Post Match Thread: City vs Spurs

[Neville Kneville]

They didn't run through Yaya, they dispossessed Yaya.

Fernandinho shouldn't have needed to run across 20 yards, he should've been central. What was he doing that far over to one side?

This is getting ridiculous.

Yaya fucked up, gave the ball away & for some reason you are trying to involve someone else in it. What was Silva doing ? What was everyone else doing ?

The question is, what would Fernando have been doing ? The answer is, protecting the team from that happening, because that's his main purpose & that's where he plays. That's why we were able to play & be tight v a better organised harder working Spurs team but were ripped apart by Leicester time & again, we had an extra body there .

The manager gambled that if we revert to two, one of them should be Yaya. Spurs took the ball off him, ran away from him & scored. If he wanted Fernandinho to play there, why not tell him ?

 

[bondsman]

Yaya brings moments of class, but they are moments. In between it is like playing with 10 men. You are aware of him ambling around but he's not sprinting into space to providing an option for the man on the ball, or sprinting to close a man down. It is like playing with 10 men. He doesn't do enough. I don't blame him. He made a big effort from the KO yesterday but he can't do it, and yet Pellegrini kept him on for the entire 90 minutes. We have had a lot of bad luck this season, but Pellegrini is responsible for selecting Toure and that is a huge factor in City's struggles particularly against the better team who can retain the ball.

The problem is a poor toure is still better than Fernando and any of our youth players it seems. If we had an alternative I think even Audrey Roberts would try it. Delph always injured and neither he or Fernando offers enough offensively. Yaya wasn't our worse player yesterday. Didn't do any more or less that silva.

 

[Rolee]

Remove Crappenberg's faux pas and we are still short. We played better after they scored the penalty but that might have been a reaction to the injustice suffered. And we looked the more likely to go on an win the game at 1-1, but where is the urgency from the first kick off. We might as well start 0-1 at the first whistle because this seems to galvanise the effort rather than forcing the oppo team into making mistakes. Manuel seems to leave much of the game play to his players. He is rarely animated within the technical area compared to other managers when it seems clear the players are deviating from the game plan. I think there has not been a team at The Etihad this season where our attitude has been "Well, come on, show us what you can do", rather than "We are MCFC, this is what we do!"

Not the way I saw mate. I thought we upped it at the beginning of the second half, not just when they scored. We looked more dangerous going forward after they scored but that was because we replaced a defensive player with an attacking one.

 

[Esteban de la Sexface]

Brain farting. Another decent performance from him ruined by yet another brain fart.

even for him that was a spectacular one. He looked at Erikson, saw he was goalside of Kolorov, stopped tracking, made it half way to the man running in, stopped again and then didn't commit fully.
We can't keep making excuses for these guys, he had plenty of protection and Vinny next to him. Whoever is responsible for signing defenders should be sacked

 

[Rolee]

This is getting ridiculous.

Yaya fucked up, gave the ball away & for some reason you are trying to involve someone else in it. What was Silva doing ? What was everyone else doing ?

The question is, what would Fernando have been doing ? The answer is, protecting the team from that happening, because that's his main purpose & that's where he plays. That's why we were able to play & be tight v a better organised harder working Spurs team but were ripped apart by Leicester time & again, we had an extra body there .

The manager gambled that if we revert to two, one of them should be Yaya. Spurs took the ball off him, ran away from him & scored. If he wanted Fernandinho to play there, why not tell him ?

You're right it is getting ridiculous, I'm questioning Fernandinho because he deserves to be questioned. You didn't answer my question, just wtf was he doing so far over to one side?

 

[west didsblue]

Didn't watch MOTD. Was Aguero really offside every time the linesman flagged? Particularly the time when they scored their second goal within a minute of their free kick? He didn't look off from where I was sat.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I vowed many moons ago to wait at least 24 hours before posting on a post match thread but I broke my vow yesterday, thanks to Mr Clattenberg. I've watched the highlights on the OS to check what I thought I'd seen at the match and his decision gets worse rather than better as a result. Freezing the frame at the point of impact shows clearly that Clattenberg's view showed only a full frontal of Raheem and he saw nothing of the ball, back or arm of the player. It wasn't a harsh decision, it was simply a scandalously wrong one. We all knew that the assistant was on the other side of the pitch, and the freeze frame shows the assistant was nowhere to be seen so Clattenberg can't say he got any help from that quarter. All this proves Graham Poll's assertion that Clattenberg guessed what had happened and awarded the penalty on what he thought/hoped had happened not what he had seen. The penalty put Spurs in the driving seat and has led to the media view of a team fully in control and heading for a well deserved, comfortable victory. In fact, up to that point Spurs had had one shot on goal - from Erikson - and Kane had hardly got in the game. For all their possession Spurs had put City under no pressure. To be fair we had been rather cautious and the game had a cat and mouse air to it, but we had looked much the more threatening, particularly from Sterling's forays down our left; I think he's come in for some abuse from what I hear, but I thought he had a good game and combined very well indeed with David and Kun. I also thought Ya Ya had a good game moving the ball on, switching the play and running with it. His weakness is when we don't have the ball but with Fernando to screen the back four YaYa always made himself available as an out ball. I do think that some supporters are prepared to watch 95 minutes of football to search for the slightest evidence that he's a liability and a lump but I believe Ya Ya is still of enormous value to the team, though not now the force of nature he was. Kolorov also seems to come in for similar treatment.

We were very unfortunate to lose and though we weren't at our best there were promising signs of recovery. Some of our fans are very harsh when the team doesn't deliver the win which is their birthright and there has been the usual dose of bitter and ridiculous criticism. Sergio "blazing over" (twice!), David in the last minute ("how far over could you put it from that distance"?) and so on ignores the pace PL games are played at and the speed with which blocks come in - if you can't get to the pitch of the ball or if you're off balance and stretching it makes no difference, you have to go for it or the chance is gone. Even the rebounds didn't fall for City.

We're six points down and four on the two cockneys and quite rightly Vinnie calls to fight on. As Churchill said in answer to an MP who asked why we were fighting on in the darkest days of 1940, "Stop - and you'll find out!"

 

[Neville Kneville]

The problem is a poor toure is still better than Fernando and any of our youth players it seems. If we had an alternative I think even Audrey Roberts would try it. Delph always injured and neither he or Fernando offers enough offensively. Yaya wasn't our worse player yesterday. Didn't do any more or less that silva.

He plays in the centre, that's the problem. His wasn't shit yesterday, he had a couple of good moments & some bad ones. But he's playing in the absolute key position in the team & he moves from being the main centre mid, to the 'star' No 10 position. We brought on Kelechi to play in Yaya's position & what happens ? He scores.

What happens in the area where Fernando has been removed from ? They score.

Yaya is only an option, if we have two centre mids. But he isn't a top class no 10.

You're right it is getting ridiculous, I'm questioning Fernandinho because he deserves to be questioned. You didn't answer my question, just wtf was he doing so far over to one side?

Same as Silva, playing football. Why do I need to answer that question when my whole point is that the team doesn't work with Yaya & Fernandinho & no other centre mid ?

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

To all those who've given up on the title, the team and the manager; I presume we won't be seeing you at the ground again this season???

Quite right. We didn't used to have a problem getting behind the team but now it seems negativity is the first order of the day. No commitment, no heart, no passion. Not the players but some of the fans. Most of them give up at the first sign of a setback and not just this year either. Without wishing to open up the 'stay to the end thread' what was all that about yesterday? People leaving at 1-2 (Christ, some went at 1-1). I thought we'd decided to call a fire alarm in the North stand hoping to get the game replayed. Yet another reason for us to stop kicking off playing towards the South stand. Dippers want to kick into the Kop second half and we should be doing the same with the South stand. Very few deserters in there.

 

[Burtonblue]

Amidst all this world of negativity it was brilliant to see VK back.
I thought he had a very good game all considered.
For once the goals we conceded were not down to comedy defending.
A step in the right direction there so much hope for the future....