Another Reality Check

Villa are hardly Bayern Munich.  How embarrassing.

Typical CITY

Just when we all thought we had finally got it right we go and screw it up as usual. Pathetic !

Yes - pathetic.  Don't anybody say "At least Utd lost" - cos it doesn't make it any easier to take.

Utd lose, spuds and chelsea draw, we should be sitting pretty on top of the table going from strength to strength.

He took Nasri off and switched Jimmy to accommodate Navas. Wrong in my book. Jimmy and Sammy were our players that were causing most trouble down the flanks. If we had a 2 goal lead, then sub Sammy but MP got it wrong. Again.

City didn't look half the team they were last week.  After 10 minutes of watching Villa with the ball - I knew we would screw it up

I want somebody to explain how we lost this game?  Look at the numbers.....

Shit ref assistant, shit passing in the final third, shit substitutions, poor defending and poor goalkeeping........that should sum it up...........we can have 99% possession, but if you can't do the basics right...what's the point???

Defending has been our achillies heal this season & what was Joe doing running out for the 3rd goal should've stood up and stayed big on the 6 yard line forcing the attacker to take another touch.

Villa didn't even have Benteke - just a bunch of young lads.  Not good enough.

Caught in no mans land.....not for the first time recently. He needs to seriously take a look at his performances and question whether he is pulling out all of the stops.

Dzeko and Negredo don't partner well anyway.  Why keep playing Kolarov as well - he had a couple of good crosses and that was it.  Ruined a weekend that was already on the downslide.

In answer to your questions Blistering - found this on JA606.



We'll win the vast majority, if not all, of our home games. Away from home however, we'll end up with a dreadful record.

The style of football that Pellegrini - as least at this point in time - will see us dominate and batter teams at home. Away from home however, his style of play will result in us losing the majority of our games, or at best, pulling of sneaky draws, a la the Stoke game.

Pellegrini wants to play possession football. All well and good at home. Where teams will naturally sit back and hope for a counter when it comes to their own chances. But to keep that approach away from home is nothing but naive at best. As has been proven so far.

We've played Cardiff away (lost), Stoke (drew), and Villa (lost) away from home. Keep up the current approach, and not only will we not win the title, but we will not finish in the top four either. Pellegrini needs to adapt to the PL and sort it out. And sort it out fast. Three away games that, on paper at least, are not the kind of games that we should, as potential title challengers, only get one point from nine. No matter how you spin it. It is simply not good enough.

Ok, we hammered United. Well there are a few times when we hammered United at home in seasons when we finished mid table (or worse).

Possession football doesn't work away from home. Never has done on the whole. And it's not working now.
 In answer to your questions blistering - found this on JA606 - posted by Ripley's Cat.

And I'm arguing it now wensdi because frankly, it's bollocks.

Yep saw that Melton.  Just something to throw out there - cos frankly I'm scratching me bonce - wondering why a different team from last week showed up.  No heart and soul today.  Those young lads collectively cost about as much as Ya Ya.

In all honesty, there was a bit of complacency in there for me today coupled with (again) poor defensive performances by individuals. We played a lot lot better than against Stoke or Cardiff though, Kompany was right to say afterwards that nine out of ten times, we would have won that game.

Overall  this was a very decent performance. We just let ourselves down giving away silly free kicks and poor defending.

That post from Ripleys cat is spot on.

We also need to take a lot more chances away from home. We took them all at home last week and were 4-0 up. We should have done the same today and that was before half time.

Yep saw that Melton.  Just something to throw out there - cos frankly I'm scratching me bonce - wondering why a different team from last week showed up.  No heart and soul today.  Those young lads collectively cost about as much as Ya Ya.




Sorry I think your wrong about today
We played really well for the most part,it was just one of those days
We totally dominated the first half and were unlucky to only be one up at the break 
If the linesman had been doing his job properly rather than stood their scratching his arse we would have been 2-0 up and home & hosed
Best away performance of the season

We didn't play well enought to beat a team who are struggling - and have lost their main striker.  How will we fare against the likes of Chelsea, Spuds and Arsenal away - if we are not holding on to a 2-1 lead then?

I know what your saying wendsi but It really was a big improvement on the previous away games
Give Pellegrini time and he'll do well for us

I don't think the result was just down to MP. I don't think it was a great idea to take Nasri off and switch Jimmy to the left wing at the time he did it but he expected better from Nasty and Kompany.

Our performance was good and pretty controlled. We were all over Villa to be fair and scored enough goals to win the match.

It was that poor decision making at the back that ultimately cost us and that can't be blamed on Kolarov. I really don't like him as a defender but you can hardly pass the blame to him when it was mainly Nasty's fault.

"That post from Ripleys cat is spot on."

See, I don't think it is at all, and Ripley for me clearly didn't watch the game. Possession football has sod all to do with it, particularly yesterday. A team like us cannot play counter away at villa because there is no point, they have ten men behind the ball. There is nothing wrong with how we are with the ball, it is without the ball and that is down to the high line, that's it.

If we keep on improving as we are doing under Pellegrini we will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season 
That's good enough for me

all that bollocks about possession being the cause for us losing. I'm with you on this one Melton. When we won the title we had the bulk of possession & shots on goal / target ratio. Our biggest downfall of the last season & the away game yesterday is our lack of taking the chances when they arrive. Dzeko 2 seasons ago v Spurs away 5 chances bagged 4 Dzeko yesterday 6 chances bagged 1 a couple of times he made the wrong choice, pass when a shot was on & visa versa. I am not laying the defeat at the feet of Dzeko but we really must be more ruthless when the opportunity's arise.

No that post is correct, however we must score goals with the amount of possession.  We didn't and they got lucky (it was offside) and a comical break away.

I bet you if we had even got to 2-0 we would have won that game comfortably.

10 - 12 corners that we in that match compared to what Villa had and we weren't 2-0 up at half time is not good enough.  Sorry - but we will face much tougher teams than Villa (away) this season.  We have to convert our opportunities into goals and defend well.  We didn't score enough in the first half yesterday and our defending was poor.

In retrospect.....I think MP will see that without Aguero, he CANNOT play Negredo and Dzeko together...they are too alike....in some ways! 

What we didn't have yesterday was an Aguero who can drop off the CF and pick the ball up, run at players and then go for a one-two, or quick pass out wide into the channel. Dzeko and Negredo held hands for most of the match.

I like Negredo, but he isn't an Aguero.

Jovetic could've been the perfect foil for him, however, TBF, he's hardly pulled up trees in his appearances, his 2 goals against Wigan were a little jammy.

That's where we have missed Silva. He can play behind a lone striker with Yaya, but with 2 big front men, Yaya hardly bombed forward, as if it wasn't needed......

Nasri is better in the hole and the free role, but he couldn't do that with 2 big strikers.

If Aguero was playing, I think we would have seen more expansive and attacking football.....but without him, we look a little lost for creation up front.

Milner had a shocker IMO after I have been crying out for him to play...especially after Tuesday night when he was fantastic.

Kolorov should have shown the player outside for the first goal, instead of allowing him to come inside and play a neat through ball, though he was clearly off-side.

His passing and crossing on the whole was wasteful.

I was watching the game in a pub and thought Villa were clueless for most of the game.....then calamity at the back.....which overall, was poor defending from Vinny and Nasty...and Hart was no better.

For the free kick.........when the fuck will keepers have a 2 man wall?

Say to the free-kick taker, I can see the ball clearly, your 25-30 yards out...try an beat me from there?? Why block off such a massive area and then get beaten when you don't even move?? That's says to me he got the wall wrong and couldn't even see the free kick......as good as it was struck.

FFS........do away with this bollocks wall.......they will have to be pretty special to beat a keeper from that far out when they have a clear view of it.

I'm not panicking, but MP needs to seriously rethink is away game strategy IMO.

The bottom line for me is that we should not be conceding 3 goals to the likes of Cardiff and Villa.

if we don't build a wall, the opposition will build one there that will move, duck and scamper about a lot...

I think Saturday was a complete fluke, we battered them and if it wasn't for 3 complacent mistakes it would have been a true scoreline of 3 or 4 nil I reckon. 

I have no idea what that post is trying to say about not playing possession football at home, but I'm not having that. Sounds a bit ridiculous to me. 

I for one did say give Dzeko and Negredo a go but they clearly don't work for me, Jovetic should have started or maybe Negredo on his own. Anyway, Saturday was a good offensive performance for me, nothing like the Stoke or Cardiff games.

Moonchester wrote:if we don't build a wall, the opposition will build one there that will move, duck and scamper about a lot...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/video-rot-weiss-essen-huddle-around-2306847

Looks like our wall on Saturday!!

Having calmed down a bit, I'm not too unhappy with the performance in an attacking sense. We scored two goals away from home and that will usually win us the game.

Villa played pretty much with 9 or 10 men behind the ball and we still scored two goals.

The defence need to get their house in order. I don't like marking two men with two men, we should always have a man spare just in case. We didn't and a mistake was heavily punished. If Harty had stayed back instead of charging out, then maybe Nasty would have got a tackle in as Weimann would have needed another touch.

Overall we were unlucky, undone by stupid mistakes.

I'm quite disappointed by some of the reactions to Saturday's game and especially so at Ripley's scathing attack as he's normally so reasonable.

I didn't watch the game, only caught the last 5 minutes of the commentary on the radio and watched the highlights on MOTD, so I appreciate I won't have the full handle on this game.  But from what I can gather, we didn't play that badly.

I looked at Villa's team and they were playing a 5-3-2 layout, which is ridiculously defensive for a home side.  They were playing to avoid defeat and their defence - and Guzan in particular - played a blinder to keep us at bay.  I'd defy any team, even RM or BM or Barca, to pick their way through that bus.  And we bagged two goals anyway, which is better than we've done against such defensive teams in the past, which I think is a positive sign.

We were undone by three things:

1- The first goal was offside and the linesman didn't call it.

2- The free kick was a fair call and was well taken.  You can't blame the keeper or the wall for a well-placed kick.  Yaya has done three pretty similar kicks and we praise his ability.  But this could've been avoided if Nastasic hadn't committed the foul in the first place.

3- The third goal was a total Route One fluke.  Maybe Joe shouldn't have raced out so far, but that's it.

And that's football, folks.  Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

I'm sorry but Nasty and especially Kompany were far more to blame for the 3rd goal than Hart....in all honesty I can't believe Joe's getting all the stick.

Joe is worth a little stick for the 3rd goal, but most should be directed at Kompany and Nasty. We should have had 3 on two. One man for each attacker and a spare man just in case.

Yeah, sorry, I should've made that point more clearly.  I didn't think Joe rushing out was that poor a decision, really.  If Weimann hadn't got a touch, Joe would've had it comfortably.  It was the CBs letting the ball bounce when they had two forwards in the vicinity that was the main error.  Rule one of any high ball when you're the last man before the keeper is DON'T LET IT BOUNCE!!!  One of them needed to head it to safety before it touched down.

Blistering,

Tried copy n pasting Burys match stats...as you did of Citys above (couldn't do it).

You can see why I've have double frustration alternate weekends now, check out Burys "match stats". 20th in the league, but not in the minus goals column yet.lol

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24185225

ps. that Gareth Roberts shot on 90:00 (+4.21) hit the friggin post.

Shit weekend....good job I played well at golf yesterday!

I'll cheer you all up with some Chive!!

Spot on Leo.

I do have faith in Pellegrini - PPLF - I like him and I like his style of play.  I think he will get it right - I know he needs some time.  I wasn't happy with the defence on Saturday - and as someone else said - 2 up by half time and I think we would have won.

shakencity wrote:
Tried copy n pasting Burys match stats...as you did of Citys above (couldn't do it).

Shaken, Open a photobucket free account, upload your picture there and then just quote the direct link in the post and it shows up like mine did.   I learned that from the forumotion guys when I had to post pics to get the admin back.

PS 13 handicapper myself, maybe we should have a legends golf day

Cheers mate, i'll give it a go in future.

The "Host Image" button works as well, you can upload to Vince's old ServImg account through that.  That's what I use, anyway.  Just remember to copy the link using CTRL-C and not the copy button, as that doesn't seem to work.

Bloody hell, I think I've done it.

This was for tester purposes only.

leopold wrote:The "Host Image" button works as well, you can upload to Vince's old ServImg account through that.  That's what I use, anyway.  Just remember to copy the link using CTRL-C and not the copy button, as that doesn't seem to work.

As a technophobe I can confirm I've not the faintest idea what any of the above means 
Thank god I have a pa

Sorry PPLF.  I'd explain it more carefully, but Shaken has distracted me with his post...

With IT stuff you'd need to explain it in crayon

I'd be surprised if you didn't use your feet to write with PPLF...

Can we get back to the topic in hand please????






I'd definitely giver her one!

crayons and plasticine models for me please

crayons and plasticine models for me please