Villa Vs City Post Match Discussion Thread

[Anonymous]

Take City's form since the Hull game and we're on an upward curve.

That's the way I've seen the performances too ... getting better each week. When you look at how insipid the rags and Chelsea look with their new managers in charge ... I dunno I think we're very very lucky to have the players/manager we have. When we win the title this season it will have been in the most competitive Premier League since it's inception IMO.

 

[OB1]

Like everything in life, it's about getting the balance right.

Yep ... and yesterday's result wasn't a problem of the balance between attack and defence being wrong IMO. Anyway ... I'd now like to beat Bayern just to wash yesterday completely from my system ... :)

I agree that yesterday's problem was not about a lack of balance or about needing to go 4-5-1. None of that had anything to do with the officials allowing an offiside goal to stand from a rare Villa attack or Nasty committing a needless foul. Tactics, team selection and substitutions were not to blame for yesterday's defeat. Obviously, if any of those things had been different, the game would in some way have unfolded in a different way but I think that would be more of a philosophical debate!

 

[cookster]

4-5-1 with Nasri behind Negredo, ala 2nd half against Bayern pre-season.

Looks very fluid, hardly any top sides play 2 up top.

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

Take City's form since the Hull game and we're on an upward curve.

That's the way I've seen the performances too ... getting better each week. When you look at how insipid the rags and Chelsea look with their new managers in charge ... I dunno I think we're very very lucky to have the players/manager we have. When we win the title this season it will have been in the most competitive Premier League since it's inception IMO.

I have bookmarked this.Sorry to quote you Billy I know you don't like it.

 

[Anonymous]

Like everything in life, it's about getting the balance right.

Yep ... and yesterday's result wasn't a problem of the balance between attack and defence being wrong IMO. Anyway ... I'd now like to beat Bayern just to wash yesterday completely from my system ... :)

I agree that yesterday's problem was not about a lack of balance or about needing to go 4-5-1. None of that had anything to do with the officials allowing an offiside goal to stand from a rare Villa attack or Nasty committing a needless foul. Tactics, team selection and substitutions were not to blame for yesterday's defeat. Obviously, if any of those things had been different, the game would in some way have unfolded in a different way but I think that would be more of a philosophical debate!

I agree ... I've seen enough improvement in the last couple of weeks in performances to not let yesterday weigh me down. We are the best team in the league and the one most equipped to win this league. You know I like Pellegrini but i'm not adverse to criticising him if I feel he's dropped a bollock. Yesterday he simply didn't.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

We could only be blamed for their last goal, Kompany and Nasty got caught out. We need to start picking up points away from home.

It happens. I've slept on it and don't feel half as bad as I did yesterday. We definitely need to start getting results to go with performances away from home ... but I don't see the problem as being terminal because yesterday wasn't a typical away performance. We didn't struggle to create, we weren't limp and slow passing the ball around in front of the opposition. We played with purpose, created chances, scored two, etc. It's hard to even fault Vinny/Nasty. Just how good were they against the rags ? I think it's super harsh when normally very reliable players have a bad day at the office, to start castigating them for it.

Even the substitution which in the heat of the post match fury I felt Pellegrini had gotten wrong, was in fact spot on. We were winning and creating more than Villa ... bringing Nasri off was the sensible thing to do with Bayern in mid week.

On the tactical discussion from last night ... about switching to 451 when we took the lead ... no thanks. I don't ever want City to be a play the percentages pragmatic team like that. It's fucking boring and if it means we win a few trophies less because we don't shut up shop every time we take the lead ... well I'm really not bothered.

Anyway .... Forza Pellegrini. Deserves far more respect than he's afforded by the obsessed with Mancini few.

Your last line is laughable as you showed the same distinct lack of respect towards our previous manager.

Your post also screams off "let's keep running at the brick wall despite the fact in this game it clearly isn't working", as the 2 up front and keep attacking relentlessly theory wasn't yesterday as we'd only managed to score 2 and like United didn't have a plethora of clear-cut chances, as proved by the fact we had less than 50% of our shots that hit the target.

I would rather we realise what a top club is and be pragmatic when it calls for it and we have the opportunity to blitz 4 or 5 and we're playing well enough to get a couple of goals up and relax a bit more then we can do so.

It's called balance and just because yesterday some people would have taken 2-1 and sured up the game, which doesn't mean we'd have given Villa any initiative, in fact I'd suggest the opposite.

I remember Damocles telling me quite early on in the Mancini days that football is a results business and not about entertainment, and it is exactly that. Good football is only good football if you win, because if you lose all that pretty build-up play becomes an issue because it hasn't been turned into enough goals. Similarly it shows that defensively we weren't good enough, so ultimately yesterday wasn't a good performance. It had promising play, and some impressive attacking passing, movement and build-up play, but it ultimately rewarded in nada.

You think we'll win the league. Fair enough, but we won't win the league if our very experienced manager doesn't realise that to win trophies sometimes no matter how good you think our attacking has been we need to be pragmatic and sure everything up and continue to control the game with some extra defensive cover there for solidity, to ensure you get the 3 points so that you can challenge for the title.

If that was Wigan in the cup-final many more people would say shut up shop and take the 2-1 lead and see if you can catch them for the third. People become desensitised so early in the season because there's so many games left. It shouldn't change what you do though.

Like I said last night if we'd put our attacking play to full use and be 2/3/4-0 up this discussion wouldn't be here as we wouldn't have needed to sure up. You have to adapt to the game scenario and what the opposition do.

I've no doubt Pellegrini is a top manager and our attacking play is much nicer under him than Mancini. However he needs to learn quickly from these experiences and really needs to sort out the defence and either realise that we can't play (like we couldn't 3-5-2) so openly at the back, or he has to get them to master it. He's not got much time as we can't afford to drop many more points.

The Bayern game is like the derby, the players will be up for it and it is an entirely different kettle of fish to Everton, West Ham and Chelsea, which are games which will really show if Pelle is getting the hang of this.

 

[vintiz]

I thing we just had a bit of bad luck.

 

[Kevindxb]

Like everything in life, it's about getting the balance right.

Yep ... and yesterday's result wasn't a problem of the balance between attack and defence being wrong IMO. Anyway ... I'd now like to beat Bayern just to wash yesterday completely from my system ... :)

I agree that yesterday's problem was not about a lack of balance or about needing to go 4-5-1. None of that had anything to do with the officials allowing an offiside goal to stand from a rare Villa attack or Nasty committing a needless foul. Tactics, team selection and substitutions were not to blame for yesterday's defeat. Obviously, if any of those things had been different, the game would in some way have unfolded in a different way but I think that would be more of a philosophical debate!

I disagree. If we kept the pressure we would've scored a third and killed it. Instead, we we gave them a breather and they made every kick counts. You cant expose your CBs and expect them not to make mistakes. We lost edge in the midfield (first line of defense) by removing Nasri. Aside from an offside goal, the game was going so well for us until the substitutions and tactics change.

 

[Anonymous]

It's called balance and just because yesterday some people would have taken 2-1 and sured up the game, which doesn't mean we'd have given Villa any initiative, in fact I'd suggest the opposite.

I remember Damocles telling me quite early on in the Mancini days that football is a results business and not about entertainment, and it is exactly that. Good football is only good football if you win, because if you lose all that pretty build-up play becomes an issue because it hasn't been turned into enough goals. Similarly it shows that defensively we weren't good enough, so ultimately yesterday wasn't a good performance. It had promising play, and some impressive attacking passing, movement and build-up play, but it ultimately rewarded in nada.

You think we'll win the league. Fair enough, but we won't win the league if our very experienced manager doesn't realise that to win trophies sometimes no matter how good you think our attacking has been we need to be pragmatic and sure everything up and continue to control the game with some extra defensive cover there for solidity, to ensure you get the 3 points so that you can challenge for the title.

If that was Wigan in the cup-final many more people would say shut up shop and take the 2-1 lead and see if you can catch them for the third. People become desensitised so early in the season because there's so many games left. It shouldn't change what you do though.

Like I said last night if we'd put our attacking play to full use and be 2/3/4-0 up this discussion wouldn't be here as we wouldn't have needed to sure up. You have to adapt to the game scenario and what the opposition do.

I've no doubt Pellegrini is a top manager and our attacking play is much nicer under him than Mancini. However he needs to learn quickly from these experiences and really needs to sort out the defence and either realise that we can't play (like we couldn't 3-5-2) so openly at the back, or he has to get them to master it. He's not got much time as we can't afford to drop many more points.

The Bayern game is like the derby, the players will be up for it and it is an entirely different kettle of fish to Everton, West Ham and Chelsea, which are games which will really show if Pelle is getting the hang of this.

The fact remains no matter how many arguments you put forward for why he should be more pragmatic, you can take it to the bank right now that he won't be. There's a reason why he was given the job and for example, Benitez wasn't. It's going to be a harem scarem ride at times and sure, it might not work. Right now though it's too early to tell for me and I'm more than happy to go on this ride after last season's anaemic showing.

 

[vintiz]

It's called balance and just because yesterday some people would have taken 2-1 and sured up the game, which doesn't mean we'd have given Villa any initiative, in fact I'd suggest the opposite.

I remember Damocles telling me quite early on in the Mancini days that football is a results business and not about entertainment, and it is exactly that. Good football is only good football if you win, because if you lose all that pretty build-up play becomes an issue because it hasn't been turned into enough goals. Similarly it shows that defensively we weren't good enough, so ultimately yesterday wasn't a good performance. It had promising play, and some impressive attacking passing, movement and build-up play, but it ultimately rewarded in nada.

You think we'll win the league. Fair enough, but we won't win the league if our very experienced manager doesn't realise that to win trophies sometimes no matter how good you think our attacking has been we need to be pragmatic and sure everything up and continue to control the game with some extra defensive cover there for solidity, to ensure you get the 3 points so that you can challenge for the title.

If that was Wigan in the cup-final many more people would say shut up shop and take the 2-1 lead and see if you can catch them for the third. People become desensitised so early in the season because there's so many games left. It shouldn't change what you do though.

Like I said last night if we'd put our attacking play to full use and be 2/3/4-0 up this discussion wouldn't be here as we wouldn't have needed to sure up. You have to adapt to the game scenario and what the opposition do.

I've no doubt Pellegrini is a top manager and our attacking play is much nicer under him than Mancini. However he needs to learn quickly from these experiences and really needs to sort out the defence and either realise that we can't play (like we couldn't 3-5-2) so openly at the back, or he has to get them to master it. He's not got much time as we can't afford to drop many more points.

The Bayern game is like the derby, the players will be up for it and it is an entirely different kettle of fish to Everton, West Ham and Chelsea, which are games which will really show if Pelle is getting the hang of this.

The fact remains no matter how many arguments you put forward for why he should be more pragmatic, you can take it to the bank right now that he won't be. There's a reason why he was given the job and for example, Benitez wasn't. It's going to be a harem scarem ride at times and sure, it might not work. Right now though it's too early to tell for me and I'm more than happy to go on this ride after last season's anaemic showing.

Just wanted to point out that despite all our attacking play we didn't score from open play.