Post Match Thread: Barca vs City

[bluemc1]

Ah well, could of been 10-0, yet could of been different if sergio scored.

Pretty much this

 

[sam-caddick]

Hart saved us from embarrassment.

The bottom line is that we are just nowhere near good enough to compete with the best in Europe.

I thought Aguero looked confidence shot, he kept making pot shots instead of being the cool character in and around the box he usually is and the penalty just look uncomfortable.

I don't think he has been the same player since the Everton injury so hopefully he will be back soon.

Vincent awful once again, the protection in front was just as bad and didn't help matters.

 

[baildon blue]

A whole gamete of emotions watching that - but ultimately some pride. Wasn't pretty but nowhere near as bad as some make out.

I feel a bit better than last Saturday .
At least the team look like they cared tonight .
I would start more games with Sagna in the team .
To me he his ahead of Pablo for the right back birth for the rest of the season

 

[Blue Haze]

Glad I'm on a plane and couldn't see any of it. Terrible week.

 

[mancitymark]

We were saved from embarrassment by Joe Hart tonight. We flattered to deceive most of the time and were still as woeful as we were on Saturday. Our use of the ball was completely inept and the defending was pub standard after a heavy night out in the first half particularly.

Barcelona's incisive, quick passing and movement just served to remind me of what we were like at our most fluent. We just looked like we were going through the motions. Kompany has gone, Sagna brings nothing at all to the team, Toure strolled around and barely broke sweat, Milner ran around a lot and, er, ran around a bit more, Nasri was a disgrace and Aguero has done a Negredo and clearly been replaced by an alien who's taken his body shape. Besides Hart, only Fernandinho and Silva come out of tonight with any sort of credit.

Tony Pulis must have been grinning like a Cheshire cat watching that.

That game on Saturday is going to be a real test for use if we lose that we really are in deep trouble.

I would freshen the team up for that game.

This !!

 

[Rickaccurate]

it could have been 4-0 or 6-0
But it WAS 1-0
Good intensity by most
I liked the 4-3-1-1
Much better than the usual
Considering their recent quality of play
This was a better showing...

 

[madden150]

A whole gamete of emotions watching that - but ultimately some pride. Wasn't pretty but nowhere near as bad as some make out.

Are your Pellegrini in disguise?

Ha not many would accuse me of that.

I do agree with you to be honest as we weren't embarrassed with the scoreline and there was fight in the players. I would argue that many fans however are frustrated that the same fight in the bread and butter games (it should be there EVERY game) isn't evident. No matter what people say I don't agree that there isn't enough quality in this squad, there is, but it needs tweaking and it needs to show fight and drive and unity EVERY game.

 

[ZZmaestro]

This 3-1 loss in two games doesnt show the half of how weaker we were than them. Even today we had probably a good 25 minutes, but even in that 25 minutes they were able to create more clear cut chances than we in the 180 minutes of the tie. So even our better period was a joke really. Not mentioning the first half today which was complete shit just like at home.

And since Rakitic goal they were 3-1 up and comfortably going trough.
They were not under pressure to score. But we left so much space for them even they were surprised probably.

Worst thing is they gonna go into next round and will sweat more against anyone imo. Even Monaco, Juve or Porto will be able to get at least one draw in two games vs them.

Barca will sweat against those teams because they have twice the fitness and physical impact than us.
Our pressing is nowhere near the required level to compete in Europe and our counter attacks or builds-up are desperately slow.
Even Monaco would give us a run for our money, actually, they have vigorous youngsters all over the pitch while some of ours have been put in the squad list with a horn-shoe just to accommodate god knows who or what.

 

[mrbelfry]

Didnt really see the big improvement with a 5 man midfield that others have. Still acres of space in there. In my mind this game shows exactly where we are lacking this season and it isn't formation.

We seem to have lost our identity as a team and every simple thing seems hard work. Players don't seem to enjoy themselves at the minute and consequently aren't supporting each other as we should and merely waiting for someone to do something magical. case in point was when aguero robbed the keeper and tried the shot into the box. There wasn't a single city player giving him any option but a difficult shot and there was several barca players back. No one went wide to help Sergio and no one was racing into the box for a rebound or cross.

We have a serious lack of movement from any of the players in front of the ball. And our forwards are playing too far apart to link up effectively. We are really poor at playing with width so stretching the play is pointless. We need to have our players buzzing around each other near the box rather than out wide because we can't cross and we don't have the players in the box.

Defensively we are very poor with players either being bypassed in midfield or over commiting. Barca by contrast close down all the angles and intercept so much and most other midfields do this better than us. We desperately need some stability in the back 4 - Kompany screaming at everyone for not keeping the line when he was the only player keeping Suarez onside in the first half and Sagna getting caught upfield or sucked into the middle are symptomatic of that.

I'm generally a fan of Milner but the more praise and attention he gets the worse he plays. Nasri is either great or sulking and is most effective when either taking on players or when playing the triangles with Silva and Toure. You can normally tell in the first 5 minutes if he's gonna play well or not.

Silva is at his best when he can play short snappy passes so he's needs players close to him or running off him.

Man that was a more of an essay than I intended to write but the wife is watching greys anatomy and I'm bored :)

 

[Gaylord du Bois]

Embarrassed is the wankest of this forums adjectives.