Sporting v City: Post Match Discussion Thread

Lisbon were average. This was their CUP FINAL on any level with a highly charged partisan crowd. At the Etihad it will be a different story.

But my main concern about tonight was why did we not have any width? Clichy was pushed back to defend and Kolarov could not outrun a snail. I think we needed AJ to flash up and down the wings. If you run at these portugese twats, they will give away loads of free kicks. Balotelli got 3 in quick succession just by trying to hold the ball. If AJ and Micah played next time and ran at them down both wings and into the penalty area, their defence will just fold.
 
We bossed the game 40% possession vs 60% and they really only got a stupid balmy goal. I would be pretty suprised if we didn't put at least 3 past them next week.
 
City style requires consistent possession for us to play well against other teams. To that effect, our best on field ball possession players are:

Micah, Kompany, Yaya, SIlva, Nasri, Pizarro, Aguero, Balotelli, Barry, Zab. We need 7 - 8 of those guys on the field to have a fluid playing game. When we don't, our passing, possession, and chance creation, suffers tremendously.

Milner, Dzeko, AJ, Kolarov, Clichy, De Jong, Kolo, Lescott can all have great games for us, but their strength is not seamless possession football. So we can't use too many of them at the same time if we seek to keep possession and create chances like we do.

Today we had Kolarov, Clichy, Kolo, Lescott, Milner and Dzeko all playing. Literally 6 out of the 7 nonpossession players on the field at the same time. It was no surprise we were disjointed often.

And when you play against a disciplined team that all retreat to their half when we have the ball, our chances were always gonna be slim.
 
From what i could see, our biggest need for the game was either yaya toure or pizarro in the middle as the link up player. Silva suffered the most with either of those two out.

I can't really fault milner for his sub-par performance, he just hasn't played very much lately and it showed, his match fitness is lacking, and to be suddenly thrown in and to be asked to do a good job against sporting is a big ask. He is no zabaleta i'm afraid.
 
Marvin said:
66% possession away from home.

Can't have been as bad as some are making out. Hart made one good save
Click to expand...

yeah, can someone have a word in Ray Winstone's shell-like?

all we need is for Bet365 to add POSSESSION to their betting markets and all of us can clean up every week!

(because even when we don't convert our chances, we're nearly always a lock to win the possession stakes)
 
Awful team selection last night,shockingly unbalanced and one dimensional,especially midfield,it just didn't offer an atttacking threat or even any fluidity.
Again,i think this highlights just how piss poor our depth of quality is.It's cost us a place in three cups already this year.
Our team looks a shadow of the one tearing up the prem when Yaya,Komps and Richards are missing.

We played a 442 tonight but the personnel just weren't equipped to do so,absolutely no pace or width was provided and as shocking a game as Dzeko had,he never really had a chance given his lack of supply and options when in posession.

Milner was atrocious and,like Dzeko,i often wonder exactly what role he was bought to perform in our side as i struggle to see where both fit into our style of play.

We need to purchase at least two players in the summer who can offer us something different especially from the wings as we just don't threaten from those positions.

Saying that,we should be more than capable of recovering this tie next week but it will be no walkover,especially if similar square pegs are deployed.....
 
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