Napoli (A) Post Match Thread

[mrbelfry]

We caught a break when Ghoulam went off injured and I'd be interested to hear from Pep how we expected the game to go. Were Napoli killing us in the first 20 or were we playing rope-a-dope? We started a little sluggish which makes me think we approached the game with the intention to take the punches and gave the ball away much cheaper than normal. Games are played over 90 minutes and sometimes ceding control creates opportunities later.

Great run from Sane for Aguero's record breaker but Sergio's first touch to take control of the ball and then his expertly precise finish whilst moving at pace summed him up as a player.

Bernardo Silva is having a first season similar to David's in that it's taking a while for him to play his game but it was great to see him playing more vertically yesterday .

This won't get mentioned by Dyche but there were multiple occasions where Sterling was dribbling in the box and taking contact. He was determined to beat the players rather than looking for the penalty so big shout to Raheem who is having an outstanding season

 

[CityInWashingtonState]

A great game against a very talented side playing the same style of attractive football. It's a shame that Napoli probably won't advance out of the group stage.

 

[kev20971]

One strange thing that got me last night, was the way the game ended. The ref gives us a freekick on the edge of the box, then after a bit of pushing and shoving and couple of bookings , he just blew the whistle for time . Surely you would expect him to let the free-kick to be taken ?

 

[MCFCFanTX]

I love this team so much.

Aguero, Yaya, Silva, Zab, Hart, etc.. made us PL giants. This next wave of talent (Sane, Sterling, KDB, Jesus, Ederson, etc..) will make us European giants.

 

[Cityfan]

I wish we would have had jose in charge last night, 10 at the back from the off, letting the opposition team have the ball as much as possible and standing strong, playing the long ball instead of tippy tappy shit from one end of the pitch to the other, getting that clean sheet whilst offering nothing up front what so ever, making sure the midfield pass it back instead of forwards.
I wonder sometimes if we made a mistake getting pep.

Agree with this, the one thing I think we can be proud of as fans is that we are not whining too much when presented with this airey fairy nonsense.

 

[shemnel]

too much emphasis being put on Ghoulam's injury being a potential let up for us; yes Maggio isn't as good but the evidence was there that Napoli had gone out far too hard and were picking up strains within 25 mins. They would have had to have let up anyway, Ghoulam on the pitch or not.

 

[adrianr]

I wish we would have had jose in charge last night, 10 at the back from the off, letting the opposition team have the ball as much as possible and standing strong, playing the long ball instead of tippy tappy shit from one end of the pitch to the other, getting that clean sheet whilst offering nothing up front what so ever, making sure the midfield pass it back instead of forwards.
I wonder sometimes if we made a mistake getting pep.

Amen. "Attacks win you games, but defences win you titles." or other such bollocks. Wouldn't even want Mourinho; Bit too foreign for me. Give me Big Sam or Tracksuit Tony any day. Proper managers playing proper football.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I've said plenty of positives already, so please don't take this the wrong way.

But I thought it was worth mentioning that at times we were hoofing it up the field far too much, and when we did that, we conceded possession every time and went back to defending again. Napoli pressed us better than any team I've seen this season, cutting off angles and putting our defenders under immense pressure. Delph in particular ended up passing it back to Ederson pretty often.

We need to really work on keeping our composure and not resorting to hoofing it. We just do not have the midfield or strikers to win the ball if it's hoofed forward.

That said, I don't think any PL side this season will press us as well as Napoli did. The danger for any side trying to do this is of course once we've beaten the press, we've taken 3 or 4 or 5 opposition players right out of the game and we can attack them at speed.

 

[ancoats]

remember NO other english club has ever won over there and we was the better team no lucky goal or last min winner or parking the bus we played the game how it should be for me last night was a game we took a chance and rested some players walker silva jesus and we was weaker at the back but still had to much for them so game management and pep knows his onions with a big game on sunday coming up

sterling was man of the match for me and stones a close 2nd and sane 3rd but credit to the whole team for fighting like dogs or sharks hahahaha its funny that the media are trying to jump on the bandwagon and talking like they never doubted pep or manchester city and now we are the team to watch the pundits are looking like somebody chewing a bee
and they are having to back track and look at there notes

 

[MCFCFanTX]

A bit off topic but it seems like Ghoulam suffered the same injury Mendy suffered. Ruptured his right ACL. Talented guy, hope he has a quick recovery.