I watch teams like Dortmund play like demons in European competition. They absolutely blitzed Arsenal a few weeks ago in the same way they did to us home and away. Yet they can't play like that every week. We've seen Napoli do that to us, And others. Yet when City play we don't raise our game.
It was very noticeable that in the first half hour of the game, every time we had the ball, a Roma player would be in our faces anywhere on the pitch, whereas we stood off them. We tried to play our usual game, but we lacked our usual quality.
Other teams seem to physically play these games at another level which we don't try and do. I thought that's why we went out and bought players like Mangala and Fernando so that we could compete in these games, but then we didn't play Mangala.
It's also noticeable to see the sheer joy when some other Champions League teams score. I just wonder whether our players have it too easy?
When you watch the England national team at the World Cup, they give their normal game, but for other players and other countries they give absolutely everything and they raise their game. Perhaps part of City's problem in Europe is that we just go out and play our normal game, when what we need to do is give it an extra 20% and play it like a Cup Final.
This is of course only part of the problem. 50% inability to match Roma's intensity in first half an hour, 50% down to poor passing
