Wolves (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

himalayan_blues said:
They say the good players have 10/12 good games in a season, the world class players chose which game.
Let Stones play the crucial 10 games and he will win us all.
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Been watching football since the 60s and never heard that before.

Sounds a bit fanciful - do they tell the coach before the games when they've decided not to play well?
 
Dribble said:
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Season off to a Flyer...​

It was the first game of the new season after an oddball pre-season. We were scintillating at times, but a bit disjointed at others.

The thing that stood out was our increased physicality, pace & the general legs we had, which was a welcome change from the sluggish displays of last season.

There's a lot of uncertainty surrounding the make-up of the squad, the tactics, formation & who would start the season opener, & there was a few surprises.

A fit John Stones starting was a welcome sight. Trafford made the most of the break he was given because of the transfer speculation surrounding Ederson, & he didn't disappoint.

The other surprises were Bobb & Lewis starting. I feel for Bobb because last season looked like being a breakout one for him before his unfortunate leg break.

He's essentially kick-starting his breakout season again, & yesterday he showed huge promise. Again, Bobb benefited because of the transfer speculation surrounding Savinho, & he certainly made the most of his opportunity.

Reijnders followed up his CWC & pre-season promise with a top-class display, & looks the absolute dogs bollocks! What a player! He has pace, he can control the tempo, he can carry the ball, he can pick a pass, & boy does he know where the back of the onion bag is. Simply brilliant!

Credit has also to be given to Gonzalez as he quietly, but very effectively went about his business with a solid & very effective display. I feel Nico's City career starts from here, & considering how 'Plodri' started his career, Gonzalez looks like a promising deputy for 'Godri', hopefully for years to come.

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Debut boy... Debut goal...

Cherki is going to be an absolute superstar maverick! I just love the way he drops deep & demands the ball, dictating attacks from deep. His goal was superbly taken, & I can't see it being too long before the clamour for him to start regularly becomes too much to ignore. £34m? WTF! Lol :-)

I felt for Doku. RAN was obviously told to play more defensively, which again left Jeremy isolated facing 3 players. Midway through the first half, I noticed the brilliant Bernardo moved over to the left to support him, & this started to pay dividends.

Moose fared much the same when he came on, so this left sided isolation is something we urgently need to work on & resolve.

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With concerning rumours of a £30m Forest bid for Lewis, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Rico confirmed his determination to remain at City & fight for his place.

Most people expected Nunes to start at RB against Wolves, so seeing Rico had gotten the nod was more than a pleasant surprise & surely a reassuring statement of confidence & support in the academy graduate, from Guardiola.

"For me, I've never, ever seen myself at a different club," Lewis said. "I've always wanted to play for City. It's my dream club, and like you see today, when I'm playing with the kind of players that I'm playing with, it brings out the best in me, so I'm so happy."

I've always been a huge fan of Lewis, regardless of many City fans getting on his back & wanting him sold. His age, height & size have been challenging for him. Teams target him for hatchet treatment knowing it could upset his balance, rhythm & confidence, but something looked very different about him against Wolves.

He looks like he's bulked up & toughened up. I also understand he's taken up boxing training to help achieve both, plus his stamina was visibly better.

Rico was absolutely fantastic, & put down a marker for a starting place at RB. His versatility will also be invaluable as he can play inverted in a double pivot, or as a number 8. Our Rico's maturing nicely!

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Another telling point from the weekend was how 'meh' Guardiola looked after the game. He didn't look happy at all in the post match interview, but the post match presser probably revealed what was narking him.

Pep stressed the point about the squad being too big, & said we have two weeks to speak to players & their agents to resolve the issue. I didn't know what to make of our line-up with Doku, Bobb & Lewis starting, but it seemed more than a coincidence that O'Reilly was brought on as a substitute, considering who was on the bench.

Another surprise was Khusanov getting the substitute nod over Aké & Akanji (who I both rate). HOWEVER, we can only have 25 in the squad & 17 non-HG players. Something has to give, & soon!

The line-up & tactics vs Spuds, & the lead up to the closing of the transfer window promises to be intriguing.

Ederson to Galatasary & Donarumma in? How will Trafford feel?

Savinho to Spuds & Rodrygo in? Doesn't Rodrygo prefer to play on the left?

Gundog, Aké & Akanji deemed surplus to requirements? Will this mean we can keep Echeverri for the season?

I suppose all will be confirmed soon enough.
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you'll never get a job in the media writing shit like that :)
















top read.
 
Hard to judge against a bottom 5 club.
But impossible not to see the improvement the new guys have added to the team.
Oscar bobb is like a 50 million new signing.
Rico enjoying the freedom our new leftback allows him.
Trafford distribution for the 3rd goal was like watching Eddie.
Reijnders is a breath of fresh air.
Haaland getting through balls and crosses without KDB assists.
The future is bright
The future is BLUE. CTID
 
oldius said:
Every team that plays a high line can be exploited with a ball beyond the full-back. I was chatting to a Liverpool fan who said exactly that.
If you are speaking of issues with our attacking wide players, I don't agree.
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No, I wasn’t talking about our attacking wide players at all. We have played a high line for a decade without much exploitation as the pace of Walker or the defensive midfield qualities of Rodri have remedied that. A good counteracting team would have scored goals today.
 
Plays By Sense Of Smell said:
It genuinely felt like the whole team had decided to push into space, or take people on and glide past them.
Noticeable difference.
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Early in the season, most teams play a somewhat open game. After a month or two, it will be 2 blocks of 5 deep in their own half. That's when we'll know if we can really push for the title or not.
 
Ethan23 said:
Am I the only one who thought we didn't actually look that amazing yesterday. Against better opposition we would have been 1/2 down at half time.
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If their striker had been a tad more offside-savvy it could have been a very different game, certainly. I still think it's probable that we'd have overpowered them over the 90, though.

There was also nothing to allay my fears about our lack of full backs with any natural positional sense either.

But... so exciting at the other end. Just love to see players actually trying things again - as opposed to the constant 1980s England side Ray Wilkins just-want-to-keep-my-place-in-the-team lateral pass tedium of last season.

Early days of course - but close to a perfect round of matches, seeing how vulnerable some of the other teams looked.
 
noseve said:
That cross was not as easy as it looked, and it was striking how happy the rest of the team were for him - I'd read into that that the players don't seem to think that he's any sort of liability, maybe? The makings of a good squad player?
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Correct. My bloody stream froze just after he got the ball under control from Reijnders. I had a short minute to look at the positions of Lewis, Haaland and the two defenders. The perfect time. And time to plot the very small angle for a pass to Haaland. Stream unfreezes and 0-1. Amazingly done.
 
Wolves fan here, just wanted to thank you for class at key moments on Saturday, as I would totally expect from City fans.

I think this post from another Wolves fan on our main forum sums it up: -

"Brilliant from the South Bank. Totally embarrassing that more City fans stayed and joined in the respectful tribute to Jota at the end than North Bank.

A disgrace to see them flood out. I hope they see what happened at the end of the- with City players applauding all the Wolves fans (who had bothered to stay!) then several standing and applauding in front of the South Bank for several minutes.

Whatever one says about City’s owners, the players and supporters yesterday exuded class. I just hope we would behave the sane way if toles were reversed.

Well done too to our club and well done the supporters who stayed."
 
For my match day excitement, just now realised that we scored the way I wanted to see more:
1 far post tap in,
3 in low corners. Also from the edge of the box. And on the break.

Thanks!
Keep going.
 
Ethan23 said:
Am I the only one who thought we didn't actually look that amazing yesterday. Against better opposition we would have been 1/2 down at half time.
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We played with very attacking full backs. Rico almost in midfield. I doubt we would do that against a top side but how we set up for those games is still an open question. Rico is not Kyle Walker. We don't have that type of full back any more. Gvardiol probably the best defensive FB but I see him more as a CB now.
 
vmsuhail said:
Early in the season, most teams play a somewhat open game. After a month or two, it will be 2 blocks of 5 deep in their own half. That's when we'll know if we can really push for the title or not.
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Fair play to the wolves manager. In the post match he said he has no intention of parking the bus as thats not how he wants his teams to play
 
This weekend only one Premier league team managed to receive more yellow cards than their opponent despite committing less fouls. Guess who!
 
Gareth Barry Conlon said:
We played with very attacking full backs. Rico almost in midfield. I doubt we would do that against a top side but how we set up for those games is still an open question. Rico is not Kyle Walker. We don't have that type of full back any more. Gvardiol probably the best defensive FB but I see him more as a CB now.
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Khus is rapid and I wonder whether his absence from the team last year was due to him learning the RB role? His brief touch map from was almost FB like
 

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