Norwich VS city post match thread

Puteulanus luna said:
We're missing De Bruyne hugely
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Completely agree and we are missing him potentially playing in what will be his best position and thats centrally behind Kun.

Pep will have Kun up top with KdB in behind and it will be fantastic.
 
Puteulanus luna said:
We're missing De Bruyne hugely
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Even having de Bruyne, Nasri and yaya would give us huge options to be honest. Silva to me looks like he's playing because he has to but is far from comfortable and still in pain! He's trying his best but can't function properly due to his ankle
 
blueinsa said:
Completely agree and we are missing him potentially playing in what will be his best position and thats centrally behind Kun.

Pep will have Kun up top with KdB in behind and it will be fantastic.
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Hopefully with gundogan and pogba behind!
;-)
 
Thought we might struggle yesterday against the East Anglian giants so 1 point is 1 more than I expected. Onwards and upwards Blues - this could turn out to be our period of short-term (ish) pain for longer-term gain.
 
cleavers said:
I've not read the rest of thread, but I'll assume it was all Pellegrini's fault, and none of the players, as that is how these threads usually go when we fail to pick up three points.

I actually didn't think we played that badly, but, and its a huge but, wtf are we doing in front of goal ? I haven't seen the passing stats from the game, but what did we have 800-900 passes ? Mostly completed I would imagine, so I'd like to know how we only managed to have three shots on target, and not one in the second half.

For much of this season we have been poor defensively, but I can't fault any of them yesterday, I thought we looked very solid, and both FB's got forward well. The midfield too, played OK, I thought Fernando played well, with only 1 error that I can remember, Fernandhino wasn't at his best, but still had a decent game, and got forward well at times. I thought Silva had a good game too, certainly better than he's been recently, despite being constantly fouled again.

The real issue yesterday was our attacking options, they were ALL shite, have they forgotten how to shoot ? To me they didn't seem interested in playing for the rest of the team, just themselves (or not at all in one case). Aguero seemed to spend most of his time coming back into midfield, where he wasn't needed, Navas was Navas at his worst, how many crosses did he hit at the defender ? Bony was just anonymous again. Sterling when he came on didn't do anything of note, and Kelechi, while he got around a lot, didn't really get into any decent positions, but was probably the pick of the bunch, just for his effort.

So what was missing ?
What else could Pellegrini have done to win the game ?

Some credit also has to go to Norwich, who looked well organised at the back, and fought for their lives, unlike Villa last week.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one. The reactions to the game itself have been weirdly OTT and negative, and that's within the context of a season where it's felt like most reactions have been OTT and negative to anything that's happened. Don't get me wrong, as a result it fucking stinks the place out. To drop more points in a season like this one is gutting. Even my head went for the first few hours after the final whistle and I couldn't make any sense of it.

However with a bit of a clearer head and a chance to re-watch the second half, I can't do anything other than agree with what you've just said. Our attacking players were woeful. The forwards couldn't finish and the so called creators for all their nice and neat passing when it didn't matter, created absolutely fuck all.

There's some validity in the claims that we've become a bit stale in our attacking play, but that isn't helped by the injuries to KDB and Toure, and the fact that our back up striker is Bony. I had high hopes for Bony, but sadly it's pretty clear that he's totally unsuited to our style of play. I will say though that the clamour for Kelechi to start was misplaced. The lad isn't going to thrive in games like the one yesterday where we're playing against 11 very well organised defenders sat on the edge of their box and happy to hack at any player who found even a yard of space.

For Pellegrini it's just another ignominy in a season of ignominy. We will no doubt beat United next weekend in true up and down YOYO forum , which will at least placate the "we won't finish in the top 4" flappers.

Still even if the league has gone there's always the small matter of the European Cup.
 
We need to make sure we beat the rags. If we do, with Nasri and KdB back they'll give us the firepower we've lacked to get fourth. I hope so anyway.
 
One of the reasons we struggled yesterday was that Aguero aside, there weren't any regular goal scorers in the side.

Only De Bruyne & Sterling have really made a sizeable contribution this season, with Iheanacho doing quite well in the game time he has been given. Then there's Yaya who pops up with a few as well.

None of those were in the starting XI yesterday. Either through injury or poor team selection. The figures and overall performances show that Sterling & Iheanacho should have started and the fact that they didn't is one of the worst decisions Pellegrini has made in terms of team selection.

In my opinion he isn't even one of the top 6 managers in the division.
 
Blackcrowes said:
It's been a long season and a very long day. Lots of emotion on the thread and frustration. Today was a repeat of lots of performances this season. I think the biggest issue is the predictability of our play and the inability to come up with a plan B when teams defend. In the early phases of the game we looked dangerous. It was one of them games that if we had scored we would probably be on here hailing the performance having won by 3 or 4. Possession based football is boring unless it has an end result. Sometimes when we are closing in on goal we go backwards to retain the ball rather than run at teams and take a chance. That extra touch or move back 20-30m just to keep the ball seems pointless to me. I agree with previous posts that some players just don't seem to want it enough. This is probably the hardest thing to take. Thanks to Joe and the rest of the players that came to say thanks to the fans who travelled today. When we were shit I never bothered how much it cost or how much time I wasted getting to and from the game. Ironically - we are now a great team that wins things and I get this emotion on a very regular basis. On a positive note, let's not forget we won the Cup a couple of weeks ago. I think our expectation is now very high due to the money they have spent. The thing I want to see more than anything else is team spirit and the fight till the end passion. Both of which are not as evident in our team compared to others.
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Like this ... Look at what Chelsea have spent and they'll end up with f all this season. The have no manager for next season currently. We must be thankful the board recognised the shortcomings of the current management and pre-empted the lack of progress. Usually we would be floundering around wondering to how to change things including the ethos of the playing staff - we can't complain as they have already secured the perceived best in the business. Unfortunately on the pitch our summer holidays have started earlier than anticipated and it is now a waiting game for Pep to arrive.
 
Armaan said:
We need to make sure we beat the rags. If we do, with Nasri and KdB back they'll give us the firepower we've lacked to get fourth. I hope so anyway.
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How depressing that we have gone from walking away with the league after 5 games to fighting for 4th if we get two players back.

Pellegrini and the players have done a stunning job this season.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
How depressing that we have gone from walking away with the league after 5 games to fighting for 4th if we get two players back.

Pellegrini and the players have done a stunning job this season.
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I agree but what can we do, have to accept reality and the reality is we're not that good a side this season!
 
Armaan said:
I agree but what can we do, have to accept reality and the reality is we're not that good a side this season!
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You are right we are not. It's fortunate we managed to raise our game and the dippers didn't for the final. At least we have that in the bag. We must get top 4 though. Anything less than that with the start we had is an absolute shambles.
 
ManCityX said:
One of the reasons we struggled yesterday was that Aguero aside, there weren't any regular goal scorers in the side.

Only De Bruyne & Sterling have really made a sizeable contribution this season, with Iheanacho doing quite well in the game time he has been given. Then there's Yaya who pops up with a few as well.
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Was thinking about that earlier. In our two league winning campaigns we have scored 45 and 55 goals from players other than centre forwards. This season we've managed so far 28. Not sure it really proves anything but still I thought it was interesting. Ha.
 
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