfield and is used as Hughes used him against us at the CoMS, you will have a very good chance as you've already injured our only other get out ball. If Toure plays, you might have problems - I have never seen such a defensive liability since we had Paul Williams playing. The best way to minimise the effectiveness of the long throw is to not give them away. Think of Delap like a spin bowler, working the opposition goalkeeper, luring him into traps and trying to fool him. A spin bowler doesn't get the chance to do this if he bowls one over and gets taken out of the attack. Of course, if you're Kolo Toure, you can just smack the ball out for a throw-in, forget to mark your man and appeal for offside.

If you want to come here and play tippy-tappy, go for it. We'll love it. Well, our team will, but the supporters and neutral audience will be bored into submission by the scintillating halfway-line football. We get the ball into the scoring area as quickly and as often as possible, give me that any day of the week. Our whole style of play for the past few years has been about getting the ball into the final third and then keeping it there by whatever means possible. As we become more established, we evolve. Last year our attacks were generally brief affairs followed by backs to the wall stuff. Now with players like Tuncay and Etherington we've gotten better at keeping the ball there and attacking for longer periods of time.

By the way, there's nothing we're entertained by more in Stoke-on-Trent than Prima Donnas getting roughed up by a proper football team that play hard-but-fair, especially when the aforementioned Prima Donnas start whining before, during and after the game. Great fun. Seriously, everyone going on about entertainment, we're proud of our team - we can identify with them, they go out there every week and bust a gut for the manager, they're the last proper football team in the Premier League. We couldn't be prouder.

You are a deluded idiot I'm afriad. I think you have convinced yourselves that you are right and the way you play is the way forward. Do you not realise you have a long ball merchant as your manager? All this talk about evolving is never going to happen. Bolton had a couple of flair players in Okocha and Djorkaef but the football they played was awful.

The football you play belongs in the 1980's fourth division, stop tyring to justify it by making out you are putting one over the big boys and are the chapions of the little clubs.

God I hope we beat your lot tomorrow.....

 

[whydelilah]

I think the penny has finally dropped with Mancini. It’s taken him a couple of games to figure it out but he’s got there now by the looks of it.

Should be a good game tomorrow night.

One goal will separate us I reckon. In fact, I fancy Extra Time or Pens to decide it.
WD

 

[whydelilah]

Man City post of the thread so far.

I would guess that what Mancini means is that he doesn't necessarily want your side playing long ball, but he does want you to be a bit more committed, a bit stronger physically and matching every Stoke player yard for yard instead of lounging around. Don't forget that your team against us last week seemed to have been picked by putting your outfield players in a line arranged according to height, before picking the ten tallest players. It didn't work because you didn't match us for work rate and we were able to disrupt your play with ease. Vieira's idea of matching Stoke physically appeared to be to give the ball away and make clumsy fouls, or to run into a corner, dive and then stamp on Whelan's testes. The key to the game will be Kompany and Toure. If Kompany plays in midfield and is used as Hughes used him against us at the CoMS, you will have a very good chance as you've already injured our only other get out ball. If Toure plays, you might have problems - I have never seen such a defensive liability since we had Paul Williams playing. The best way to minimise the effectiveness of the long throw is to not give them away. Think of Delap like a spin bowler, working the opposition goalkeeper, luring him into traps and trying to fool him. A spin bowler doesn't get the chance to do this if he bowls one over and gets taken out of the attack. Of course, if you're Kolo Toure, you can just smack the ball out for a throw-in, forget to mark your man and appeal for offside.

If you want to come here and play tippy-tappy, go for it. We'll love it. Well, our team will, but the supporters and neutral audience will be bored into submission by the scintillating halfway-line football. We get the ball into the scoring area as quickly and as often as possible, give me that any day of the week. Our whole style of play for the past few years has been about getting the ball into the final third and then keeping it there by whatever means possible. As we become more established, we evolve. Last year our attacks were generally brief affairs followed by backs to the wall stuff. Now with players like Tuncay and Etherington we've gotten better at keeping the ball there and attacking for longer periods of time.

By the way, there's nothing we're entertained by more in Stoke-on-Trent than Prima Donnas getting roughed up by a proper football team that play hard-but-fair, especially when the aforementioned Prima Donnas start whining before, during and after the game. Great fun. Seriously, everyone going on about entertainment, we're proud of our team - we can identify with them, they go out there every week and bust a gut for the manager, they're the last proper football team in the Premier League. We couldn't be prouder.

You are a deluded idiot I'm afriad. I think you have convinced yourselves that you are right and the way you play is the way forward. Do you not realise you have a long ball merchant as your manager? All this talk about evolving is never going to happen. Bolton had a couple of flair players in Okocha and Djorkaef but the football they played was awful.

The football you play belongs in the 1980's fourth division, stop tyring to justify it by making out you are putting one over the big boys and are the chapions of the little clubs.

God I hope we beat your lot tomorrow.....

I would argue our football belongs in this league.

It’s up to other teams to beat us. If they spend hundreds of millions and still can’t do it then more fool them.

You can’t buy effort and commitment I’m afraid.

 

[hgblue]

And there you have it. Proud of a bunch of Neanderthal half-wits hoofing the ball up into the fucking solar system.





Honestly, I despair. I really do.

Are you proud of your team? Gutless shirkers playing a tedious, half-baked, halfway line tippy tappy game?

You're not unique you know. Your style of play has been tried many times and, fair play, it gets results. If you're happy watching that week in week out, good luck to you. We're struggling with the challenge of competing with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Liverpool. Maybe one day you'll be fortunate enough to be in the same situation, and if you are, I can absolutely guarantee that your website will be busy with supporters of rival clubs whose teams get results with 'up and at em' tactics, giving it large about how proud they are with their mid table cloggers. The first couple of times it happens you'll find it quite amusing, but after a while it will really piss you off. Trust me.

 

[MysticalDescent]

You can put together 3oo quick passes sunshine, but if you don't put the ball in the net, you won't beat anyone. Play it on the deck and pass us to death to you're hearts content, we'll let you do it up to the final third but then the door gets shut. The question is, do you have the quality to open it? And do you have the quality to stop us from scoring? It's not just about who plays the prettiest football or who puts the most passes together, it's about who can get a result.

We've played you 3 times so far this season, remind us all who has the best results so far ??

We're not as easy to beat either as you seem to be thinking, we've lost just 5 in 35 games (all competitions).

We don't see you as easy to beat. We all know that you've got some fantastic players and are getting to the level where on your day, you can dole out a good thrashing on any team. However, at home we don't really have any reason to fear anybody after last season, when only Chelsea really cruised past us. The other thing is that you seem a bit like a mini Arsenal - that visage of attacking, passing football with a dodgy spine that we could utilise to transform you into halfway-line tippy tappy merchants. Can you say that in your last two games at Stoke, you've had it easy, or that you've even been the better team? Even with ten men we were still able to give you a very good game. We know that we're very likely to lose, but are hoping that if we can get right up you, we can snatch a result. We should have done it last week, we can still do it this week. Walton is the referee and while he hasn't put in any particularly bad performances against us, he always seems to preside over heavy Stoke defeats. Bad omen.

Now, who wants a bet on the Stoke player to be dodgily sent off, as is the norm in games against you?

 

[blutone3]

they're the last proper football team in the Premier League. We couldn't be prouder.

cor,bloody hell mate,look ive got nothing against stoke,im happy you lot are back in the top league,after a long absence,you are one of the old clubs who have a history within the game!.
but ffs you are NOT a proper football team at the mo,your style of play is crap!! (almost as crap as us at the mo!) hoofing the bloody ball up in the air and clogging opponents is not the way to go honestly! youve gotta admit these games with city have been a poor advert for the game havent they? cor can we pleeeeeease just have a decent game of footy tomorrow where we all can get a positive outcome from it??

good luck anyway an hope you lose!

 

[whydelilah]

Are you proud of your team? Gutless shirkers playing a tedious, half-baked, halfway line tippy tappy game?

You're not unique you know. Your style of play has been tried many times and, fair play, it gets results. If you're happy watching that week in week out, good luck to you. We're struggling with the challenge of competing with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Liverpool. Maybe one day you'll be fortunate enough to be in the same situation, and if you are, I can absolutely guarantee that your website will be busy with supporters of rival clubs whose teams get results with 'up and at em' tactics, giving it large about how proud they are with their mid table cloggers. The first couple of times it happens you'll find it quite amusing, but after a while it will really piss you off. Trust me.

I would say you are a million miles away from United, Arsenal and Chelsea.

I like your ambition though!!

 

[Failsworth_Blue]

You're not unique you know. Your style of play has been tried many times and, fair play, it gets results. If you're happy watching that week in week out, good luck to you. We're struggling with the challenge of competing with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Liverpool. Maybe one day you'll be fortunate enough to be in the same situation, and if you are, I can absolutely guarantee that your website will be busy with supporters of rival clubs whose teams get results with 'up and at em' tactics, giving it large about how proud they are with their mid table cloggers. The first couple of times it happens you'll find it quite amusing, but after a while it will really piss you off. Trust me.

I would say you are a million miles away from United, Arsenal and Chelsea.

I like your ambition though!!

A million miles away? Hardly. Granted we're not as good as them yet but we're not a million miles away

As it stands we're only 9 points behind Arsenal with a game in hand and 11 behind United with a game in hand. While we won't catch them this season to be that close after 2 thirds of the season already gone is not bad going and suggests we're closer to them than you think.

Infact we're closer to United and Arsenal and played a game less than you are to us and we've played the same number of games

 

[Anonymous]

WTF is wrong with some of you? Have you already forgotten where we were not too long ago? Are we already Barça and too good for teams like Stoke?

Man City post of the thread so far.

I would guess that what Mancini means is that he doesn't necessarily want your side playing long ball, but he does want you to be a bit more committed, a bit stronger physically and matching every Stoke player yard for yard instead of lounging around. Don't forget that your team against us last week seemed to have been picked by putting your outfield players in a line arranged according to height, before picking the ten tallest players. It didn't work because you didn't match us for work rate and we were able to disrupt your play with ease. Vieira's idea of matching Stoke physically appeared to be to give the ball away and make clumsy fouls, or to run into a corner, dive and then stamp on Whelan's testes. The key to the game will be Kompany and Toure. If Kompany plays in midfield and is used as Hughes used him against us at the CoMS, you will have a very good chance as you've already injured our only other get out ball. If Toure plays, you might have problems - I have never seen such a defensive liability since we had Paul Williams playing. The best way to minimise the effectiveness of the long throw is to not give them away. Think of Delap like a spin bowler, working the opposition goalkeeper, luring him into traps and trying to fool him. A spin bowler doesn't get the chance to do this if he bowls one over and gets taken out of the attack. Of course, if you're Kolo Toure, you can just smack the ball out for a throw-in, forget to mark your man and appeal for offside.

If you want to come here and play tippy-tappy, go for it. We'll love it. Well, our team will, but the supporters and neutral audience will be bored into submission by the scintillating halfway-line football. We get the ball into the scoring area as quickly and as often as possible, give me that any day of the week. Our whole style of play for the past few years has been about getting the ball into the final third and then keeping it there by whatever means possible. As we become more established, we evolve. Last year our attacks were generally brief affairs followed by backs to the wall stuff. Now with players like Tuncay and Etherington we've gotten better at keeping the ball there and attacking for longer periods of time.

By the way, there's nothing we're entertained by more in Stoke-on-Trent than Prima Donnas getting roughed up by a proper football team that play hard-but-fair, especially when the aforementioned Prima Donnas start whining before, during and after the game. Great fun. Seriously, everyone going on about entertainment, we're proud of our team - we can identify with them, they go out there every week and bust a gut for the manager, they're the last proper football team in the Premier League. We couldn't be prouder.

Bwahahahahahahahaha!

Opposition post of the season that one...

So my friend, just a very brief few points before I climb into my Ferrari and nip out to the airport to jump in my private jet and head over to Milan for some shopping...

...we were just like you, only with more supporters and a deeper history, only a few years ago. 99% of the blues who will be at your ground tomorrow night and 99% of the people on this board remember what it was like to put out a team against the premiership's "elite" and know that they were much better than you, and that the only way you'd beat them was by busting a gut, and having a little bit of luck go your way.

...interesting that you consider yourself to be a "proper football team", oh sorry, "the last proper football team in the premier league" - I imagine what you mean is that you're the last team left who's blueprint can be found in the history of clubs like Wimbledon who knew their limitations in terms of PLAYING the beautiful game, but who could more than make up for that by turning every game pitched battle, where the lines between "fair" and "foul" were often very very blurry, and where the actual (non) football played was just a means to an end...

...I remember when Chelsea were taken over by the Russian, I would often say very similar things to the ones you've said about our club. But deep down inside I always knew that I would've swapped places with them in a heartbeat. I'm sure it's the same for you...but keep fighting the good fight. We know who's position you'd rather be in...;- )

 

[Esteban de la Sexface]

have De Jong punch Delap in the throat in the tunnel and pull out Fullers bling, as we all know that is the source of his strength. 2-0, job done.