Manuel Pellegrini

[BlueAnorak]

There's no way that was a game for Milner. You need the creativity of silva and Nasri or navas against Stoke, not the solidity of Milner.

Blaming the players "attitudes" is just lazy and predictable fan talk. They didn't play well, but this was nothing to do win their attitude. It was one of those games. In fact given the way this group dealt with adversity last season, it beggars belief that anyone would question their attitude.

for sure it Toure chance went in then Stoke were dead. meanwhile players could have tried a bit earlier

For teh way Stoke play one goal against them and they are done but when score first ...

They were 'trying' from the off, that's the point. Things just weren't coming off, mainly for silva and jovetic, the two main creative outlets. Nothing to do with effort, though. It just happens sometimes.

We were not "trying" from the off.
We were slow getting the ball up the pitch. Slow spreading the ball from one side of the pitch to the other and the whole team forgot how to shoot from 25 yards. Jovetic and Agero wasn't working and to cap it all Nasri and YaYa were only giving 80%. We needed players who would give 100%. Milner always gives 100%.
Pellers changed it far too late as well but hey - not the main problem.
We needed all our players to give 100%. By the time they ramped it up it was too late.

 

[cibaman]

for sure it Toure chance went in then Stoke were dead. meanwhile players could have tried a bit earlier

For teh way Stoke play one goal against them and they are done but when score first ...

They were 'trying' from the off, that's the point. Things just weren't coming off, mainly for silva and jovetic, the two main creative outlets. Nothing to do with effort, though. It just happens sometimes.

We were not "trying" from the off.
We were slow getting the ball up the pitch. Slow spreading the ball from one side of the pitch to the other and the whole team forgot how to shoot from 25 yards. Jovetic and Agero wasn't working and to cap it all Nasri and YaYa were only giving 80%. We needed players who would give 100%. Milner always gives 100%.
Pellers changed it far too late as well but hey - not the main problem.
We needed all our players to give 100%. By the time they ramped it up it was too late.

There's a difference between playing at too slow a tempo and not trying. Yesterday was the former. We were trying to open them up with our passing game. It didn't work but that doesn't mean we weren't trying.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

They were 'trying' from the off, that's the point. Things just weren't coming off, mainly for silva and jovetic, the two main creative outlets. Nothing to do with effort, though. It just happens sometimes.

We were not "trying" from the off.
We were slow getting the ball up the pitch. Slow spreading the ball from one side of the pitch to the other and the whole team forgot how to shoot from 25 yards. Jovetic and Agero wasn't working and to cap it all Nasri and YaYa were only giving 80%. We needed players who would give 100%. Milner always gives 100%.
Pellers changed it far too late as well but hey - not the main problem.
We needed all our players to give 100%. By the time they ramped it up it was too late.

There's a difference between playing at too slow a tempo and not trying. Yesterday was the former. We were trying to open them up with our passing game. It didn't work but that doesn't mean we weren't trying.

Exactly.

"Not trying" is fan talk. The post you are replying to is full of daft fan talk In fact. Only an idiot would have picked Milner for this game for the reason I gave above: what you need against Stoke is guile and flair, not steely fucking Milner challenges. You play Milner away at bayern, not home to Stoke.

The tempo wasn't brilliant, just as it wasn't in patches against Liverpool and Newcastle. But the problem was that the short passing and crossing wasn't coming off so we weren't breaking them down enough. Even David silva has games like that every now and again, where every pass doesn't come off. He and some of the others are clearly not fully match fit and sharp, but it's ignorant and disrespectful to talk terrace shite about "not giving 100%".

 

[George Hannah]

"Not trying" is fan talk. The post you are replying to is full of daft fan talk In fact. Only an idiot would have picked Milner for this game for the reason I gave but it's ignorant and disrespectful to talk terrace shite about "not giving 100%".

great - I'm a fan!

 

[mosssideblue]

Blame the Manager for picking the wrong team because we lost - is that what it has come to?

Cannot be arsed to go to the pre-match thread and see what the comments were when the team was announced, but I suspect most thought that team was more than capable of beating Stoke. How many here were berating the team selection before the game, suggesting Pellers has made a bad choice??

Sometimes, it doesn't come good and we have to say Well Done to the opposition for getting it right on the day.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

"Not trying" is fan talk. The post you are replying to is full of daft fan talk In fact. Only an idiot would have picked Milner for this game for the reason I gave but it's ignorant and disrespectful to talk terrace shite about "not giving 100%".

great - I'm a fan!

Yes, I agree. The term 'daft fan' definitely applies to you, George.

 

[hgblue]

We were not "trying" from the off.
We were slow getting the ball up the pitch. Slow spreading the ball from one side of the pitch to the other and the whole team forgot how to shoot from 25 yards. Jovetic and Agero wasn't working and to cap it all Nasri and YaYa were only giving 80%. We needed players who would give 100%. Milner always gives 100%.
Pellers changed it far too late as well but hey - not the main problem.
We needed all our players to give 100%. By the time they ramped it up it was too late.

There's a difference between playing at too slow a tempo and not trying. Yesterday was the former. We were trying to open them up with our passing game. It didn't work but that doesn't mean we weren't trying.

Exactly.

"Not trying" is fan talk. The post you are replying to is full of daft fan talk In fact. Only an idiot would have picked Milner for this game for the reason I gave above: what you need against Stoke is guile and flair, not steely fucking Milner challenges. You play Milner away at bayern, not home to Stoke.

The tempo wasn't brilliant, just as it wasn't in patches against Liverpool and Newcastle. But the problem was that the short passing and crossing wasn't coming off so we weren't breaking them down enough. Even David silva has games like that every now and again, where every pass doesn't come off. He and some of the others are clearly not fully match fit and sharp, but it's ignorant and disrespectful to talk terrace shite about "not giving 100%".

It's not a question of 'not trying', or 'not caring', of course they were trying and of course they care. The problem is when a team is vastly superior to their opposition and know they are, there is a tendency to take the foot off the gas and assume that the gulf in quality will lead to ultimate victory. This isn't ignorant fan talk, it's something that most people involved in sport at whatever level would recognise. It's why there are always shocks in team sports and there always will be. What our players need to be aware of is that defending champions are a major scalp, and teams like Stoke take enormous kudos from pulling off a result like they did yesterday, and so are hugely motivated. This is something that's also well recognised, and is perhaps the reason why defending a title often proves more difficult than winning it in the first place. It's absolutely imperative that our players are at it from minute one, and we earn the right to play our football by immediately putting our opposition under the cosh and keeping them there. We've failed to do it in any of our opening 3 games and yesterday we paid the price imo.

 

[mammutly]

The problem with creativity and flair is that teams like Stoke are happy for you to be as creative and as flairy as you want as long as it's 25 yards plus away from their goal.

The short passing game is very difficult when the final third or quarter of the pitch is so congested and the opposition is comfortable just staying there.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

The problem with creativity and flair is that teams like Stoke are happy for you to be as creative and as flairy as you want as long as it's 25 yards plus away from their goal.

The short passing game is very difficult when the final third or quarter of the pitch is so congested and the opposition is comfortable just staying there.

We had a big problem two years ago where we couldn't break defensive teams down efficiently. But we've eradicated it by introducing width and movement. That's what I'm trying to say. If we get a succession of these games like we did then then we have a problem. But we haven't. Every team comes to the Etihad to contain us, because they'd be fools not to. But we know how to break them down, by being patient and stretching the play and not panicking if the magic doesn't quite happen. Last season there were loads of games like yesterday's: remember the penultimate game against villa? Hull? Cardiff?

We are that good that if we stick to our guns, vary it a bit, keep the ball moving, look to overlap and play around the opposition's box, then once we get one we usually get a bagful. The days of us getting narrower and narrower as we get desperate are behind us.

There's no problem here. There's no effort or attitude or tactical problem. Maybe a bit of a lack of sharpness, but that's understandable.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

City usually play the channels exceptionally well to pull central defenders out of position and to create space between defenders. The second goal against Liverpool was a good example. We have players who can change games in other ways, many other ways - the C1C final was a good example. And we have players who can simply get us bread and butter goals when we aren't playing well or we just need them. Yesterday none of these things happened, but to put it down to laziness is cretinously stupid, and is accurately dubbed "fan talk" rather than analysis. The team didn't play well, and it frustrated them more than it did us. What they will be working hard to ensure is that it doesn't happen again for a long time.