You could see Mourinho's eyes light up

[Carver]

At the end I thought we were playing 7 on the left, 1 in the middle & 2 on the right, it seemed to be like a primary school game where they all run after the ball ;-)

 

[Dethred]

Kompany could have made it 2-5 with his abyssmal performance. It was like he was completely out of his element the whole match. I remember one near goal when he was tracking back Higuain at the far post, you could hear Hart yell "AWAY" and Kompany just let it drop. Had Higuain had a clue about their confusion he would have taken the goal.

Hart was shit too. Yes he made a few great saves, but the last two were perfectly stoppable. His distribution was worse than any keeper I've ever seen, having kicked the ball straight out of bounds countless times.

The players played like shit, guys. There was only one real counterattack by Real, everything else were potshots near the edge or the box. Our real problem was possession in midfield for most of the game. We didn't string together more than 2-3 passes the entire first half, so the defense was under pressure a majority of the game.

I just hope it boosts Madrid's confidence so much that they don't understand how difficult it is to get a result at the Etihad.

Also, the last team to beat Madrid at the Bernabau was a diving/cheating Harvard, so its not exactly a loss to Wigan that's going to see us drop 8 points in 6 games. :-P

 

[Rammy Blue]

I find it amazing how differently fans see the same thing.

Looked to me like we went 3-5-2 when Kolarov came on, Clichy went more central.

As for Zabba, he got dragged inside for their first goal so Kompany went out wide to pick up Marcelo, who turns inside and shoots in the gap where Vinny should have been. When Marcelo receives the ball Zabba is in the D of our area, probably tracking Tranny, but she should have passed him on and maintained the shape.

Then for the third goal Tranny gets past Zabba far too easily.

The way I saw it, we played 3-5-2 since the 36th minute. When Maicon went off we hadn't conceded, Zabba comes on and we concede three. Not as black and white as that, but that's what happened.

WE didn't play 3-5-2 from the 36th minute. I thought we were going to when I saw Kolorov coming on but we didn't. Kolorov went on the left side of midfield, Clichy stayed at fullback.

WE went 3-5-2 when Zab came on. You could see him signalling to all the players to make the change.

I'll have to watch it again to double check my initial thoughts. I was too busy trying to hide most of the time. From what I remember, Kolarov was very deep to be playing in midfield, Silva wasn't deep enough to be playing right midfield, and Maicon wasn't deep enough to be playing right back. Clichy looked far more central than he did minutes earlier when Nasri was on the pitch. I need to watch it again, I could be wrong.

I saw Zabba signalling, but that can be taken two ways. As an instruction, or others asking him if they were going back to four at the back and he corrected them. There is no real way of us knowing that.

Don't worry mate, I saw it the same as you.

When AK replaced Nasri we went to 5 at the back as Clichy definitely tucked in.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

WE didn't play 3-5-2 from the 36th minute. I thought we were going to when I saw Kolorov coming on but we didn't. Kolorov went on the left side of midfield, Clichy stayed at fullback.

WE went 3-5-2 when Zab came on. You could see him signalling to all the players to make the change.

I'll have to watch it again to double check my initial thoughts. I was too busy trying to hide most of the time. From what I remember, Kolarov was very deep to be playing in midfield, Silva wasn't deep enough to be playing right midfield, and Maicon wasn't deep enough to be playing right back. Clichy looked far more central than he did minutes earlier when Nasri was on the pitch. I need to watch it again, I could be wrong.

I saw Zabba signalling, but that can be taken two ways. As an instruction, or others asking him if they were going back to four at the back and he corrected them. There is no real way of us knowing that.

Don't worry mate, I saw it the same as you.

When AK replaced Nasri we went to 5 at the back as Clichy definitely tucked in.

We didn't, Rammy. It looked like we would but we didn't. Kolorov went to left midfield. Watch it again.

 

[toffee balls]

We had two banks of four when defending for most of the game

 

[Rammy Blue]

I'll have to watch it again to double check my initial thoughts. I was too busy trying to hide most of the time. From what I remember, Kolarov was very deep to be playing in midfield, Silva wasn't deep enough to be playing right midfield, and Maicon wasn't deep enough to be playing right back. Clichy looked far more central than he did minutes earlier when Nasri was on the pitch. I need to watch it again, I could be wrong.

I saw Zabba signalling, but that can be taken two ways. As an instruction, or others asking him if they were going back to four at the back and he corrected them. There is no real way of us knowing that.

Don't worry mate, I saw it the same as you.

When AK replaced Nasri we went to 5 at the back as Clichy definitely tucked in.

We didn't, Rammy. It looked like we would but we didn't. Kolorov went to left midfield. Watch it again.

I've already watched it again mate, Clichy definitely tucks in the minute AK came on the pitch.

The Zab signal was just to continue the 3-5-2.

 

[Sky Blue]

Don't worry mate, I saw it the same as you.

When AK replaced Nasri we went to 5 at the back as Clichy definitely tucked in.

We didn't, Rammy. It looked like we would but we didn't. Kolorov went to left midfield. Watch it again.

I've already watched it again mate, Clichy definitely tucks in the minute AK came on the pitch.

The Zab signal was just to continue the 3-5-2.

From the start of the 2nd half it was....NOT when Zaba came on as suggested by Inverting The Pyramid Dave....

 

[Anonymous]

I've already watched it again mate, Clichy definitely tucks in the minute AK came on the pitch.

The Zab signal was just to continue the 3-5-2.

Cox is normally spot on with his analysis and he saw the switch as being Kola going to left midfield with Silva basically moving inside and nobody on the right at the beginning of the second half.

Speaks volumes that there's so much confusion about who played where and what our formation was.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Don't worry mate, I saw it the same as you.

When AK replaced Nasri we went to 5 at the back as Clichy definitely tucked in.

We didn't, Rammy. It looked like we would but we didn't. Kolorov went to left midfield. Watch it again.

I've already watched it again mate, Clichy definitely tucks in the minute AK came on the pitch.

The Zab signal was just to continue the 3-5-2.

Not having it mate. Clichy might have tucked in a bit but the formation remained the same. The Zab signal was to change, and that's why the game suddenly opened up for Real. Defenders don't signal to stay the same. But regardless of that, Maicon carried on at right back and we stayed with two centre halves.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Zabaleta was all over the place when he came on. His 20
Minute cameo was poor.

Clichy and kolorov did well on the other side.