Post Match Thread | Juventus vs Manchester City

[MillisleBlue]

15 points, level with Bayern in 13/14

Gotcha!

 

[adr2.8i]

Last night wasn't too bad in my opinion. It wasn't great but wasn't awful either.

On paper the line up seemed ok but for some reason we just aren't clicking as a team, and im not even sure what our tactics are? It looks like we are trying to play keep ball (which is fine) but there's no real cohesion or width in our attacking play, maybe down to a lack of confidence?

KDB is wasted on the wing when Silva is out. Id like to see him in the AM role instead of Yaya when silva is out. I believe we are trying to accommodate Yaya in every line up.(I think hes all made up to be a centre half at this stage in his career)..

I like Navas but im sure he must be "coached" not to take players on and get crosses in? I presume hes been a winger all his career? Wingers love to take players on and get crosses in but he hardly ever does it, and im sure hes capable!

and this high line defense we play is just too risky, even with kompany playing its very risky. Im old fashioned and dont like it! I sometimes wonder how much actual defensive coaching/training we do?

whether we like it or not, other teams are raising their games against us and we need to adapt and work harder than ever. I take that as a compliment as to how far we have come as a club. Just because we have one of the most expensive squads in world football, doesnt mean we can just turn up on the field and expect to win every game. We've worked dam hard to get we are and now we need to continue to work harder and harder to keep improving. Rome wasnt built in a day.

And remember, Barcelona took over 90 years to win their first European cup!

 

[Dribble]

Right so what am I supposed to believe today? It was a good loss. Right. A good loss. Okay. Got it.

No loss is ever good, but I can appreciate us being half decent in defeat. Put it this way, I was more pissed off with our performance after the home win against Sevilla than I was with last night which shows how bad I thought we were against Seville.

All is not lost though. Sevilla consider the Europa League as their competition and as another route back into the CL. Imo it's not a given that Juve will easily go there and get the confirmation win they need. A draw is of no use to Sevilla as they need a win to stand a chance of EL football and we need a win at home to BMG to stand a chance of topping our group.

It's all still to play for imo, and I hope for our sakes that Bony isn't ready for that game so Manuel doesn't get tempted to play 442 against them.

 

[blueincy]

On another night..

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

The number of chances, good chances, wasted has been a characteristic of City's game for a good while. We lost last night by a single goal, it could have been more, but we could have given them a good 4-1 thumping. Sterling, Ferny, Sergio, and whoever got that header, think it was Fernando, that Buffon kept on the line, were all good chances that I always think had they gone to other strikers would have been in, and given a second bite each would have netted! One of those games which simply comes down to finishing. We are not deadly clinical! The Juve game at The Etihad was settled by two clinical finishes after we had them by the throat, and last night we had more of the ball, admittedly most of it in our half, but, as is the norm these days, didn't use it. What the secret is, who TF knows? Lap of the Gods, millimetre here, micromillimetre there, and we have a different result.

As for picking up Barca, Real, or Bayern in the two-legged jobby, there will be as many squeaky bums in Madrid, Munich and Barcelona as their will be in Beswick!!

 

[Pitchell]

The number of chances, good chances, wasted has been a characteristic of City's game for a good while. We lost last night by a single goal, it could have been more, but we could have given them a good 4-1 thumping. Sterling, Ferny, Sergio, and whoever got that header, think it was Fernando, that Buffon kept on the line, were all good chances that I always think had they gone to other strikers would have been in, and given a second bite each would have netted! One of those games which simply comes down to finishing. We are not deadly clinical! The Juve game at The Etihad was settled by two clinical finishes after we had them by the throat, and last night we had more of the ball, admittedly most of it in our half, but, as is the norm these days, didn't use it. What the secret is, who TF knows? Lap of the Gods, millimetre here, micromillimetre there, and we have a different result.

I think we must have been watching an entirely different match! Juve squandered just as many good chances as City did and were very comfortable throughout the entire match. It's churlish to say that finishing was the difference. Having said that, it's not a terrible performance by City by any means, they had some decent spells and troubled Juve at times, without ever really asserting any form of dominance or control on the match.

In a way, it was a very similar match to the first leg, in that City had more possession without being too threatening, while Juve had greater control over the tempo of the match and struck with some good goals.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I think we must have been watching an entirely different match! Juve squandered just as many good chances as City did and were very comfortable throughout the entire match. It's churlish to say that finishing was the difference. Having said that, it's not a terrible performance by City by any means, they had some decent spells and troubled Juve at times, without ever really asserting any form of dominance or control on the match.

In a way, it was a very similar match to the first leg, in that City had more possession without being too threatening, while Juve had greater control over the tempo of the match and struck with some good goals.

What were you watching, Pitchell? I was def watching City. Barca the night before, but definitely City last night. Juve get the Mandy goal, Sterling scores his sitter, Ferny blasts the ball into the roof of the net and not Row Z, Serge nutmegs Buffon and Fernando heads up and not down and Buffon is stranded! That's 4-1 for me! Joe made three or four 'goal' saves, but if yer count ours and not theirs, it's 4-1 for us!!

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

Yesterday afternoon, as I usually do before a match, I was doodling to pass the time and jotted down my City eleven to play. I left Sterling out in favour of KdB, just as Pellers did, because KdB's delivery is much better than Raheem's, and I had Kolorov at full back. When I read through it again I realized that all I had done was to pick 11 of the only 13 fit players we've got if we leave Fabian aside. Pellers had little room for manoeuvre, as is the case most of the time now. The obvious point to make is that this is not the City "team". It is part of the City squad, but I bet no-one among our fans would have sent out this eleven had Vinnie and David been fit. In addition we had a Sergio who is still feeling his way back from injury and is not match fit yet. Had we had a fully fit squad I think 7 of last night's team would have started.

For 15 minutes things went well, but then the game changed completely. Juve are at their best playing on the counter but last night they needed the win and had to score. We, on the other hand, are not built to contain and in the event a misplaced pass enabled them to break, advance through our centre and score. Sandro's cross was good, but we had followed our habit of trying to hold a line, Otamendi got in a mess with his feet and went down as though Mandzukic had just shot him. We should have been in front by then but now we had to come back with one half fit striker for 45 mins and then no striker at all. We made a decent attempt and Raheem missed an absolute sitter which would have saved the game and had us all expressing very different opinions.

General opinion this morning appears to be that "City still have some way to go" in Europe. That team does, there were certain obvious areas of weakness, but then that wasn't anything like our best team. We play in a noticeably different tournament to the other English clubs and the opposition we face certainly shows that City have to have their best players fit because we play the best teams in Europe every year. It is my hope that one day soon we will have our best team available for the CL - our two CBs have never been the same in two consecutive CL matches this season, and we have had to use 4 different pairings. Our captain has been able to complete one full game and part of another.

 

[Brightwell’s left peg]

I consider myself a pretty level headed poster, but I'm surprised at the amount of reflective "settling" for the performance last night. We were very poor offensively. Most first touches took us away from momentum. Poor delivery from our winger. Juventus were poor, and they've now beaten us home and away. We clearly dropped the ball against Liverpool with all eyes on this game, and then never turned up for this game. Had we beat Liverpool, and then this...id be more inclined to accept. On paper I'd take 2 players from Juve, and they've beaten us twice. How can we settle/say that's ok?

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

It's not ok. Not at all. After that performance in Seville, we had the winning of this group firmly within our grasp. We had done all the hard work, after fucking up in our first game. I don't care about the little consolations of last night's performance. When you're in that position, you manage the game, you get the point, you're as good as through as group winners. That's what the teams that get through to semi-finals and finals do.