City v Leicester

So the decimated squad turn attention to Steptoe & co this afternoon 
If we play for 90 mins like the first half v Wolves it should be a comfy win
Anything like the second half v Wolves and Mendy will be undergoing counselling 

Leicester’s main threat is through Harvey Barnes and Steptoe with balls over the top,just what Stones & Mendy in particular are at their ballwatching best.

I’d prefer us to play 3 at the back with wing back Mendy covered by Ake,actually I’d rather Mendy play for someone else but that’s life and we don’t have the players available to realistically play a 3


Ederson
Walker, Stones, Ake, Mendy
Rodri, Fernandinho
Mahrez , De Bruyne,Foden
Sterling 

Subs: Steffen,Harwood-Bellis, Garcia, Doyle, Palmer, Torres, Delap

Stones out injured again

Well well, Walker out of position again, who would’ve guessed it?

Carrying on from the 2nd half display we gave against Wolves

The defence is awful, naive at best! It’s yet again the tried and tested template for beating City which Leicester and most teams now employ. Sit deep with 5 across the back, let City have their passing game then when they are dispossessed high up the park, punt the ball long for  a pacy attacking player/s. Our defenders can not cope with this style of play, It’s not just Stones, it’s  Walker, Mendy and Garcia too.
It’s not the lack of a clinical striker that finds us wanting, it’s clueless defending. We will never reclaim the title this season with this poor, poor defending.
As soon as I saw Fernandinho leaving the field I feared the worse and happened was indeed the worse I have seen from a City team for a long time, far worse than any of the 9 games we lost last season.
Pep can blame Corona, the fixture congestion or the injury list but the truth is far simpler, we cannot press high with that kind of defending and poor decision making in the box.

Same shit as last season. Until Pep sorts the defence out we’ll win nothing. The whole back 4 were shit. Garcia not good enough. Mandy not good enough. Ake - as I thought an average CB. Teams know how to play against us. We got caught out many times last season and yet again today.
Pep should have known better as he’s seen Vardy destroy us before

Pep is too arrogant to admit his plan A is shit
No plan B whatsoever is criminal

I said before the game that we don't have the personnel to play a false 9. 

Mahrez doesn't fit in, you need 3 from Gabby, Foden, Bernardo and Sterling. Energy and youthful willingness to run. And playing it against a back 5 wasn't, for me, the best idea either. 

He should have played Delap from the start, despite his youth and inexperience. Flanked by Foden and Sterling, we'd have pressed better and high crosses wouldn't have been wasted. KDB put a delicious low cross into the near post in the 1st half and no one was there, vardy-esque to have a pop at goal.

Taking Fernandinho off was curtains for us. He was the man stopping is from being overrun. If we're gonna play a high line, if we're gonna push our full backs on, we've got to have adequate cover. That's what Liverpool do with their negative, hardworking midfield and that's also what Fernandinho offers us. 

Rodri is mainly a pass merchant without a clue about defending when we actually need a defensive minded pass merchant like Fernandinho. 

Defenders making mistakes like it's going out of fashion. Why do we keep switching off? We've seen it with Stones (v Wolves), Walker (numerous times, Arsenal and Lyon to mention just two big occasions), Garcia (after having a pretty good first half) and Mendy (who is, how can I put it, a worse defender than Kolarov). 

Full backs offering very little going forwards. We push our full backs on to create pressure and offer some creativity but they aren't doing that. Walker does offer something with his pace which frightens defenders but his crossing ain't great so what's it benefitting us?

Mendy offers us nothing. He looks like he's lacking pace to start with and cannot defend for toffee. Going forwards, his crosses are hit and hope and hit and miss. He can only go on the outside of players and he's struggling to control the ball and pass accurately often enough. When he passes inside, and to an opposition player, too many of our players are left ahead of the ball and that leads to dangerous situations for too often.

At least Cancelo offers us someone who can go the outside or inside, take a man on, cut inside to shoot and generally fill you with much more confidence. 

There's plenty of much better full back out there who offer so much more going forwards and are young with potential. Even though they may be kids, Youcef Atal and Rayan Aït-Nouri can offer something much more dynamic going forwards. 

And finally, if you're being totally honest right now, how many City players get into that Liverpool team?