Training Ground work bearing obvious fruit

[bluevengence]

I remember us applauding the Arsenal team off the pitch at Maine road after they
had played us off the park with some scintillating football from Henry and co,
I thought to myself at the time..i wonder what it must be like supporting a team that good.
Well I now know...for last night we were that Arsenal team(only better) and the poor old Hammers were us

And it feels fooking fantastic.....happy days indeed

 

[Anonymous]

Haha i agree about 'long shot Edin'. That was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect performance. Dzeko does that too often. As soon as the other striker scores a goal, he starts shooting from anywhere. He needs to realise that both his goals came from great team play and were scored from inside the box, not from 35 yards out.

I'll counter that by saying a shooting Edin Dzeko is a confident Edin Dzeko, so I hope he keeps it up, he'll score a few and miss a few, but if he's happy and playing with a smile on his face then its only to our benefit, he certainly played with a smile last night.

Disagree. I think it's pretty disgraceful that in a team where every one of our attacking players is drilled in looking for the pass and taking it when it's on, Edin regularly hammers long shots into nowhere (much like Kolarov). Last night I counted eight I think with not a single one hitting the target and most of them being way off.

I realise it sounds like I'm being over harsh - but for me the easiest thing to do playing in our team is picking the right option because fellow attackers provide so many of them. For him to so regularly take the wrong one speaks to his continued need to try and prove something to someone when he should play like Negredo - ie. for the team.

Apologies for the Dzeko interlude.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Haha i agree about 'long shot Edin'. That was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect performance. Dzeko does that too often. As soon as the other striker scores a goal, he starts shooting from anywhere. He needs to realise that both his goals came from great team play and were scored from inside the box, not from 35 yards out.

I'll counter that by saying a shooting Edin Dzeko is a confident Edin Dzeko, so I hope he keeps it up, he'll score a few and miss a few, but if he's happy and playing with a smile on his face then its only to our benefit, he certainly played with a smile last night.

Disagree. I think it's pretty disgraceful that in a team where every one of our attacking players is drilled in looking for the pass and taking it when it's on, Edin regularly hammers long shots into nowhere (much like Kolarov). Last night I counted eight I think with not a single one hitting the target and most of them being way off.

I realise it sounds like I'm being over harsh - but for me the easiest thing to do playing in our team is picking the right option because fellow attackers provide so many of them. For him to so regularly take the wrong one speaks to his continued need to try and prove something to someone when he should play like Negredo - ie. for the team.

Apologies for the Dzeko interlude.

I know what you mean. He gets a desperation about him at times . But I thought he had a good game last night overall. He does strike it well when he's confident, and he took his goals well. His touch was good last night, and that's been missing for much of the season

 

[davymcfc]

Decent post OP although I disagree with the defence. I still think we look vulnerable and a lot of this is a direct result of the high line. Take the Liverpool game as an example. They had a goal wrongfully disallowed when we tried to catch sterling offside and then they score ten minutes later in an almost identical situation.

However it is hard to disagree with everything else technically we look a lot better and our tempo and urgency since pellegrini joined has been first class.

 

[Anonymous]

I know what you mean. He gets a desperation about him at times . But I thought he had a good game last night overall. He does strike it well when he's confident, and he took his goals well. His touch was good last night, and that's been missing for much of the season

I thought he did well overall last night. Think he worked hard and didn't let his porno touch bother him too much. He played the pass to Negredo which was very big of him. But I felt like once Alvaro had scored two, Edin just shifted into "hit and hope" territory to try and catch up.

As someone else said, he scored two cracking goals from team play. He should stick to that and forget about the hollywood goals from outside the area.

 

[dancity19]

I know what you mean. He gets a desperation about him at times . But I thought he had a good game last night overall. He does strike it well when he's confident, and he took his goals well. His touch was good last night, and that's been missing for much of the season

I thought he did well overall last night. Think he worked hard and didn't let his porno touch bother him too much. He played the pass to Negredo which was very big of him. But I felt like once Alvaro had scored two, Edin just shifted into "hit and hope" territory to try and catch up.

As someone else said, he scored two cracking goals from team play. He should stick to that and forget about the hollywood goals from outside the area.

He's just desperate to impress, and obviously feels the way to do this is to catch up with Negredo and Aguero in terms of goals scored. I appreciate I'm just repeating what you have said, btu finding the back of the net has never been a problem for Dzeko I don't think. His goal to game ratio is pretty good as far as I am aware. His key problem, as you have said has been the way he plays with the team- he isn't happy to not be the main man (as he was at Wolfsberg and is for Bosnia) and therefore a partnership between him and Aguero will never bear fruit.

I agree with Dave, though- thought he was very good last night.

Also, to ensure this doesn't become a Dzeko thread- I thought last night, regardless of West Ham being so poor, was one of the best, if not the best performances I have seen by City. The football was sublime.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Also, to ensure this doesn't become a Dzeko thread- I thought last night, regardless of West Ham being so poor, was one of the best, if not the best performances I have seen by City. The football was sublime.

We've seen that kind of football in spells - Chelsea second half, United first 60 mins, Moscow first 60 minutes, but you might be right that's the first time weve done it for 90 mins.

 

[Anonymous]

regardless of West Ham being so poor, was one of the best, if not the best performances I have seen by City. The football was sublime.

I'm getting mighty mighty mighty sick of the comments from various corners about how "poor" West Ham were. Make no mistakes, we would've played every team in the PL off the park playing as we did last night. How poor they were simply didn't even come into the equation, we were that good.

Now I'm not big on the media bias conspiracies. However really - ask yourselves - were Wee Davey tearing teams new arseholes in the manner in which we are doing - I suspect there'd be calls for him to be given manager of the season in January.

City, Pellegrini, and the players aren't getting the credit they currently deserve. Maybe it's true we need to win something for the plaudits to really begin. But you'd think one or two of the more intelligent football observers in the media would be cottoning on to how good we actually are. It's not just about the forwards. It's about the team.

 

[dancity19]

regardless of West Ham being so poor, was one of the best, if not the best performances I have seen by City. The football was sublime.

I'm getting mighty mighty mighty sick of the comments from various corners about how "poor" West Ham were. Make no mistakes, we would've played every team in the PL off the park playing as we did last night. How poor they were simply didn't even come into the equation, we were that good.

Now I'm not big on the media bias conspiracies. However really - ask yourselves - were Wee Davey tearing teams new arseholes in the manner in which we are doing - I suspect there'd be calls for him to be given manager of the season in January.

City, Pellegrini, and the players aren't getting the credit they currently deserve. Maybe it's true we need to win something for the plaudits to really begin. But you'd think one or two of the more intelligent football observers in the media would be cottoning on to how good we actually are. It's not just about the forwards. It's about the team.

Every game we hammer someone seems to swept under the carpet for some other narrative to be pursued- be it United being poor, West Ham being poor- even Arsenal wasn't widely hailed as a great City performance as far as I am aware. It's every game- Norwich was another one.

Maybe it's a good thing that we aren't being talked about all the time- relieves pressure perhaps? The media will cotton onto it I think, just like everyone has cottoned onto how good fernandinho is, finally. For the media though it is more an 'Opposition were rubbish, and City should be doing this.' But, no way are we, or Pellegrini getting the credit deserved.

Imagine last night if we had Ferna and Sergio. Adrain was their best player too.

 

[Zin 'messiah' Zimmer]

I know what you mean. He gets a desperation about him at times . But I thought he had a good game last night overall. He does strike it well when he's confident, and he took his goals well. His touch was good last night, and that's been missing for much of the season

I thought he did well overall last night. Think he worked hard and didn't let his porno touch bother him too much. He played the pass to Negredo which was very big of him. But I felt like once Alvaro had scored two, Edin just shifted into "hit and hope" territory to try and catch up.

As someone else said, he scored two cracking goals from team play. He should stick to that and forget about the hollywood goals from outside the area.

I agree but don't discount the positive influence negrado had on him, he was encouraging Edin throughout, especially after the sky'd first half chance..... The difference in this 'team' is bond!!!!

 

[vintiz]

Its Amazing how we've coped in the absence of Aguero !!!

I think the manager also deserves credit for being able to get the very best out of the entire squad.

The rest of the squads performances seem to have gone up a notch, although Merlin has undoubtably had something to do with that, how good are we going to be with a fully fit team?

Barca would find that out in feb !!!!!

 

[cleavers]

I'm getting mighty mighty mighty sick of the comments from various corners about how "poor" West Ham were. Make no mistakes, we would've played every team in the PL off the park playing as we did last night. How poor they were simply didn't even come into the equation, we were that good.

Said the same several pages ago, I'm fed up hearing that club x were awful, its not how poor the other team are, its how poor we're making them look.

West Ham started confident last night, and (unlike a normal allardyce team) tried to come at us, we allowed them for a short time, sucking them in, and then ironically hit them with the sort of route 1 goal that allardyce himself would have been very proud of, and from that moment on they never got a look in, at half time as they trudged off you could see they were a bit shell shocked We then scored 2 more in the first 15 minutes of the second half and completely demoralised them. It wasn't just our pass and move football but the quality of the goals scored as well. As performances go it was pretty well perfect, we may match it again, but I'll be surprised if we can play better as a team, and when you look who we were missing last night, that says an awful lot.

 

[Ducado]

I'm getting mighty mighty mighty sick of the comments from various corners about how "poor" West Ham were. Make no mistakes, we would've played every team in the PL off the park playing as we did last night. How poor they were simply didn't even come into the equation, we were that good.

Said the same several pages ago, I'm fed up hearing that club x were awful, its not how poor the other team are, its how poor we're making them look.

West Ham started confident last night, and (unlike a normal allardyce team) tried to come at us, we allowed them for a short time, sucking them in, and then ironically hit them with the sort of route 1 goal that allardyce himself would have been very proud of, and from that moment on they never got a look in, at half time as they trudged off you could see they were a bit shell shocked We then scored 2 more in the first 15 minutes of the second half and completely demoralised them. It wasn't just our pass and move football but the quality of the goals scored as well. As performances go it was pretty well perfect, we may match it again, but I'll be surprised if we can play better as a team, and when you look who we were missing last night, that says an awful lot.

Spot on

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

It's getting to that stage now where you also need that little bit of luck, injuries and officiating.

I thought this could be a very special season the day we lost at Sunderland.

The more I see us, the more I think we could actually win old big ears itself with a fair wind.

Aguero takes this team into the realms of brilliance.

On the flip side, it makes me so angry, we should have won that fecking league last season.

Ten of the players on the field last night were Mancini players.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

I'm getting mighty mighty mighty sick of the comments from various corners about how "poor" West Ham were. Make no mistakes, we would've played every team in the PL off the park playing as we did last night. How poor they were simply didn't even come into the equation, we were that good.

Said the same several pages ago, I'm fed up hearing that club x were awful, its not how poor the other team are, its how poor we're making them look.

West Ham started confident last night, and (unlike a normal allardyce team) tried to come at us, we allowed them for a short time, sucking them in, and then ironically hit them with the sort of route 1 goal that allardyce himself would have been very proud of, and from that moment on they never got a look in, at half time as they trudged off you could see they were a bit shell shocked We then scored 2 more in the first 15 minutes of the second half and completely demoralised them. It wasn't just our pass and move football but the quality of the goals scored as well. As performances go it was pretty well perfect, we may match it again, but I'll be surprised if we can play better as a team, and when you look who we were missing last night, that says an awful lot.

Exactly mate. It was the perfect performance. And we managed to rest Fernandinho who must need it more than anyone. Nastasic is fresh, Silva and Yaya have not been overplayed, Hart's back, and best of all...Sergio to come.

If we are full strength anything could happen against Barca. They won't live with passing and movement like that.

 

[Anonymous]

If we are full strength anything could happen against Barca. They won't live with passing and movement like that.

Been keeping a keen eye on Barca this season for various reasons. I suppose that it's not the done thing to be confident about playing "big" teams. However I am. I think we'll beat Barca over two legs, surprisingly more comfortably than people think. The only thing that could scupper that is injuries or poor officiating (which is always possible in the CL).

Cleavers your post is spot on too. One of the many things which is being said retrospectively is just what a shambles West Ham were. Really? Because half an hour into the game I was thinking "this is a proper game". West Ham didn't roll over - we were just so fucking good that they got dizzy and exhausted. It's not a joke to say my missus actually turned to me during the second half and said that "I'm getting dizzy. Is it normal for them to pass the ball like that".

 

[Deleted member 58678]

Haha i agree about 'long shot Edin'. That was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect performance. Dzeko does that too often. As soon as the other striker scores a goal, he starts shooting from anywhere. He needs to realise that both his goals came from great team play and were scored from inside the box, not from 35 yards out.

I'll counter that by saying a shooting Edin Dzeko is a confident Edin Dzeko, so I hope he keeps it up, he'll score a few and miss a few, but if he's happy and playing with a smile on his face then its only to our benefit, he certainly played with a smile last night.

Disagree. I think it's pretty disgraceful that in a team where every one of our attacking players is drilled in looking for the pass and taking it when it's on, Edin regularly hammers long shots into nowhere (much like Kolarov). Last night I counted eight I think with not a single one hitting the target and most of them being way off.

I realise it sounds like I'm being over harsh - but for me the easiest thing to do playing in our team is picking the right option because fellow attackers provide so many of them. For him to so regularly take the wrong one speaks to his continued need to try and prove something to someone when he should play like Negredo - ie. for the team.

Apologies for the Dzeko interlude.

Some players can find it hard to get into a groove. When you're in one you don't even think about anything, it's just instincts - bang, great hit or even a goal. When you're thinking about other things or worrying about not doing it right or tensing too much trying to hard to get it right, you will choose the wrong option or it can go horribly wrong. I think Edin is that sort of player. I've always found him to have a meek personality on the pitch and he can easily get out of his groove. Torres has been out of his for four years. But when Edin is just playing off instincts because he has no worries about things, he's a good player.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

On the flip side, it makes me so angry, we should have won that fecking league last season.

Ten of the players on the field last night were Mancini players.

Last year had to happen for this year to happen. If Fergie would have gone early, Mancini had more luck and we'd managed to scrape it last year, we wouldn't be what we are becoming this season.

Pellegrini is in a different class to Mancini and is perfect for this stage of our evolution. I'm not discounting the big one either. If it doesn't happen this time, it will in the next couple of years.

Time for the old "Cabal" cliche: We are finally becoming greater than the sum of our parts.<br /><br />-- Thu Jan 09, 2014 1:09 pm --<br /><br />

If we are full strength anything could happen against Barca. They won't live with passing and movement like that.

Been keeping a keen eye on Barca this season for various reasons. I suppose that it's not the done thing to be confident about playing "big" teams. However I am. I think we'll beat Barca over two legs, surprisingly more comfortably than people think. The only thing that could scupper that is injuries or poor officiating (which is always possible in the CL).

Cleavers your post is spot on too. One of the many things which is being said retrospectively is just what a shambles West Ham were. Really? Because half an hour into the game I was thinking "this is a proper game". West Ham didn't roll over - we were just so fucking good that they got dizzy and exhausted. It's not a joke to say my missus actually turned to me during the second half and said that "I'm getting dizzy. Is it normal for them to pass the ball like that".

My Dad played the game professionally and he watches all the European football. He says the same: that he thinks there is a good chance of beating them. Of course, Messi and co can also expose our weaknesses, so anything could happen.

IT's not going to be some dour Mourinho-style war of nerves. It's going to be a feast of football. I reckon there could easily be ten goals over the two legs.

 

[Anonymous]

Last year had to happen for this year to happen. If Fergie would have gone early, Mancini had more luck and we'd managed to scrape it last year, we wouldn't be what we are becoming this season.

Pellegrini is in a different class to Mancini and is perfect for this stage of our evolution. I'm not discounting the big one either. If it doesn't happen this time, it will in the next couple of years.

Time for the old "Cabal" cliche: We are finally becoming greater than the sum of our parts.

Tolmie's point about 10 of those players being around last season wasn't lost on me either. I'm bored with making backwards comparisons so I won't - but moving forward you'd have to say that we look now like the absolute real deal. There's a mental strength, a strength of character (where is Blusterin Bob Kowalski???), a determination to not just beat the opposition, but to fucking PLAY from minute 1 to the last minute. It's a sight to behold with the quality we have.

It made me laugh how even after getting up to 5 so early in the second half Nasri, Silva, Negredo, everyone just kept piling forward and creating chance after chance.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

On the flip side, it makes me so angry, we should have won that fecking league last season.

Ten of the players on the field last night were Mancini players.

Last year had to happen for this year to happen. If Fergie would have gone early, Mancini had more luck and we'd managed to scrape it last year, we wouldn't be what we are becoming this season.

Pellegrini is in a different class to Mancini and is perfect for this stage of our evolution. I'm not discounting the big one either. If it doesn't happen this time, it will in the next couple of years.

Time for the old "Cabal" cliche: We are finally becoming greater than the sum of our parts.

Or finally we are just becoming Great.

-- Thu Jan 09, 2014 1:09 pm --

If we are full strength anything could happen against Barca. They won't live with passing and movement like that.

Been keeping a keen eye on Barca this season for various reasons. I suppose that it's not the done thing to be confident about playing "big" teams. However I am. I think we'll beat Barca over two legs, surprisingly more comfortably than people think. The only thing that could scupper that is injuries or poor officiating (which is always possible in the CL).

Cleavers your post is spot on too. One of the many things which is being said retrospectively is just what a shambles West Ham were. Really? Because half an hour into the game I was thinking "this is a proper game". West Ham didn't roll over - we were just so fucking good that they got dizzy and exhausted. It's not a joke to say my missus actually turned to me during the second half and said that "I'm getting dizzy. Is it normal for them to pass the ball like that".

My Dad played the game professionally and he watches all the European football. He says the same: that he thinks there is a good chance of beating them. Of course, Messi and co can also expose our weaknesses, so anything could happen.

IT's not going to be some dour Mourinho-style war of nerves. It's going to be a feast of football. I reckon there could easily be ten goals over the two legs.