Stoke post match

Kezinstep said:
+1
First half was okay but the second half wasn't great. For large parts the pressing, intensity and movement just stopped. Like you said the fact we still managed to put 4 past Stoke at their place is very exciting.
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Context is important though.

We played a few days before in Romania.

Away PL games are always difficult after playing in Europe.
 
Was we that bad today? I get that we wasn't as good as previous games but we just beat Stoke away 4 - 1.... to think we're still geling and Pep is still learning.

For starters we didn't let them have possession from the off and we calmed the game down straight away, something we didn't do last season, which led to them battering us.

We started the second half a bit poor I get that but once they scored we controlled the game.

Don't let the pundits or the media get in your head.. the rags didn't play that well yesterday but they was jerking themselves silly over them.

I'm sure I read somewhere that not many of the top teams beat stoke away?
 
City_Sean said:
No, I'm making the point that we were poor off the ball, which our manager admitted.
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Poor or tired?

We played in Romania in mid week.

The general record of PL teams playing away from home in the league after playing in Europe isn't very good.

This was a place we had won at once in eight previous attempts in the league, so to go there and win, & deservedly so, after playing in Romania represents a fantastic result.

Wasn't it a perfect performance? No, but in the context of the situation, it was extremely positive and 9 goals in 2 seats games isn't half bad either.
 
Luke The Blue said:
Was we that bad today? I get that we wasn't as good as previous games but we just beat Stoke away 4 - 1.... to think we're still geling and Pep is still learning.

For starters we didn't let them have possession from the off and we calmed the game down straight away, something we didn't do last season, which led to them battering us.

We started the second half a bit poor I get that but once they scored we controlled the game.

Don't let the pundits or the media get in your head.. the rags didn't play that well yesterday but they was jerking themselves silly over them.

I'm sure I read somewhere that not many of the top teams beat stoke away?
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I thought we were absolutely fantastic in the first half, and looked a bit knackered in the second half (no surprise considering the effort we'd put in and conceding a pen so early in the second) but finished brilliantly.

It’s funny reading this thread to see how many people can all see the same game so differently.
 
ManCityX said:
Context is important though.

We played a few days before in Romania.

Away PL games are always difficult after playing in Europe.
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Yeah that's true and it's early days days yet we're just gonna get better.
Everyone already looks 10x fitter than last season.
 
Genuinely thought it was a good performance for the most part. 50-70th minutes were the exception, old habits crept in. The fantastic judgement when making substitutes from Guardiola changed that.
Caballero had little to do in the way of saves- distribution wasn't great on the whole but there were some moments of brilliance and I don't think Hart is any better- Bravo's coming soon so this Hart vs Willy debate will quickly become redundant.
Zabaleta was a mixed bag today, unfortunate not to get an obvious free kick but also lost possession a few times, think he'll rotate frequently with Sagna and later Maffeo.
Stones looked excellent, as did Otamendi- both comfortable on and off the ball and Kompany will need to be back to his best to have a chance of displacing either of thee two at CB.
Kolarov wasn't as impressive as he was the last two games but he still looked a much better player than last season and I think Guardiola likes him. His attitude seems to have improved immeasurably.
Fernandinho has looked off the pace the last two games for me- granted this is by his impressive standards but The Engine seemed to lose out more than I'm used to seeing from him.
Navas wasn't great in attack but looking back he did help out defensively when it was 1-2 so I'm willing to cut him some slack.
De Bruyne still looks like he's not fully fit yet, but in both of the last two games he's managed a great assist. Missed a few obvious passes in this game, hopefully he'll recover smoothly.
Silva was one of our best players IMO, he works so well in tight spaces and contributed so much in attack, just a shame we never managed to finish those moves off.
Sterling is a changed man. Fantastic play, so full of energy and ideas, much more confidence as well- though I think his pass to Nolito was fuelled by a fear he'd miss if he shot himself. Sterling is the player Navas would've been if Guardiola had been Sevilla coach when Navas was 21.
Aguero is still the same as he's always been- managing to bang in a ridiculous amount of goals no matter how well he plays. Nice to see him recover from the penalty misses and still a good header.

Iheanacho coming on was the turning point for me- after that the result was never in doubt. Played a key part in both goals including a great run to set up Nolito for the third. Nolito was also superb and didn't seem to struggle at all with the unfamiliar weather. These two are the reason we're top of the league at least until Saturday afternoon. Great players.
 
a lot of debate regarding the penalties , both were soft decisions in my view , and cancelled each other out , we were superb in the 1st half took the sting out of a hostile crowd in difficult windy conditions . In the 2nd half we did not keep the ball as well , but we were never really in trouble., although 4-1 flattered us , (but if that had been the Rags winning by that scoreline at Stoke they would be starting up the open top bus). Give credit were its due , 3 wins and 11 goals scored for a team still adapting to Pep's tactics , and with 3 or 4 key players to return as well , you have got to be happy with that .So to the few who believe we were'nt all that good today , give your head a wobble
 
prestonibbo_mcfc said:
I'm not arguing whether they were penalties or not, but it's good to see that they are trying to stop
all the wrestling that goes on at corners. But wait, no, it's looks like Mr Dean is the only one, on this
crusade. Watching other games it's still happening, as usual.
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This 100%. There's a sound logic to the new directive but no sense whatsoever if only one ref is applying it. As for that tackle on Merlin....
 
I think some people are being too negative about the performance, sure the passing wasn't as good in the second half but they actually did a good job of pressing us did Stoke and made it a game that required some grit, our players were tiring towards the end and Pep made exactly the right substitutions. We battled when we needed to and didn't let them outwork us even though we had a CL game in the week and they didn't, it was good to see Pep knows he will need to get that sort of fight from the players and he got just that today. We are going to play the pretty stuff but we are going to battle when we need to by the looks of it.
 
In recent seasons neither penalties would have been given. Go back a few more years and both were penalties and with the recent instruction to clubs had to be given.
In Leics v Arsenal, Clattenburg appeared to be playing to last seasons rules.
In fairness to Sterling he endeavoured to mark his man even if he was disadvantaged in height.
 
I thought it was a good performance overall. First half, excellent. Great to see us matching them for work rate and physicality on their own turf. Second half not so good, we looked tired and got sloppy. We can forgive that so early in the season, playing to a new system that demands that workrate and after the efforts of midweek. The referee made some baffling decisions, and I don't just mean the penalties. On the penalties, no complaints given that both teams got one for the same offence, it will be interesting to see if these offences get pulled consistently throughout the season though.
To beat Stoke 4-1 at their place isn't easy, great result and great support from the travelling blues.
 
Dr Jacoby said:
Both penalty decisions were a joke.
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The penalty for City was the best call worldwide for years! Players have to get used to stop pulling, grabbing or holding. Using the hands is a foul. If they do it in the box it's a pen. I hope the refs go on like that until the players get it.

Sterling's penalty call in comparison was really tough, but he used his hands, not his body. Probably that was just the late call for Kolarov's foul though.

2nd half was a bit out of steam. Some wrong decisions and sloppy passes by Willy, Silva, KDB, Navas.
Anyway, good to see City win 4-1 at Stoke and didn't even have a perfect game!
It will get even better.
 
lancs blue said:
It was probably a bit dry for the lad, he's just come from Vigo which believe it or not on average gets twice as much rain as Manchester.
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Well I never, you're right. The weather makes no sense to me to be honest. Still, nothing can prepare you for the wind at Stoke. Down there, when they watch the Wizard of Oz they see the hurricane at the beginning as just a light breeze.
 
cleavers said:
I suspect you are right, but I hope not, as I said if they cracked down on it, it would be good.

When I said "lucky", I did mean with the foul by Kolarov, as had they got it and scored it would have been a different game.

I agree that we deserved to win overall, but I thought 4-1 flattered us really, and I didn't think our passing was good, especially under pressure (Willies was pretty awful), and that we dallied on the ball too long, especially in forward areas.
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We made too many unforced errors, relative to the standards we will be aiming form, but showed decent mental strength, so no reason today to suspect that if Stoke had scored earlier they would have caused us additional problems.
 
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