JoeMercer'sWay
Well-Known Member
We didn't deserve to win tonight, United played better than us and deserved to go through.
The referee was good I had no complaints with him.
My feeling is is that, having watched these 2 Derby games at OT, that we just aren't good enough yet. For me, the players try really hard, and I can't really fault them, but together as a unit they are not good enough to beat big teams(Chelsea, Man Utd) AWAY from home. At home everything is different, but I don't believe we are good enough to be a sustained Champions League level team yet, we need more investment. I know if we finish 4th we may get it, but it's just my thought.
Everyone did well tonight, maybe Barry underperformed a LITTLE bit, and Garrido struggled against a top team, but everyone did quite well. Our defence wasn't first choice, but I don't honestly believe Toure and Lescott are THAT much better than what we had tonight, in fact our defence tonight did a better job than they did last time.
What I think(And I know I'm not a manager, I just feel entitled to my opinion) is two new centre backs, at least one foreign and from a top level team, because we need the experience, the cool head that we lacked so much tonight. We panic, 2 of their goals came from us unable to clear our lines, it's unlucky but you make your own luck at the top.
Left back is an absolute priority, we have no LB good enough for the big games. RB too, as although Zabaleta is pretty good, is he really top level? and again Micah's positional sense let him down tonight, he's a happy go lucky player.
Is Barry good enough for Top 4 regularity? I don't know, he certainly isn't playing like it. De Jong in my opinion is very good and should be built around in the midfield, and an on-form Stevie is good too, but 1 or 2 quality box-to-box or creative midfielders is desperately needed because we can't keep the ball.
Bellamy is good but getting on and isn't world class, so another winger, young, quick, 2 good feet preferibly, especially as Robbie is gone. Tevez is great and Ade has a place here, but we need another top striker, just blow a hole in the budget and get someone really great. Shauny is good on the right but again top level? Chelsea didn't think so.
Mancini has the experience and tools necessary to achieve this. It's not his chosen squad and it takes lots of time sometimes, but he needs to be given the backing to do what he wants with the team. What I'm saying is that our team is very good and can probably get us top 4, but when it comes to big games like tonight, we are quite a bit short in my opinion.
The referee was good I had no complaints with him.
My feeling is is that, having watched these 2 Derby games at OT, that we just aren't good enough yet. For me, the players try really hard, and I can't really fault them, but together as a unit they are not good enough to beat big teams(Chelsea, Man Utd) AWAY from home. At home everything is different, but I don't believe we are good enough to be a sustained Champions League level team yet, we need more investment. I know if we finish 4th we may get it, but it's just my thought.
Everyone did well tonight, maybe Barry underperformed a LITTLE bit, and Garrido struggled against a top team, but everyone did quite well. Our defence wasn't first choice, but I don't honestly believe Toure and Lescott are THAT much better than what we had tonight, in fact our defence tonight did a better job than they did last time.
What I think(And I know I'm not a manager, I just feel entitled to my opinion) is two new centre backs, at least one foreign and from a top level team, because we need the experience, the cool head that we lacked so much tonight. We panic, 2 of their goals came from us unable to clear our lines, it's unlucky but you make your own luck at the top.
Left back is an absolute priority, we have no LB good enough for the big games. RB too, as although Zabaleta is pretty good, is he really top level? and again Micah's positional sense let him down tonight, he's a happy go lucky player.
Is Barry good enough for Top 4 regularity? I don't know, he certainly isn't playing like it. De Jong in my opinion is very good and should be built around in the midfield, and an on-form Stevie is good too, but 1 or 2 quality box-to-box or creative midfielders is desperately needed because we can't keep the ball.
Bellamy is good but getting on and isn't world class, so another winger, young, quick, 2 good feet preferibly, especially as Robbie is gone. Tevez is great and Ade has a place here, but we need another top striker, just blow a hole in the budget and get someone really great. Shauny is good on the right but again top level? Chelsea didn't think so.
Mancini has the experience and tools necessary to achieve this. It's not his chosen squad and it takes lots of time sometimes, but he needs to be given the backing to do what he wants with the team. What I'm saying is that our team is very good and can probably get us top 4, but when it comes to big games like tonight, we are quite a bit short in my opinion.