Post Match Thread: City vs Spurs

[Neville Kneville]

Ok, so when we're in possession our central midfielder should be more concerned about our right hand side being exposed than the central midfield position being exposed. Makes lots of sense that.

The centre mid position wasn't exposed, there was nobody there apart from their cf & our centre backs. The Spurs players were where Fernandinho was & would have been two v 1 on Zabaleta if Fernandinho wasn't there. When Yaya lost the ball a new danger appeared in the centre because of someone running away from Yaya. Thus, Fernandinho moved away from the Spurs players out wide to try & cover, (whilst Silva watched them all run past him) but when he got there, Otamendi & Kolarov, left a fucking big hole for a pass.

That's why we usually find we need two centre mids v anyone half decent & not Yaya.

The other alternative would be a manager.

 

[kevodevo]

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....

This all day long - Nasri, Navas, Bony can all put in a shift and hopefully KDB gets back a little quicker - Keep Serge in shape and VK back to his best and we can still surprise a few for sure.

 

[Neville Kneville]

I take the point re empty midfield but why did Kola stop running ???

Because it's what he does.

 

[Goater=Legend]

I take the point re empty midfield but why did Kola stop running ???

Because he's shite. He never tracks the runners.

 

[Eds]

Because it's what he does.

I think he was trying to play offside although VK was half a yard behind him. NO rushes out of the line to block off a possible shot and /or make the tackle. The ball came through his legs to Eriksen so there was an element of luck to it. That said if VK had come out then between NO and AK the ball woudn't have been able to be slipped through. For all their possession Spurs had three shots all game, they hadn't really troubled us at all. If we continue to play like that in the league and players start coming back from injury then we can just about still take the title

 

[Burtonblue]

Because it's what he does.

All the more mistifying why on earth he was on the pitch anyway. Clichy had been one of our best players....
Pellegrini tinkering with the back 4 has cost us the league this year even if you take injuries into account.

 

[Bayblue]

I think he was trying to play offside although VK was half a yard behind him. NO rushes out of the line to block off a possible shot and /or make the tackle. The ball came through his legs to Eriksen so there was an element of luck to it. That said if VK had come out then between NO and AK the ball woudn't have been able to be slipped through. For all their possession Spurs had three shots all game, they hadn't really troubled us at all. If we continue to play like that in the league and players start coming back from injury then we can just about still take the title

Get the point he might have been trying to play offside but he seemed to totally switch off. Hope you're right in your last sentence !!

 

[Neville Kneville]

I think he was trying to play offside although VK was half a yard behind him. NO rushes out of the line to block off a possible shot and /or make the tackle. The ball came through his legs to Eriksen so there was an element of luck to it. That said if VK had come out then between NO and AK the ball woudn't have been able to be slipped through. For all their possession Spurs had three shots all game, they hadn't really troubled us at all. If we continue to play like that in the league and players start coming back from injury then we can just about still take the title

It's partly down to typical Kolarov & partly down to the ridiculous overeliance on offsides to negate the need for the manager to organise a proper defence imo.

I think we played well 2nd half, not first half, but we defended ok first half, just couldn't pass for shit & terrible final ball.

Imo when we started playing, we were on another planet to Spurs, but we have seen that same weakness in centre defence exposed time & again. Imo it is the absolute priority to protect it & stop it, but Pellegrini persists in seeing it as the area we can gamble with first when any changes are made.

 

[Neville Kneville]

All the more mistifying why on earth he was on the pitch anyway. Clichy had been one of our best players....
Pellegrini tinkering with the back 4 has cost us the league this year even if you take injuries into account.

Somebody said Clichy was perhaps signalling he needed to go off ?

Please tell me Pellegrini didn't randomly take off our best player in that period for Kolarov ?

Clichy was absolutely fantastic at that time. He was like two players.

 

[Father Paul]

Ridiculously scandalous decision aside, I still only thought we played okay.

We defended much better and did some good things but Spurs controlled the game for me. They had 65% possession until they scored, then they sat back and allowed us to have possession, then when we scored they stepped up their possession again and then when they scored again they sat back. Everything was to their tune even if we had more chances.

We really don't look like a champion side this season.

But that decision by Twattenburg! I think it's the worst I've seen since Southampton got a penalty at our place when Crouch hit the ball against Dunne back in about 2004. It didn't look in the box and didn't look like handball from my seat and the ref was much closer. Terrible decision!

Spurs played reasonably well and had a lot of possession but I don't think they controlled the game. I thought the first half was fifty fifty but I felt we were starting to get on top until The Fools intervention. After the peno I felt we were well on top and indeed looked like we might go on to win it. Joe had little to do all game and Spurs can consider themselves very luck to claim the win imo.