perspective

[Esteban de la Sexface]

I thought Barry was immense for 70 minutes. Put in a good shift and was all over the pitch. We over committed our full backs way too much and Yaya patently proved he is not the answer as a holding midfielder. He put in some eye catching tackles but offered no support to Komps or Lescott who got overrun with the three Napoli forward players who were stunning on the break.

Strange selection from Bobby Manc to play our 2 slower full backs against a team that like to hit on the counter attack with pace and we nearly paid the price for it.

First 20 minutes we absolutely dominated and should have taken advantage but Napoli played the perfect away game and held fast, were very well organised and quietened the crowd.

At times we overplayed too. Looking for the one extra pass, when there was a shot on.

Overall I'm happy. A good point against a surprisingly good side. Hopefully Bobby Manc and the players will have learned something from this and as first games go, it was a good one

 

[the blue panther]

We have to take it that Mancini had his reasons for putting out the second choice full backs.
As for Yaya and Barry - these are the two who have really produced for us so far this season in the absence of De Jong. NDJ will be a fixture in these games in future, as soon as he's fit, probably for Barry, whose attempt to be Lionel Messi cost us posession and ultimately a goal. But, I'm not complaining. Mistakes happen. We got a wake up call and a our few weak spots were exposed. They can be addressed and hopefully put right for all the important games to come this season.
The most important factor for me is a familiar one - you must take a chance and get your nose in front when you're enjoying good posession and creating chances. Yes, they had a great chance to score early on when they hit the bar, but we could have had 2/3 goals in that first half. We deserved a half time lead but didn't get it. The confidence from an early goal is invaluable.
Overall, it was a nervy performance all round, but nothing to get too depressed about - and definitely nothing to go ringing up radio stations complaining about - I think they must have been wums.

 

[havelocke]

I thought Barry was immense for 70 minutes. Put in a good shift and was all over the pitch. We over committed our full backs way too much and Yaya patently proved he is not the answer as a holding midfielder. He put in some eye catching tackles but offered no support to Komps or Lescott who got overrun with the three Napoli forward players who were stunning on the break.

Strange selection from Bobby Manc to play our 2 slower full backs against a team that like to hit on the counter attack with pace and we nearly paid the price for it.

First 20 minutes we absolutely dominated and should have taken advantage but Napoli played the perfect away game and held fast, were very well organised and quietened the crowd.

At times we overplayed too. Looking for the one extra pass, when there was a shot on.

Overall I'm happy. A good point against a surprisingly good side. Hopefully Bobby Manc and the players will have learned something from this and as first games go, it was a good one

Couldn't agree more. It looked like we wanted to walk the ball in.
When we had opportunities to shoot, they tried the clever through ball which
was blocked...

As I said earlier, steep learning curve and next time we need to buy more
raffle tickets ;-)

 

[Astuteboy]

It was a tough game, but we got a point and played quite well so I'm not too worried.

Didn't think anyone was particularly stand out. Kompany had some poor moments, but also some crucial ones (clearance off the line). Gaz Baz did OK but his attempted flick pass (or maybe just poor control) was a mistake and cost us a goal. Not typical of him by any means but a mistake nonetheless.

Dzeko, Silva, Aguero looked fairly dangerous as always. Nasri wasn't great.

But yeah, just need to go to Munich now and get something from the game which I think we can. Still a long way to go in the group!

 

[craigsteel]

We are on a steep learning curve, possession is the key to champs lge, I do think NJD would have been massive last night,He would have stamped his authority where they were dangerous and very fast on the break, Tactically we were naive eg on the goal, Barry lost possesion cheaply, Nasri should have given a foul at half way line when we were short, All well in hindsight but the top team are prepared to foul to prevent the exposure of the defence.Take one for the team, Hopefully NJD will be back soon

 

[M24-CRC]

we played to our strengths (through the middle). Unfortunately, napoli had this sussed out in the first 10 mins and simply crowded out the midfield.

We needed width earlier on in the game to stretch their midfield and make some space for silva and nasri to operate in

I said early on in the game that we should bring Richards on for Zab to give us that width.
For all his commitment and dogged defending Zab will never give us that outlet/width, and more importantly quality on the ball that our system needs.
Great game last night though

 

[Dodge]

Enjoyed it (and the atmosphere), good point on our debut. Didn't lose and give the press their much anticipated City bottle it headlines.

We looked like an established CL team and lets face it, should have had the game won by half time.

The smile on Bobby's face after the match tells you all you need to know.

Deffo onwards and upwards, well said mate.

 

[Le Grand Fromage]

Agree with most of comments - overall a decent performance and one we can learn from.

Some of the comments around me last night made me despair - I nearly passed round a plate of "Prawn Sandwiches" !

 

[havelocke]

Agree with most of comments - overall a decent performance and one we can learn from.

Some of the comments around me last night made me despair - I nearly passed round a plate of "Prawn Sandwiches" !

PSML!

I often go in hospitality, but I never hear that many comments...

 

[Deleted member 14625]

we played to our strengths (through the middle). Unfortunately, napoli had this sussed out in the first 10 mins and simply crowded out the midfield.

We needed width earlier on in the game to stretch their midfield and make some space for silva and nasri to operate in

That's exactly right.

At times we were a little static up front too, which we haven't been all season so far but then we hadn't played a team with the quality of Napoli until last night. Then in the second half we were a bit open in midfield - we missed de Jong, it was prime de Jong play for 20mins in the second half. Plus our passing just needed to be a little quicker and sharper to create more penetration and disjoint their set-up.

But we'll learn from this and we'll be better for having played that game last night. This season's CL campaign is like last season's Prem Lg campaign for me. I am putting no expectations on us to do anything. Whatever happens, happens.