Spurs Vs City Post Match Thread

[stablemcfc]

I'll only start worrying when we field Hart- Zaba/Kompany/Otamendi(Mangala)/Clichy - Dinho/Toure - Sterling/Silva/KdB - Aguero and are getting beaten 4-1 by teams. 1 bad performance can easily be attributed to bad luck & injuries. If we start performing poorly regularly with our star players in the team then perhaps fingers can start getting pointed, but for now lets see how it goes over the next few weeks.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Yes
I'm not
Yes he was
Not normal at all
Not sure

Do you believe we will win the league, based on what YOU've seen so far?

If the manager was able to change tactics depending on who is fit I'd say yes! But he doesn't like to change! For me on saturday we were the perfect team for counter attacking sitting deep then hitting them on the break! Manuel saw it diffrent to alot of us! With silva missing we don't dominate the ball half as much as we do when he plays so therefore should adopt different tactics! Also 2 slow center backs would not want to play in such a high line but get picked to do so! We will go very close either way because of how poor the prem is!

 

[BufordUSABlue]

There were many different reasons why we ended up getting spanked 4-1 by Spurs on Saturday:-

1 - Key players missing. If you take players as important as Hart, Kompany and Silva out of any side they'll miss them, plus Toure only lasted 55 minutes before injury meant he had to be replaced. Add to that player fatigue (Kolarov and Sagna have played every minute of every game so far, as their replacements Zabaleta and Clichy have been injured) and you've got a side not able to perform at their best.

2 - Rank bad play. There's no getting around it, many City players were just awful on Saturday. Mistakes by individuals, passing, shooting, tackling, all across the board it was well below the levels we should be expecting from a group of players as talented as ours.

3 - Officiating. We can blame injuries, we can berate the player performances, but there's one thing that's undeniable, the officials had a HUGE impact on Saturday's result. Yes, De Bruyne was marginally offside for City's goal, however we're talking an inch at most, and that's if the freeze frame moment shown on TV was actually the exact moment Toure's foot hit the ball to pass, if the freeze frame is a millisecond too late than De Bruyne is onside. Very, very close, and certainly a decision you wouldn't be lambasting the linesman for not getting right. However the equaliser for Spurs was simply unacceptable at any level, let alone the Premier League. It was so obviously offside, such a bad decision, and with no possible explanation as to why the linesman could have missed it, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was more than just bad judgement. It was such an obviously bad call you have to wonder about the intent of the linesman. Kane's goal too was offside, far more marginal than the Walker one for the equaliser, but equally, far more clearly offside than the De Bruyne one. Kane was stationary, the defence was stationary, and he was stood offside. Any linesman worth a damn should have seen it.

The blame for the result isn't accountable to just one factor, however there's no denying that, even with our injured players, and our poor display, we should have been 1-0 up at half time, which would have made a huge difference to how the second half was approached, and panned out. Spurs scored 4 times, but 2 of them should have been ruled out. You can only hope that these kinds of decisions do not continue to affect our results.

Nice balanced summary Matty!

I also believe it was a combination of all three factors, which will (hopefully) be difficult to replicate for the rest of the season.

There are clearly some lessons to be heeded though;
Willy - simply nowhere near good enough even for a backup!
Navas - similar although not as bad as Willy, the substitution was quite frankly unbelievable at the weekend, i am completely dumbfounded as to why he is still the managers 'go to guy'
Otemendi - clearly needs time to settle in (ala Mangala last season)
MDM - As much a i love this guy, he is past it and we need a far better option
Kolarov - again, as much as i like this guy, his defending is poor and we need a quality LB
Sterling - is struggling to adapt IMO and needs some attention, maybe an arm around his shoulder which some players need
Nasri - Never going to see the 'Arsenal' Nasri and needs to be replaced, continues to slow play down when he is on the pitch
Fitness: Playing people clearly carrying an injury is madness;
Silva
Kun
Yaya
Sterling
Hart (referring to him being on the bench, if he's fit he's in, if he's injured he shouldn't be anywhere near the squad - simples really!)
And this is just this season so far!!
Pelligrini, the nice man, but is he going to take us any further? With this group of players we should be winning league + cup and going deep into the CL..... sadly, I am not confident of any

And no; i am not flapping, i am just given a realistic (albeit personal) view of the season thus far (6 games in)
Roll on Weds/Saturday!

 

[pavelsrnicek]

So when we fail to score (as is the case in most of our few defeats) despite continually creating chances, you sit the guys down and discuss their mental strength?

Good luck with that, I'd be far more inclined to get them out on the training pitch to concentrate on shooting and creating space for goal scoring opportunities. Suggesting that the players are mentally weak, after only recently setting an all-time club record of most wins in a row, is stuff of nonsense.

Getting a result (win or draw) on your bad days is the hallmark of Champions.

This City side is capable of the finest football ever seen at City but there has been a tendency since the start of last season for this team to wobble in adversity. Like it or not it gives lazy pundits and journalists licence to label our players as prima donnas.

Don't forget we dug out results in 2011/12 at Villa, at Stoke, at home to Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Sunderland and QPR. In 2013/14 we ground out results at home to Hull, Liverpool, Palace and away to Everton.

Our last comeback win was against Sheff Wednesday in the cup and in the league it was Sunderland away last year.

This current City side need to start getting results on those days when we aren't flying and playing fantastic football or we're not getting the rub of the green. The other shower seem to be able to play crap and win, we need to be able to do this. Chelsea were masters of it last year. The Champions every year will have a few games won late on through grit and determination. We haven't been doing this recently.

 

[Bluep*ss]

Oh ffs
QUIT PANICKING WILL YOU????

NO,,,,,Sorry Pete............it is in my DNA..........

 

[Rolee]

Getting a result (win or draw) on your bad days is the hallmark of Champions.

This City side is capable of the finest football ever seen at City but there has been a tendency since the start of last season for this team to wobble in adversity. Like it or not it gives lazy pundits and journalists licence to label our players as prima donnas.

Don't forget we dug out results in 2011/12 at Villa, at Stoke, at home to Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Sunderland and QPR. In 2013/14 we ground out results at home to Hull, Liverpool, Palace and away to Everton.

Our last comeback win was against Sheff Wednesday in the cup and in the league it was Sunderland away last year.

This current City side need to start getting results on those days when we aren't flying and playing fantastic football or we're not getting the rub of the green. The other shower seem to be able to play crap and win, we need to be able to do this. Chelsea were masters of it last year. The Champions every year will have a few games won late on through grit and determination. We haven't been doing this recently.

We did this against Palace a couple of weeks ago.

 

[bellsouth]

I don't know if its mental strength or whatever, but its noticeable that we just don't react well when we concede. Of course the answer is not simple, yes we do have to defender better, make ourselves tighter for a while etc. BUT we also need to be scoring more so that conceding one isn't a problem. Not getting the second has been just as much as a problem in the games v Juventus and Spurs

 

[pavelsrnicek]

I don't know if its mental strength or whatever, but its noticeable that we just don't react well when we concede. Of course the answer is not simple, yes we do have to defender better, make ourselves tighter for a while etc. BUT we also need to be scoring more so that conceding one isn't a problem. Not getting the second has been just as much as a problem in the games v Juventus and Spurs

I agree wholeheartedly on this. We often have a few minutes or madness after conceding.

On the scoring absolutely if we'd taken any of the chances after scoring against Spurs we win 2/3 nil. If Silva or Sterling scores against Juve we win 2-0. However we still shouldn't have these collapses after conceding bad goals.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

I think that there is a danger of manufacturing a crisis where none exists. Three defeats in four matches is hardly what was expected but i don't believe there is any reason to trot out the usual bitter jibes that Pellegrini isn't up to it, that the side has no balls, that over £100 million was wasted in the summer window and that all would be well even if we only fielded 8 men as long as we left Toure, Kolorov, Navas (and Dzeko?) out. There are more rational explanations of recent results which might give us a bit of confidence.

Saturday's result cannot be understood without reference to some disgraceful officiating which led me to question the assistants' understanding of the offside rule. I have seen no evidence that de Bruyne was offside, but Pellegrini was right when he argued that the Spurs lad out on their right was at least 3 metres offside when the ball was played. How did the assistant miss it?! It was as flagrant a blunder as the one early in the game at Swansea last season, when I believe the same officials were at fault! This could not have happened at a worse time (the 44th minute) with City well on top and unlucky to be only one goal to the good. The second major error came when the officials ignored Kane's clearly offside starting position for the third - the decisive third - Spurs' goal. The first decision turned the game around, the second blunder sealed it. The second Spurs goal was a comedy of errors at a corner kick. Caballero decided to do some curious Argentine folk dance rather than take part in the game and Fernandinho couldn't block the header at the near post. This would not have been of any importance had Willie been playing!

Corners have been a problem recently - West Ham's second resulted from chaos in our area at a corner and the only doubt seemed to be which of three "free" West Ham players would put it in. Our problem appears to be personnel. We have four excellent CBs but they never play together enough to be comfortable. Our 5 successive wins saw Kompany and Mangala unchanged, but Vinnie didn't see the game with Juve out, Mangala only lasted half of the next game and since then we have paired Otamendi and Dimichelis for a game and a half. Since our win at Crystal Palace Otamendi has played 3 full games and 15 minutes in the CL. This is over twice as much as both Mangala and Dimichelis have managed and Vinnie hasn't played at all since the 75th minute against Juve. These three and a bit games are the only minutes Otamendi has ever played for City. All this is hardly the stability wanted in a key area of the pitch.

We arrive at two key issues: "guts" or leadership and injuries. It has been pointed out today that City have not come from behind to win since we beat Sunderland 4-1 last December. This is worrying but more worrying is that our "leaders" miss so many matches through injury. I think the question of leadership cannot be separated from the spine of the team - leaders have to be in areas of the pitch which allows them to lead: Joe is a leader, Vinnie is the leader, Ya Ya leads, David Silva and Sergio are vocal and influential, and what did they all have in common by 2pm on Saturday afternoon? My records show that, of these key players, even in the title winning season of 2013-4 only Ya Ya played more than 30 full games, while Vinnie managed 28 league games, David 27 and Sergio only 25. Their records last season wer little different. Why do we lose our key leaders and best players so much more than other teams? On Saturday 6 players in all were unavailable and this was down from 10. And City do not name a full 25 man squad! The bench for the last two games has been packed with incredibly promising young lads, but not players who know their way around the PL. Chelsea are putting their poor start down to loss of form from Terry, Fabregas and Costa.... How many of their "superstars" could United get by without? Could Arsenal cope with our injury list?

 

[pavelsrnicek]

As ever @BluessinceHydeRoad an excellent analysis