Villarreal (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

[Saddleworth2]

I like Reshmin, her delivery is kind of an odd mix of say Garth Crooks and Emily Maitlis. She’s wasted on idle football chit chat with dull as ditchwater pundits. And to be fair to her, the editorial position doesn’t come from her, she’s just the highly polished deliverer of the message.

The real question here is how the fuck does Owen Hargreaves get any work at all

She must have reminded us 115 times that City hadn't won in Europe for a year. She made Lescott and Hargreaves appear like football genius in comparison.

 

[Matt Diablo]

Interesting takes on our two wingers - but I thought both did very well.

Savinho was great from the first minute when he intercepted a lose ball and set up Haaland for what could have been a first minute goal - dont think he really expected the ball back. His full back didn't know which way to turn all through the half, great link up play with Lewis throughout leading to the first goal. and then they switched for the second so that Savinho could supply the assistance with a beautifully precise cross. Second half he was seen a bit less, but then the whole team was dropping back - but then one lovely run passed three defenders - just wish he had buried it.

Doku had a trickier time, his defender was very tight to him and played him well. He seemed to be able to match Doku's acceleration and so that advantage Doku has was nullified - but he kept at it, kept the width, kept worrying the defence. At the same time the referee wasn't giving Doku much and tended to give fouls against Doku for not a lot and not give fouls when he seemed to be blocked. Although when he did eventually give Doku a free kick - he also booked the defender and it really didn't look much of a foul to me never mind a booking! I don't think any of that is a reflection on Doku's performance - he did what he had to do. Sometimes a combination of good defending and erratic refereeing will mean he doesn't have the impact we would like to see.

Thought Jez was poor last night and Sav was excellent. Glad we kept him

 

[St Helens Blue (Exiled)]

Savinho best games since he joined for me.
Only worry is not putting 4/5 past teams like these. Always jepoardy at 1 or even 2-0

 

[The Lightbowne Cowboy]

Very good down our right last night, mainly due to the resurgence of a certain Nunez. Savinho had his best game in quite a while but there's still so much there with him. If he could only shoot either side of the keeper. The left side was well off last night, I like to see Gvardiol play centrally. Doku wasn't at the races and hasn't for the his last few games(after showing top form before) Lots been said about our drop off in the second half, but we're still getting up to top fitness, played on Saturday and Gonzo going off when he did didn't help. There were many positives. The way we started was probably the best of any game this season and our press was fantastic! Couldn't keep that going but we had the chances to put the game to bed(again) so a drop off was always going to be on the cards. Haaland keeping his run going(although he should of had a hatrick) and we got minutes into players coming back from injury. It wasn't pretty at times, far from perfect, but we got what we went for and it was another game chalked off to regain our fitness. That'll do!

 

[mcfc96]

Really liked that Nunes-Rico-Savinho combination on the right, think that has a lot of potential.

 

[01282]

Cracking atmosphere in the away end. You could tell everyone had been on the piss all day. Plenty of old songs gettin an an airing. Took a while for Ederson and Ake to get going.

Surely it can be uodated now to Donnarumma, Ake, Nunes and O’Reilly, Ruben Dias Jonny Stones. Etc etc substitute Istanbul for Budapest and it’s perfect.

 

[Gray]

So if both us and arsenal have same points and are fighting for 8th place, who do you think will get 8th place

The team that has earned it?

 

[Protein Junkie]

Really liked that Nunes-Rico-Savinho combination on the right, think that has a lot of potential.

Dream line up for the Match day forum :-)
Great win last night.

 

[5 Hit Gibbon]

I thought it was a decent away CL performance against a team that is quite strong at home.

We are not at peak levels yet but I think there are encouraging signs. I think we are quiety getting better and building up some momentum. With some of the players who have been missing coming back to fitness I think we will improve more.

I hope Nico isn't out for long as we need one of either him or Rodders playing ideally.

 

[eastmanc]

Savinho best games since he joined for me.
Only worry is not putting 4/5 past teams like these. Always jepoardy at 1 or even 2-0

Don't forget they haven't lost at home since March.

 

[eastmanc]

I thought it was a decent away CL performance against a team that is quite strong at home.

We are not at peak levels yet but I think there are encouraging signs. I think we are quiety getting better and building up some momentum. With some of the players who have been missing coming back to fitness I think we will improve more.

I hope Nico isn't out for long as we need one of either him or Rodders playing ideally.

Any news on Nico G?

 

[dadnlad]

Sounded brilliant and consistent on the telly mate, class away end. Presume the coverage was from Spanish tv so no Sky or BT muting the noise from our fans - made a huge difference

sky will be envious of the tv work
they missed several incidents one was close to a gaol another was someones back while game clearly going on

 

[dadnlad]

You actually know the answer to that don't you?

he played 45 minutes for city ?

 

[KS55]

sky will be envious of the tv work
they missed several incidents one was close to a gaol another was someones back while game clearly going on

Wormwood Scrubs?

 

[pride in battle]

Cracking atmosphere in the away end. You could tell everyone had been on the piss all day. Plenty of old songs gettin an an airing. Took a while for Ederson and Ake to get going.

Surely it can be uodated now to Donnarumma, Ake, Nunes and O’Reilly, Ruben Dias Jonny Stones. Etc etc substitute Istanbul for Budapest and it’s perfect.

Whats the Haaland 10 years song ?

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

We literally played faster with Kovacic who just came back from injury. Do people actually ever come to the conclusion that our players are slowly getting back from injuries?

Kovacic is a steady player but he doesn't add much to the team. I'd honestly play Nico over him as we are yet to see how good he can be. He's getting better every game.

 

[paulchapo]

Kovacic is a steady player but he doesn't add much to the team. I'd honestly play Nico over him as we are yet to see how good he can be. He's getting better every game.

He does chip in with the odd goal though.

 

[Bournemouth Blue]

Having watched it on TNT and then a full match replay, we pretty much controlled the whole match. Most of the media said it was a comfortable victory, the only negative was Gonzalez coming off with a knock. But then I read through these pages and either there are reds masquerading as blues, or there are quite a few entitled people around who moan every week.

 

[Burtonblue]

I am becoming increasingly concerned about Gvardiol. His wayward passing is gifting counter attacks on a regular basis. We could have conceded 2 tonight as a result of his very poor distribution attempts.
Not sure I would trust him against the very best for this reason.
He's solid as a central defender and good in the opposition box but I just don't trust him in possession.

He was super rusty yesterday.
He will take a while to get back to his best.
I personally don’t like him at LB and can’t see why he should need to play there again now we have Nico and RAN who are considerably better in that role.
Gvardiol is a top CB and that’s where he should be.

 

[skillman]

I did wonder this last night. Whether Rico’s movement was a direct result of knowing Jonny Boulders was behind him and gave him freedom to make that run.

It’s a run we used to see all the time from our “8s” but not recently.