This Stoke defeat?

[Oystercatcher28]

2 out 3 ain't bad (and in touching distance of the summit)... and we're in all the cups still.

A shock defeat is what we might need, to bounce back and really push on

 

[cleavers]

Still sick to my stomach that we were so inept.

We weren't inept, we did everything we could to score, and luck on their part prevented it. We compounded that by giving away a dreadfully easy goal, where we let them waltz through us first, and our keeper had a mare second.

Other than that they showed no ambition to win the game, just bore the crap out of the watching public, and we had more than enough chances to win it comfortably, shit happens as they say. Its not an excuse I agree, but we weren't inept as the stats showed.

Balderdash Cleavers.
We were slow to get the ball forward, slow to spread the ball across the pitch, didn't shoot often enough from long range and our final passes were sloppy. Jovetic & Aguero wasn't working as a pair and Sagna's overlapping was frankly awful (though the last 3 points should improve over the next month).
We were pants.

Your opinion, you're entitled to it, and I can't really be bothered arguing the point.

However, I never said we played well, we didn't, but I couldn't fault our effort (we are probably three weeks behind stokes players in pre season training because of the WC), and we were unlucky, they did f**k all really, and if not for Hart's fuck up, we'd have at least got a point. Stoke were anti football all game, and we got sod all from Mason, and he gave them everything (not that I expect anything else from that rag). As posted by someone else "shit happens", and we seemed to catch quite a lot on Saturday in my opinion, whilst not being at our best.

 

[sam-caddick]

2 out 3 ain't bad (and in touching distance of the summit)... and we're in all the cups still.

A shock defeat is what we might need, to bounce back and really push on

I could be wrong but I just feel that one of the characteristics of this City team is that after either a good result against a top side or after a very good run of wins is that we start thinking we can just turn up and win regardless, that's what I felt after the Stoke game.

I remember last season when we started the season very well and we had just beat United 4-1 at home, we then go and play Bayern at home setting up to go all out 4-4-2 style and we got one of the biggest demolitions the Champions League has arguably ever seen between two top sides.

I got the feeling again when we played Chelsea in the league at home in February after an incredible run in December and January and many people were saying we were the best team in Europe etc.. Then Chelsea do a job on us and we crumbled a little with a bad performance against Barcelona and Norwich away.

We do need that shock result to wake us up every once in a while I feel.

 

[Bill]

Seems to have hit blues harder than it should?

Obviously, nobody saw it coming, we are masters of the universe at home.

Can't help feeling it's the frustration of defeat which has since got plenty looking at everything in a negative light, following the sale of Negredo and United signing Falcao?

I'm still pissed about the performance and result on Saturday, especially with Chelsea winning at Everton, and games to come against direct title rivals.

The international break hasn't afforded us an instant pick-me-up.

In a wider sense, though, have we set the bar so high that anything negative is now seen as crisis or failure? Feast or famine?

If we had lost to Liverpool at home, instead of Stoke, would the perspective of some be any different?

Spot-on we are still the same team and Champions, that started the season and that old cliche "Its a marathon not a sprit" something we should all remember.

this.

it does hurt but sunderland beat chelsea at the bridge last year. all the top clubs lose v the stokes now and again.

 

[Matt.D]

The high number of fouls is because we get caught in possession so often and when tackled lunge out to get the ball back.

Speed things up, please.

Yaya & Vinnie are responsible for a lot of the fouls we concede. Toure because he's a lazy bastard who can't be arsed chasing opponents so just pulls them back or trips them. Vinnie has a habit of making absolutely needless challenges which often result in fouls from behind.

I know what you mean but don't buy your logic.

Yaya isn't 'lazy'. He's a big unit and immobile over a yard or two. So players do run past him and he does have to pull them back at times, as a deep midfielder.

One of vinny's biggest strengths is the way he bullies strikers, and the way he comes from behind them and won't let them pick up the ball. He's so good at it that he does it all the time to 'hole' players too, so people like Rooney can't get in the game. But doing that is always going to cost the occasional foul, because of a mistimed challenge or a refereeing mistake. Overall it's a pric worth paying.

Yaya is lazy when we don't have the ball. Yes he's a big unit but 2 examples from the most recent 2 games = Countinho running down the left wing and Yaya had caught him up, all he had to do was jog along side him but he couldn't be arsed so he pulled him back. And a Stoke player down the right wing exactly the same.

 

[citymad]

It doesn't help that Chelseas squad looks incredibly strong and have a look of invincibility while Liverpools improvement looks to have carried on from last season. Still have a concern about our ability to concentrate for 95 mins also worry about where Yaya's head is at the moment.Really could have done without that ridiculous fiasco in the pre season. Not blaming him entirely of course but the sooner he puts in an epic performance the better it will be for everyone.

 

[Gabriel]

2 out 3 ain't bad (and in touching distance of the summit)... and we're in all the cups still.

A shock defeat is what we might need, to bounce back and really push on

I could be wrong but I just feel that one of the characteristics of this City team is that after either a good result against a top side or after a very good run of wins is that we start thinking we can just turn up and win regardless, that's what I felt after the Stoke game.

I remember last season when we started the season very well and we had just beat United 4-1 at home, we then go and play Bayern at home setting up to go all out 4-4-2 style and we got one of the biggest demolitions the Champions League has arguably ever seen between two top sides.

I got the feeling again when we played Chelsea in the league at home in February after an incredible run in December and January and many people were saying we were the best team in Europe etc.. Then Chelsea do a job on us and we crumbled a little with a bad performance against Barcelona and Norwich away.

We do need that shock result to wake us up every once in a while I feel.

Did we? That's not how I recollect things.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I have mixed feelings about this. One the one hand, the "all teams lose at some point" argument seems reasonable and we should probably put our single defeat into perspective.

But on the other hand, we should not be complacent enough to imagine that we can afford many slip ups like this. Chelsea ran us pretty close last season, only falling at the final hurdle. Had the dice rolled differently, they might have been champions in a season where even their manager thought they could not.

This season they are enormously stronger. They will doubtless have the best defensive record in the league again and at the other end their 6 past Everton tells you all you need to know. Yes they will drop unexpected points, but not many. Not many at all. I'd be very surprised if they finish on less than 90 points this season and we should be aiming for 6 to 9 points more than last season as our target (92 to 95) if we are going to retain our title, imho.

In that context, 3 points dropped to Stoke is a huge blunder. We can ill afford many more cock ups like that or it will be a repeat of the 2012/13 season with one team running away with it... and it's not us.

 

[Bluekiwi]

I was really annoyed at the slow paced build up right from the kick-off. It allowed Stoke to settle very quickly. We should have started with Navas and Zaba and 'gone at them from the first whistle'- that is surely the way to unsettle teams that are going to park a few buses.
Hopefully we have learnt a lesson right at the start of the season and we will get things sorted out and get onto playing fast attacking football again.

 

[VOOMER]

I have mixed feelings about this. One the one hand, the "all teams lose at some point" argument seems reasonable and we should probably put our single defeat into perspective.

But on the other hand, we should not be complacent enough to imagine that we can afford many slip ups like this. Chelsea ran us pretty close last season, only falling at the final hurdle. Had the dice rolled differently, they might have been champions in a season where even their manager thought they could not.

This season they are enormously stronger. They will doubtless have the best defensive record in the league again and at the other end their 6 past Everton tells you all you need to know. Yes they will drop unexpected points, but not many. Not many at all. I'd be very surprised if they finish on less than 90 points this season and we should be aiming for 6 to 9 points more than last season as our target (92 to 95) if we are going to retain our title, imho.

In that context, 3 points dropped to Stoke is a huge blunder. We can ill afford many more cock ups like that or it will be a repeat of the 2012/13 season with one team running away with it... and it's not us.

Exactly it was a huge blunder and yet again the squad looks waifer thin and some how, still unbalanced. HoweverReus is still at Dortmund and Neur at Munich. I have this feeling both of these player's will be playing for us next season. Stoke, well ee needed the beast, who could well be back before October!