Stoke Vs City Post Match Discussion Thread

[Chippy_boy]

Shite game but im not worried yet. I'm glad we have got Cardiff and stoke away out of the way. Even before the fixtures came out I said that they will be shit away days for us. Teams like Cardiff, hull, stoke, just stick 10 men behind the ball or lunge all game, Im looking forward to battering them lot next week. If we don't perform next week then ill start to worry

They really didn't though, did they. Hull and Stoke especially.

I would look forward to battering the reds too, but I can't see it. They will create far more chances than Stoke and RVP will put half of them away.

 

[Chippy_boy]

The worrying thing is that a poor to average manager like Mark Hughes has managed to get Stoke playing like that for 90 minutes. Whereas to a large degree, that same manager, then Mancini and now Pellegrini as well (so far) have failed to get the same ethos instilled into some of our players. The common denominator here is not the managers, it is the players. I am starting to wonder if paying over the odds in transfers and wages - which we had to do in order to attract talented players to City - is at the root of the problem. It cannot be right that we played with pace, passion and commitment for the last 5 minutes yesterday, but didn't bother for the other 90 minutes.

I disagree with this. We lost 1 game at home in two seasons under Mancini. We lost 11 games to ManU's 9 in the same time period. We become a team that was difficult to beat to one where people parked the bus and hoped they didn't get spanked. Hell teams like Stoke turned up beaten before they arrived at our place. Even last season with a man down and goal down we fought back to win games and that was away from home. We won the title and have averaged 80 points a season for the last 3 seasons. Its a fallacy that any team can achieve this and be devoid of commitment or hard work or even passion. The team you describe wouldn't have got close.

The title-winning season was better. Last season we certainly did not show the same fight all the time, although I admit it has only been certain players.

But you draw some incorrect conclusions. Yes teams turned up beaten before they arrived at our place. But do you think that was because of our incredible work ethic and constant pressing? I don't. It's because largely we play with quality and a swagger and keep possession and wear opponents out by doing this. It is rarely if ever (actually, no, it's never) that we work much harder than our opponents.

 

[tommyhair]

We look rubbish, it was hard to watch. Next two games will be huge

 

[LoveCity]

Shite game but im not worried yet. I'm glad we have got Cardiff and stoke away out of the way. Even before the fixtures came out I said that they will be shit away days for us.

Yes... only issue is more and more away days are becoming like that. Can we expect fired up Everton, Liverpool, Sunderland, Swansea, West Ham and Southampton to be any easier? What about Villa who have been easy pickings for us in recent years but now are playing better? This is the real worry. I doubt we'll be the only team to drop points in these games (United already lost to Liverpool and Chelsea to Everton) but just how many of these teams will we beat on the road if we remain slaves to the sluggish style and lack of urgency? Pellegrini has to quickly make the team his own because, with the exception of Newcastle, it still looks like last season's to me with the unentertaining zombie version of tiki-taka where we expect the defence to just step aside and let us through, but in reality create an alarmingly low amount of chances for a top side.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Can't believe the negativity. City have a lot of new players and it will take a few months to bed in. We need to stay in touch till Christmas and if we do I am confident we will be in the mix for the title come May. This will be a strange season with five teams taking points off each other and 80 points could be enough to win it. We are as good as all those teams and will get better as time goes on. We didn't play any better at Stoke in our last three league appearances. They are a nightmare to play against. It is just one of those things. Those who are whingeing need to chill out a bit. Anyway I'm off to Plzen tomorrow and I can't wait. We will win at Plzen and beat the rags (by at least two goals) and everyone will overreact in a positive direction.

 

[BobKowalski]

The worrying thing is that a poor to average manager like Mark Hughes has managed to get Stoke playing like that for 90 minutes. Whereas to a large degree, that same manager, then Mancini and now Pellegrini as well (so far) have failed to get the same ethos instilled into some of our players. The common denominator here is not the managers, it is the players. I am starting to wonder if paying over the odds in transfers and wages - which we had to do in order to attract talented players to City - is at the root of the problem. It cannot be right that we played with pace, passion and commitment for the last 5 minutes yesterday, but didn't bother for the other 90 minutes.

I disagree with this. We lost 1 game at home in two seasons under Mancini. We lost 11 games to ManU's 9 in the same time period. We become a team that was difficult to beat to one where people parked the bus and hoped they didn't get spanked. Hell teams like Stoke turned up beaten before they arrived at our place. Even last season with a man down and goal down we fought back to win games and that was away from home. We won the title and have averaged 80 points a season for the last 3 seasons. Its a fallacy that any team can achieve this and be devoid of commitment or hard work or even passion. The team you describe wouldn't have got close.

The title-winning season was better. Last season we certainly did not show the same fight all the time, although I admit it has only been certain players.

But you draw some incorrect conclusions. Yes teams turned up beaten before they arrived at our place. But do you think that was because of our incredible work ethic and constant pressing? I don't. It's because largely we play with quality and a swagger and keep possession and wear opponents out by doing this. It is rarely if ever (actually, no, it's never) that we work much harder than our opponents.

If by incredible work ethic you mean 'run around a lot' then no. We 'worked hard ' at keeping the ball and playing possession based game that required our opponents to run around a lot whilst we controlled the game. They invariably tired which is why we scored more in the second half of games and especially in the last 15 minutes. Against the better sides where it was more even we did indeed work hard in terms of physical effort because the standard of opponent demanded it. And its not just physically working hard but mentally as well in ensuring we did control the game and kept control. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate was Mancini's mantra and for the full 90+ minutes.

Physical effort or working hard without purpose is just showing off or otherwise known as good old Scotty Parker. We did it intelligently and with attention to detail or otherwise known as Gareth Barry.

I repeat again no team wins that many games over 3 seasons, averaging 80 points and winning the title along the way can do so by not having the right work ethic.

 

[waspish]

YAYA is the problem and the problem solver as a defensive player HE dictates the pace of how we going to play its brilliant if we are 1 or 2 nil up but when you want energy and the pace speeded up it not great, now play him behind the striker it's a different city

 

[BobKowalski]

Shite game but im not worried yet. I'm glad we have got Cardiff and stoke away out of the way. Even before the fixtures came out I said that they will be shit away days for us.

Yes... only issue is more and more away days are becoming like that. Can we expect fired up Everton, Liverpool, Sunderland, Swansea, West Ham and Southampton to be any easier? What about Villa who have been easy pickings for us in recent years but now are playing better? This is the real worry. I doubt we'll be the only team to drop points in these games (United already lost to Liverpool and Chelsea to Everton) but just how many of these teams will we beat on the road if we remain slaves to the sluggish style and lack of urgency? Pellegrini has to quickly make the team his own because, with the exception of Newcastle, it still looks like last season's to me with the unentertaining zombie version of tiki-taka where we expect the defence to just step aside and let us through, but in reality create an alarmingly low amount of chances for a top side.

Except that last season creating chances was not the problem. Converting those chances was our downfall leading to too many games being drawn that we needed to win.

This season we have ceased to create chances, no longer control games and teams are no longer parking the bus but are actually playing football which in the past meant we would twat them out of sight. This season we are looking more like the twatee rather than the twator.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I disagree with this. We lost 1 game at home in two seasons under Mancini. We lost 11 games to ManU's 9 in the same time period. We become a team that was difficult to beat to one where people parked the bus and hoped they didn't get spanked. Hell teams like Stoke turned up beaten before they arrived at our place. Even last season with a man down and goal down we fought back to win games and that was away from home. We won the title and have averaged 80 points a season for the last 3 seasons. Its a fallacy that any team can achieve this and be devoid of commitment or hard work or even passion. The team you describe wouldn't have got close.

The title-winning season was better. Last season we certainly did not show the same fight all the time, although I admit it has only been certain players.

But you draw some incorrect conclusions. Yes teams turned up beaten before they arrived at our place. But do you think that was because of our incredible work ethic and constant pressing? I don't. It's because largely we play with quality and a swagger and keep possession and wear opponents out by doing this. It is rarely if ever (actually, no, it's never) that we work much harder than our opponents.

If by incredible work ethic you mean 'run around a lot' then no. We 'worked hard ' at keeping the ball and playing possession based game that required our opponents to run around a lot whilst we controlled the game. They invariably tired which is why we scored more in the second half of games and especially in the last 15 minutes.

Yes, agreed, as I said above.

Against the better sides where it was more even we did indeed work hard in terms of physical effort because the standard of opponent demanded it. And its not just physically working hard but mentally as well in ensuring we did control the game and kept control. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate was Mancini's mantra and for the full 90+ minutes.

Physical effort or working hard without purpose is just showing off or otherwise known as good old Scotty Parker. We did it intelligently and with attention to detail or otherwise known as Gareth Barry.

I repeat again no team wins that many games over 3 seasons, averaging 80 points and winning the title along the way can do so by not having the right work ethic.

And I repeat again that it is not all the players, but some of them for sure did not, and still do not, show up in some of our games. In the games where you have to roll your sleeves up and graft, you cannot afford to have passengers, and on too many occasions I think we have had some.

 

[LoveCity]

Except that last season creating chances was not the problem. Converting those chances was our downfall leading to too many games being drawn that we needed to win.

There were many away games last season where we struggled to create clear cut chances and were restricted to annoying half-chances. I remember because I moaned about it a lot then too. Too many blocked shots (because we over played the ball, allowing defences to organise), long range efforts going nowhere (like yesterday), etc. I said last season that there are not many top European teams who struggle to create like we do (away from home in our case) and who lack ideas going forward. So far, nothing has changed on that front, but I am willing to give him time having seen his previous teams play some of the best football of the last 10 years.