W Brom vs City Team

Hart

Zaba
Kolo
Kompany
Clichy

Yaya
Milner
Nasri
Silva

Balotelli
Aguero

How frustrating is that? We battered them but you have to score goals and we didn't. Credit to West Brom, good backs to the wall performance, but we blew it and only equal top now

I think we really have to learn that a lot of teams now see us as a major scalp and put 10 behind the ball even if they are the home team. We have to learn how to break them down and be more clinical in front of goal.

I know we have not dropped to many points but today i had the feeling we would not score because we tried to many cute passes, when we had an alternative to shoot. Whilst a shoot on sight policy smacks of desperation at times it can lead to the unexpected deflection / ricochet, instead of playing to tight across the 18 yard line. Milner was really not at the races today his passing and crossing was woeful, How we needed aj's trickery.



The funny thing was that when aj came on he only touched the ball twice all the attacks were down the left. i also thought aguero had his poorest game for us and a few others including silva & Yaya were not up to the standards they have set in previous games, maybe a bit of xmas lethargy. I was at one point almost thinking this was the old city playing, you know build everyone up then lose in ther final minutes.

a point is better than nothing but seeing wigan do there usual swamp capitulation puts a dampener on the day.

I noticed the rags goal difference is 5 worse than ours.? 1-6 anyone!!!! The worrying thing is everyone has been saying how they can't score goals etc and how poor they have been yet they have an identical record, I really am hoping the away fixtures they have against the top 4 and newcastle give us a bit of breathing space, and we do capitalize on it, i would hate to see the gloating rags fans giving us large portions of money don't win trophy's, fergie and utd can handle the pressure, city are to inexperienced and all the other same old cliches the media are starting to print.



sorry for the long winded post but an honest opinion, hope to see a big improvement on saturday. especially as rags have blackburn at home. If we slip up, you can hear it now, "top of the league for new year".

No - i think you are pretty spot on there - to summarise:

Aguero, albeit pure class normally - was abject all game - never seen him perform so dire - maybe time for a rest?

Silva - although a genius so far - could easily elevated to 'world class' if he scored more - and for a player who gets on the edge of the 18 yard box - 6-8 times per game...........i expect a shot ratio of at least 50%.......he maybe shoots 1 out of them 9! Great player, but we now demand more of a clinical finisher....seems to have got into a comfort zone over the past 4 or 5 games. Drop him?

Milner - awful all night - and that says something when he has been so good for us over the past 2 months. Really needs to improve his distribution...as today was pretty shite.

Yaya - i really can't wait for the ACON. Our MF has lacked dynamism and tough tackling of late. We seem to have gone off the boil - and for me, I can't wait to see Barry and NDJ back in there.....again, does not track back or defend when the other team has the ball and running at you.

AJ - why oh why does Mancini not play him???? End of.

Nasri - sorry, but so far needs to do a damn sight more. Lot's of sideways passing and runs beyond their back 4 today....maybe New Year will bring some more joy. Not a starter for me so far.

Dzeko - needs games - simple as that. Balotelli and Dzeko upfront for me against Sunderland - rest Aguero.

All in all.....a pretty poor attacking performance.....United close the gap to just 5 goals difference...makes for a great 2012...but FFS Mancini, sort the lethargy out, as that was our poorest display so far this season! Awful....but still top in 2011!!!!!!

We won't stay top in 2011 if United beat Blackburn on Saturday.

I've said it several times now, our finishing needs to be more clinical. I said that we'd come a cropper sooner or later and now, here we are. I'm hoping now that, just as the defeat to Chelsea kicked out the complacency, that this display of abject inability to take chances wakes a few people up. We could've scored more against Stoke and, given we spent most of today camped in West Brom's half of the pitch, we should've scored a few. But it's all this tippy tappy bollocks and, frankly, it's really pissing me off. Just pull the bloody trigger, you mard arses! What's the worst that could happen? It goes into row Z and the opposition fans laugh? Boo hoo, man up and take it, you're paid enough!!

I also said I didn't think we needed another CF. However, I'm going to concede I was wrong on that one. We're now down to one player who can deliver the goods and even then we can't rely on him to turn up.

A tad harsh, considering we have scored 53 goals so far this season.....it was just a bad day at the office and maybe a few need resting/dropping, the likes of Silva, Aguero and Nasri......they can't do it every single game, but yesterday, all 3 were terrible - and nobody else stood up and delivered instead - and for somebody who has scored 5 in his last 5 appearances - he gets 20 minutes as a sub - Johnson.....unbelievable from Mancini.

The biggest problem yesterday was the slow methodical passing and movement.Its just too easy to defend against,the passing needs to be quick and precise to break teams down and we never looked like doing it all day. Couldn't believe how long it took to bring Adam on,we were crying out for width from the half hour point and we still always seem to lack a plan B
On a positive note Vincent Kompany looks to be right back to his best

I tend to agree with most comments and it was definitely our poorest show this season.My opinion,for what it is worth,we are much too slow at going forward,we give the opposition too much time to regroup.All our game winners had a stinker yesterday,but we have to live with it and hope that is just another glitch.
Bobby has the talent and he should give some of them a break,Yaya sometimes needs a rest, and NDJ needs some playing time or he will be off,there are plenty of clubs who would snatch him up.Also young Johnson
has proven what he can do,let him start a few games.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL THE GUYS AND GALS

Agree with the too slow to counter comment - have noticed this generally but yesterday we had no one touch slickness on show and lost many opportunities due to hesitation in Midfield.

Thought Bobby did make the right change in allowing Yaya to get fwd when Barry came on. We need to be more direct and shoot when open opportunities show themselves.

As Balo showed in the semi last year, a well placed shot needn't be blasted to leave the keeper dead or at least cause panic.

You think I was being harsh, Blueboy? Yes, we've scored 53 goals in less than half a season, but there's still a distinct lack of clinical finishing. We've scored so many because we've created so many, when what we need is to be able to make bloody sure we nab chances when they aren't forthcoming, like we needed against the Baggies.

We were found out.

I agree - our finishing hasn't been super-clinical of late - mainly Aguero and Silva are the culprits........but to score 53 goals in less than half a season, is pretty good. Unfortunately, the lack of clinical finishing and WBA's defending culminated in a 0-0 draw......

Top Goalscorers for each team: - and when you look at it, you ask yourself why Dzeko/Johnson have started so few games, but scored that many in comparison.

City

Aguero 13
Dzeko 10
Balotelli 8
Johnson 5
Silva 5
Toure Y 2
Nasri 2

United

Rooney 13
Nani 6
Berbatov 4
Hernandez 6
Welbeck 4
Giggs 1

Chelsea

Sturridge 9
Lampard 7
Drogba 2
Mata 4
Ramires 3
Terry 4
Torres 2

Arsenal

V Persie 16
Gervinho 4
Walcott 2
Arteta 3
Benayoun 1
Vermaelen 3
Andre Santos 1
Arshavin 1

Spurs

Adebayor 9
Defoe 6
Bale 7
Van der Vaart 6
Lennon 2
Pavlyuchenko 1
Modric 1

Dzeko scored 8 of his 10 goals quite early on, if I recall - he was the league's top goalscorer in September, but has since been overtaken because he's simply not getting goals any more. We don't see him much either and, if I'm right, he's not scored since the Trafford Massacre.

Aguero has been disappointing too and he's only really been scoring tap-ins of late. Seems those new boots aren't up to much. Maybe he shouldn't have accepted a boot deal from Doc Martens.

Still, at least it's good to see that we've other people who can score goals. But we need to get our forward line firing again as we can't rely solely on Mario or we'll become like Arsenal.