Today i reached a conclusion regarding the team.

[glen quagmire]

Sitting on the front row of 305, (on the halfway line) i got an excellent chance to analyse how the team play, as i normaly sit in 134. I have concluded, that mr mancini, has taken a team which had pace and guile, and turned us into one of the slowest teams i have ever seen. Without carlos's solo efforts, de jongs tigerish midfield displays and vincents man mountian-ness at the back, we would be in a worse position. IMHO, the second half v wigan, all of the kiev game and today we have looked very 'leggy'.

Now, i'm not just being dismal, (as i'm usually, always upbeat and optimistic) it's just that being behind the goal, you don't always get the full picture, do you? I really, really hope we pull our socks up, and push on from this point onwards. This is not a swipe at our talented young manager, nor a glowing validation either, it's my observation that is all.

I think that playing the 'italian' game will come back to bite us on the arse, as we rarely have a plan a, never mind a plan b, if things are against us. Oh and can someone inform kolorov, that to complete a pass, the team member you kick it towards, must recieve it.


Sorry for the negativity, especially on today of all days, i just want to get my point across, as it'd be boring if we all agreed, on everything all of the time.

 

[ST Coleridge]

IMHO, the second half v wigan, all of the kiev game and today we have looked very 'leggy'.

Sixth game in 17 days dude. We've been flat out since Christmas.

 

[cleavers]

Its not the pace of the players we have, its the speed of movement of the ball. I only watched on a stream today, but we move the ball so slowly we never catch a defensive team short, never. Its a very very laboured approach.

Our movement off the ball is nearly always back or sideways, one "attack" today ended with Joe Hart getting a touch, why is that ? Individually nobody played badly for me, but how often did we get forward and find only 1 or 2 in their box ? Both Silva and Tevez got to the byline to find nobody at home. Time and again we had possession for 2 or 3 minutes, and didn't get in the box. Yet we had plenty of strikes on goal it seems, but how many decent ones ? Not many, most were from distance, in fact we scored from our best one, and the same player was unlucky not to score from another, but he's a fullback, surely we should be getting chances for the strikers near the goal.

Its beyond frustrating now, and I thought we played far better today than last week or on Thursday, but its not enough to possess the ball, you need creativity, and penetration, we lack both.

 

[glen quagmire]

Its not the pace of the players we have, its the speed of movement of the ball. I only watched on a stream today, but we move the ball so slowly we never catch a defensive team short, never. Its a very very laboured approach.

Our movement off the ball is nearly always back or sideways, one "attack" today ended with Joe Hart getting a touch, why is that ? Individually nobody played badly for me, but how often did we get forward and find only 1 or 2 in their box ? Both Silva and Tevez got to the byline to find nobody at home. Time and again we had possession for 2 or 3 minutes, and didn't get in the box. Yet we had plenty of strikes on goal it seems, but how many decent ones ? Not many, most were from distance, in fact we scored from our best one, and the same player was unlucky not to score from another, but he's a fullback, surely we should be getting chances for the strikers near the goal.

Its beyond frustrating now, and I thought we played far better today than last week or on Thursday, but its not enough to possess the ball, you need creativity, and penetration, we lack both.

Yes, exactly this. Brilliant post.

 

[sweep]

Sitting on the front row of 305, (on the halfway line) i got an excellent chance to analyse how the team play, as i normaly sit in 134. I have concluded, that mr mancini, has taken a team which had pace and guile, and turned us into one of the slowest teams i have ever seen. Without carlos's solo efforts, de jongs tigerish midfield displays and vincents man mountian-ness at the back, we would be in a worse position. IMHO, the second half v wigan, all of the kiev game and today we have looked very 'leggy'.

Now, i'm not just being dismal, (as i'm usually, always upbeat and optimistic) it's just that being behind the goal, you don't always get the full picture, do you? I really, really hope we pull our socks up, and push on from this point onwards. This is not a swipe at our talented young manager, nor a glowing validation either, it's my observation that is all.

I think that playing the 'italian' game will come back to bite us on the arse, as we rarely have a plan a, never mind a plan b, if things are against us. Oh and can someone inform kolorov, that to complete a pass, the team member you kick it towards, must recieve it.


Sorry for the negativity, especially on today of all days, i just want to get my point across, as it'd be boring if we all agreed, on everything all of the time.

You think we had guile when Mancini took over? One of my and many others biggest criticism of Hughes was the lack of anything resembling guile in the side.

I agree with the lack of presence in the box but that's what happens with Tevez as the main striker, yes he's too short to win anything in the middle but if somebody gets into a crossing position I'd prefer he at least move towards the near post rather than just stand still 25 yards out.

 

[Numptyed]

Sitting on the front row of 305, (on the halfway line) i got an excellent chance to analyse how the team play, as i normaly sit in 134. I have concluded, that mr mancini, has taken a team which had pace and guile, and turned us into one of the slowest teams i have ever seen. Without carlos's solo efforts, de jongs tigerish midfield displays and vincents man mountian-ness at the back, we would be in a worse position. IMHO, the second half v wigan, all of the kiev game and today we have looked very 'leggy'.

Now, i'm not just being dismal, (as i'm usually, always upbeat and optimistic) it's just that being behind the goal, you don't always get the full picture, do you? I really, really hope we pull our socks up, and push on from this point onwards. This is not a swipe at our talented young manager, nor a glowing validation either, it's my observation that is all.

I think that playing the 'italian' game will come back to bite us on the arse, as we rarely have a plan a, never mind a plan b, if things are against us. Oh and can someone inform kolorov, that to complete a pass, the team member you kick it towards, must recieve it.


Sorry for the negativity, especially on today of all days, i just want to get my point across, as it'd be boring if we all agreed, on everything all of the time.

You do get a different aspect of the game up there, I was say in 305 (me and my boy had our Balotelli hats on) we just look so pedestrian. Fair play to Reading the 2 guys they had playing wide were realy direct, I was glad when that No11 went off.

 

[Kid A]

Its not the pace of the players we have, its the speed of movement of the ball. I only watched on a stream today, but we move the ball so slowly we never catch a defensive team short, never. Its a very very laboured approach.

Our movement off the ball is nearly always back or sideways, one "attack" today ended with Joe Hart getting a touch, why is that ? Individually nobody played badly for me, but how often did we get forward and find only 1 or 2 in their box ? Both Silva and Tevez got to the byline to find nobody at home. Time and again we had possession for 2 or 3 minutes, and didn't get in the box. Yet we had plenty of strikes on goal it seems, but how many decent ones ? Not many, most were from distance, in fact we scored from our best one, and the same player was unlucky not to score from another, but he's a fullback, surely we should be getting chances for the strikers near the goal.

Its beyond frustrating now, and I thought we played far better today than last week or on Thursday, but its not enough to possess the ball, you need creativity, and penetration, we lack both.

Yes, exactly this. Brilliant post.

I also think cleavers is spot on. I thougt we bought Dzeko to give us more presence up front and to counter the fact that Tevez pulls out of the middle all of the time. Trouble is we haven't changed the way we play, meaning we create next to no chances, Dzeko struggles and ultimately gets dropped and we are back to square one again. We need more drive in the middle (for me, that means Milner when he's fit, rather than Yaya) and to play at least one winger every game - trouble is, I don't see RM doing it.

 

[Steviesleftpeg]

did you enjoy the view from east stand L3?

my ST is up there (306, bang on Half-way).

I think the view is incredible!

 

[Pingu the Penguin]

We're getting results but, to me, the team look like they've been given too much expression on how to play games

We saw at 2-0 on Thursday opportunities to put quality balls in the box, with lescott there, and a tippy tap free kick follows. Just don't get it.

Today we had a throw in level with their D and 10 seconds later the ball was with hart

I'd like to see the management instill a sense of the need to create chances. To me they just let the players do what they like.

We're far too slow to be a successful team. Our build ups are ponderous and even crap teams can get men behind the ball quickly. When you play like that you need the wonder goal to score

 

[intheknow!]

We cannot play like we did today against United. Simples. They will just come at us with wave upon wave of speedy direct attacks. Mancini must change his tactics.