This Stoke defeat?

[mancity1]

More than the loss,it was the way in which we lost which upset me the most,no fighting spirit,no urgency,no winning mentality shown by any of the city players.Yaya was the only one who atleast attempted to do something.The rest were just standing there fannying around with the ball as it was some training session.Had we won this game,it would have been easier going into the ars and chelsea games,now it all looks like an uphill task.Also i don't think players must take their starting spot for granted,guys like milner,navas must be given chances if the likes of nasri and jovetic are not doing well.Hopefully the issues will be addressed and we will back to our best in the coming weeks.

I think its more about what happens on the day that matters.

Yes poor form and confidence levels is critical but most of our side are used to winning and have a winning mentality.

Of course some more than others and selection can have a bearing as well.

I think we could have coped better with the 4 v 4 in their back half if we had navas and Dzeko in the starting eleven.

It was also a shambles to allow a player 70 yards of run into a one on one with Hart.

I suspect we will play better against Arsenal but we will need to if we are to give them a game.

Players put the past behind them pretty quickly we on the other hand have two weeks to dwell on a poor performance and a poor outcome but it happens and will happen again hopefully not too often in the premiership this season and at home.

 

[aguero93:20]

Just about to go into work in a warehouse full of 6 fingered jugs !! Dreading it .anyone got any ammo for me ?

They're shit.
FA Cup final.

 

[mancity1]

Seems to have hit ONLINE blues harder than it should?

Edited for accuracy

To be honest most of my mates were pretty magnanimous in defeat and dwelled upon it about as long as it took to get to the pub after the game

Stoke are a better side than you give them credit for and did a job on us...it happens

I think sometimes fans lose sight of supporting city

That 'never win and home and never win away' song is sung for a reason

Of course it's nice to win games...'what do points make? Prizes'

But i'm not going to whinge like a woman should we lose the odd one either

We are nowhere near invincible and even the best lose (Real Madrid last weekend)

Whatever happened to our renowned good humour and humility?

Yes, this place is often not representative of the overall mood. Everyone I know shrugged their shoulders at "one of those games".

If it becomes a pattern we have a problem. I don;t anticipate that because we are too good, too well balanced and too well managed.

DD you and a few others were the only ones who at the start of last season on this forum who kept the faith completely at the top from the outset despite the early stumbles and most its fair to say on here including myself were doubters.

You were proved correct and people like myself were wrong about our chances and finishing position and you will recall at 6-1-4 I doubted a top four stop even.

I would now think that if we are 6-1-4 this season we would still be capable of making a fist of title because we have done it before.

Its always easier said than done but if things go a bit better on the injury front this season there is no reason why we cannot go deep again this season.

I would have replaced Negredo but their is always a surprise or two waiting in the wings.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Stoke defended superbly.

We have quite a lot of players who are not yet match sharp.

What it should have been was a 0-0 draw. The goal we let in stank. It was easy to stop, we had three chances to stop it, & very few Prem teams would have conceded it.

But on the other hand, our defence still looks 20 times better than the ones on show in the Everton Chelsea game. And we would have scored ten if we had been playing either of those two, match fit or not.

 

[mancity1]

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?

The only games we've lost at home to a non-top6 side in the Prem since the Sheikh came to us was Norwich under Kidd in that last game of the season that meant nothing, and against Fulham in 2009.

This sort of result is unacceptable! I know it can happen, i know teams can have an off day, i know "anything can happen in the Premier League"...but the sooner we have it ingrained into every part of our club that this is unacceptable and the higher we set our bar (which we should), it won't happen again.

I think we're too nice about things like this. I bet Barcelona Madrid Bayern all would look upon this as unacceptable, and we're trying to get to their level.

But i'm just looking forward now, there's nowt anyone can do about that result now.

I am sure the players and management view this game as unacceptable but it happened and while it would be nice to think it will be another 3 years before we lose at home to a side below the top 6 its much more likely than not it will happen in that time frame as history shows.

The season is over 38 games and its likely that we can drop another 25 points or so in the remaining 35 before we talk about not going back to back.

We will have to pick up three points against a Chelsea or an Arsenal or a Sunderland at home to balance the ledger somewhat.

 

[BobKowalski]

Had a look and still have it filed under "Shit happens..."

 

[yeah whatever !!]

Didn't kill us but will make us stronger.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Edited for accuracy

To be honest most of my mates were pretty magnanimous in defeat and dwelled upon it about as long as it took to get to the pub after the game

Stoke are a better side than you give them credit for and did a job on us...it happens

I think sometimes fans lose sight of supporting city

That 'never win and home and never win away' song is sung for a reason

Of course it's nice to win games...'what do points make? Prizes'

But i'm not going to whinge like a woman should we lose the odd one either

We are nowhere near invincible and even the best lose (Real Madrid last weekend)

Whatever happened to our renowned good humour and humility?

Yes, this place is often not representative of the overall mood. Everyone I know shrugged their shoulders at "one of those games".

If it becomes a pattern we have a problem. I don;t anticipate that because we are too good, too well balanced and too well managed.

DD you and a few others were the only ones who at the start of last season on this forum who kept the faith completely at the top from the outset despite the early stumbles and most its fair to say on here including myself were doubters.

You were proved correct and people like myself were wrong about our chances and finishing position and you will recall at 6-1-4 I doubted a top four stop even.

I would now think that if we are 6-1-4 this season we would still be capable of making a fist of title because we have done it before.

Its always easier said than done but if things go a bit better on the injury front this season there is no reason why we cannot go deep again this season.

I would have replaced Negredo but their is always a surprise or two waiting in the wings.

Thanks for the nice comments fella. It wasn't about "keeping the faith" last autumn, though, it was looking at the squad, management and the performances. This year that is there again, stronger and more settled. I expected a slow start to the season because of the World Cup, but I think we will get better and better.

I'm not unduly concerned about negredo. We are strong enough and it would have been a major juggle for the manager to keep all four strikers happy and playing well. Even if we get incredible bad luck and lose two strikers in the next few months through injury, we can play silva or even yaya off the main striker.

Everything is fine. I am looking forward to how the season pans out.

 

[andrewmswift]

Hate international breaks after a poor result. HATE them.

 

[cleavers]

Had a look and still have it filed under "Shit happens..."

Pretty much how I feel. The annoying thing was the goal they scored, after pretty well not having another decent attack, and a keeper of Harts quality should have stopped it.

I look at us and see a better squad than last year, more settled, and I look at Stoke's anti football, and feel very grateful we have what we have, defeat or not.

Hopefully we won't have that bellend Mason refereeing us for a while either, how he managed to give only 5 fouls to us, and 14 to them, when they pretty well fouled us every time they got near us I have no idea.

Its disappointing that we have this damned international week in the way.