OK, so there seems to be a flurry of 'Mancini out', 'our team is shit', 'we've lost everything', pessimism coming from this forum after the CS game, and to be fair, its all I'd expect from a last minute derby loss! I had to come home from the pub (surrounded by rags) to be greeted by a load of rags celebrating in my house. It was tough to say the least.
After much moaning and sulking around I watched the post match interviews on the OS and started to think about the positives from the game to cheer some fellow blues up.
Firstly; as Joe so aptly put, "We got a kick up the arse". After the Inter Milan game this forum was rife with confidence. We'd just beaten the world champions of a few seasons ago, silenced players like Eto'o and Sneijder, and I, like many others, refused to listen to comments suggesting "Inter are two weeks behind". I saw threads which sung the praise for Mancini with pages of responses echoing the sentiments of the OP. It was great to see. In fact I actively tried seeking out a negative post in my bewilderment but to no avail.
I went into the CS with all the confidence in the world much like many other people. I knew it would be tough but thought there was no chance we'd capitulate in the fashion we did. On reflection we really did get a kick up the arse when it comes to overconfidence. As Mancini always says, " thees eez footaball, we much focus 110% in every game". If we beat Barcelona (for argument sake) in a Champs league home game, does that mean we can relax in a Norwich away game? The answer is HELL NO! The CS game showed us this!
Secondly; The "Footballing lesson". God, I hate that this came from Rooney's mouth, but with every strength it takes I'm trying to look at things objectively. So we got "schooled" according to the scouse. Perhaps so. The thing with united is that they play with full force and for the win until 90mins + fergie time is over! Last season our focus seemed to linger almost without fail for at least one period of time in the match, and many times it cost us dearly. The lesson we may have learned here, whether it's what Rooney meant or not, is that, 2-0 up at half time means fuck all if the FT result is 2-3. Our focus dipped, and even the liked of Yaya, De Jong, Kompany etc seemed less than their usual impressive selves. Positively speaking, we had a taste of what losing focus can do in the most bitter way, losing to the rags, AT WEMBLEY!
Thirdly; I thought some of the players who failed to capture rich form last season looked fantastic. Dzeko (and not just because of that goal) looked more in tune with his squad, was finding space, taking on players etc. Kolarov had pace, excellent delivery, and defending better with his back four colleagues.
Fourthly; Dzeko would have kicked Anderson's (or 'Ando' as the rags in the pub near me were calling him) arse.
Finally; That when we play poorly, we can still give a top team a run for their money. Last season this is what all the pundits and media were saying, that despite the scum's terrible away form they were still grinding out results. We played poorly in the CS and conversely the rags played well, yet we still scored 2 goals before they had scored any! If it hadn't had been for a totally uncharacteristic Kompany mistake, we would have finished normal time with a draw. If that were a league match that'd be a point. On that performance if someone told me it would be worth a point at the swamp or at the Etihad against the rags, I'd take it and run in a heartbeat!
So there we go. That's my twopence on the game, trying to extract all the positives from the game. What we should all be able to see, is that this IS NOT Mancini's fault/ Balotelli's fault/ Kompany's fault/ Yaya's fault/ anyone in particular's fault, however IT WAS a systemic failure. A failure we can learn from, and a failure which didn't cost us 3 points, or a cup!
Don't believe the media hype, believe in our squad and our manager!
After much moaning and sulking around I watched the post match interviews on the OS and started to think about the positives from the game to cheer some fellow blues up.
Firstly; as Joe so aptly put, "We got a kick up the arse". After the Inter Milan game this forum was rife with confidence. We'd just beaten the world champions of a few seasons ago, silenced players like Eto'o and Sneijder, and I, like many others, refused to listen to comments suggesting "Inter are two weeks behind". I saw threads which sung the praise for Mancini with pages of responses echoing the sentiments of the OP. It was great to see. In fact I actively tried seeking out a negative post in my bewilderment but to no avail.
I went into the CS with all the confidence in the world much like many other people. I knew it would be tough but thought there was no chance we'd capitulate in the fashion we did. On reflection we really did get a kick up the arse when it comes to overconfidence. As Mancini always says, " thees eez footaball, we much focus 110% in every game". If we beat Barcelona (for argument sake) in a Champs league home game, does that mean we can relax in a Norwich away game? The answer is HELL NO! The CS game showed us this!
Secondly; The "Footballing lesson". God, I hate that this came from Rooney's mouth, but with every strength it takes I'm trying to look at things objectively. So we got "schooled" according to the scouse. Perhaps so. The thing with united is that they play with full force and for the win until 90mins + fergie time is over! Last season our focus seemed to linger almost without fail for at least one period of time in the match, and many times it cost us dearly. The lesson we may have learned here, whether it's what Rooney meant or not, is that, 2-0 up at half time means fuck all if the FT result is 2-3. Our focus dipped, and even the liked of Yaya, De Jong, Kompany etc seemed less than their usual impressive selves. Positively speaking, we had a taste of what losing focus can do in the most bitter way, losing to the rags, AT WEMBLEY!
Thirdly; I thought some of the players who failed to capture rich form last season looked fantastic. Dzeko (and not just because of that goal) looked more in tune with his squad, was finding space, taking on players etc. Kolarov had pace, excellent delivery, and defending better with his back four colleagues.
Fourthly; Dzeko would have kicked Anderson's (or 'Ando' as the rags in the pub near me were calling him) arse.
Finally; That when we play poorly, we can still give a top team a run for their money. Last season this is what all the pundits and media were saying, that despite the scum's terrible away form they were still grinding out results. We played poorly in the CS and conversely the rags played well, yet we still scored 2 goals before they had scored any! If it hadn't had been for a totally uncharacteristic Kompany mistake, we would have finished normal time with a draw. If that were a league match that'd be a point. On that performance if someone told me it would be worth a point at the swamp or at the Etihad against the rags, I'd take it and run in a heartbeat!
So there we go. That's my twopence on the game, trying to extract all the positives from the game. What we should all be able to see, is that this IS NOT Mancini's fault/ Balotelli's fault/ Kompany's fault/ Yaya's fault/ anyone in particular's fault, however IT WAS a systemic failure. A failure we can learn from, and a failure which didn't cost us 3 points, or a cup!
Don't believe the media hype, believe in our squad and our manager!