Roma aftermath

Well, i don't really know what to say, that hasn't been said on the match thread.

Hart. I personally thought he did ok last night, although his slip definitely didn't help the cause for Tottis goal.
Clichy. Imo just isn't upto the job. He isn't fast enough, doesn't get forward quick enough and his crossing is crap.
Demichelis. I thought played pretty well....except for the goal. Why he was 2-3yrds behind everyone else and playing Totti onside was beyond me.
Kompany. Solid, but still has the tendency to give stupid fouls away in dangerous areas. Jumped in unnecessarily on a couple of occasions too.
Zab. Quiet game by his standards, only getting to the byline in the last minute....maybe Cashley knew his game too well.
Yaya. Too wound up to comment...get rid asap.
Navas. Simply put, not good enough. I reckon i could defend against him.
Silva. Came off the wing far too much, leaving no width out wide whatsoever...maybe that's why Zab never really got forward. He was also non-existent far too many times and still can't take a corner. Oh, AND FUCKIN SHOOT!!
Fernandinho. Did what he was told to and did it pretty well imo. I think he should have a dust up with Yaya and tell him to do some of the fuckin work.
Aguero. Far too quiet for my liking and it seems his runs into the corner are a thing of the past....tried to be a hero to often when the easy lay-off was a better option.
Dzeko. Good 1st half and held the ball up well, but i never saw him in the 2nd.

Subs. Milner, Jovetic and Lampard should all have been on earlier to try and change the sluggishness of our play....but how Yaya stayed on for any of them is truly baffling. Why take Aguero off (for Jovetic), when we desperately needed a goal...i just don't get MPs mentality at times.

As for Pelligrini, i just don't know what to say. Where has all the speed gone for our attacking play now, it's more laboured at times than a slug stuck on superglue?
Where's the intensity, the quick passing, the over lapping runs....there's only 1 man to blame for allowing our team to play like this, and it's the boss.
After the 2 European performances thus far, i'll be utterly amazed if we win any of the other 2 away games....unless we dramatically improve.

If (and it's a big possibility imo) we don't win a trophy this season, i really do think MP will struggle to explain why we haven't to the big cheeses. He can have no excuses, we seem to have gone backwards and not forwards this season....it cannot continue and needs sorting sooner rather than later.

Well put that Shaken. For what it's worth, I didn't bother posting too much last night, as I was so fucked off with MP and 'the lazy fucker' as I will call him from now on (can't stand to hear his name).

From the back going forwards:

The Back: i'm going literally to the back room staff and the manager to start with. I just don't think MP has got the team motivated this season. Something just doesn't feel right at the moment. It's as if something is going on within the dressing room, a bad apple or two?

Wild Conspiracy: It's no coincidence that when you used to watch City Tv....there were always very funny bits in training, interviews etc. This season, the players look miserable as fuck. Is this anything to do with the likes of Chappy, Micah and Lezza leaving and more foreigners coming in?

Or....are senior players just completely fucked off with Yaya? They must look at him and think "fucking help us out". This is our highest paid player, our supposed world class MF who everybody would love to have...really? For me, I never want to see him in a City shirt again, extreme view I know, but I didn't want him here after the shit over the summer.

Keepers - A slip, and a great finish by Totti. However, even if Joe didn't slip, Totti would still have had other options to score given the amount of space he was in. Still, the slip is just another blemish on his career so far, but did make a couple of good stops.

Defenders - agree with everything you said about all 4. Clichy was poor in defence, and doesn't give us anything going forward. Problem is, Kolorov is great going forward but can't defend!

MF....this was our biggest problem last night and this is MP's fault. The lazy fucker just sat in front of the back, receiving 5 yrd passes off them and then switching it left and right 10 yrds. I can do that.
He brings absolutely fuck all to our game this season, yet still gets picked. Last night, 1-1 with 10 mins to go, Yaya and Fernandinho were still sat in front of the back 4. Lampard was the only one making runs from deep, and he did that 4 or 5 times, having a couple of shots, albeit off target...the lazy fucker should be doing that all game...problem is, he was knackered and his legs couldn't get him there.
The likes of Milner must think WTF? After 2 great performances, he gets dropped for the CL game.
The lazy fucker MAY just get MP the sack come the end of the season, as he's a passenger we cannot afford and he keeps picking him. It's not lost on fans now that he should be dropped....

Navas blows hot and cold. Too cold most of the time. It's all outside of the player or nothing at all and a pass back inside. He never makes diagonal runs in and beyond Aguero or Dzeko, everything is in a straight line...so what did Cole do...just show him outside.

Silva...he did actually shoot a few times last night.....but they were shit!

Dzeko...so so in he first half, but still can't fucking jump or be bothered to get to the near post for crosses.

Aguero, again, looked as if he was trying to win the game on his own..looks frustrated and Maicon should've seen a straight red for the penalty.

Overall, the players just don't look up for it and I'm not sure why. Is MP dicking about with the team too much? Every week we're seeing 4 or 5 changes, some, I don't think are necessary and are having an affect on the team cohesion and players may just be getting fed up with it.

Players need to step up and show some bollocks and belief....but I think the Manager and his staff aren't doing enough this season and if we go out at the group stage...the owner will have 4 months to look for a replacement.
I genuinely think MP's job is in question for the first time. The look on his face on the sidelines showed the pressure he is under, never seen him like that before.

Adding to what you said at the end about MP there blue. He's also started to look irritable in interviews, slating other managers, etc, etc now and isn't the calm person he used to be....maybe there's something deeper here???

I'd give Lampard a start at Villa (instead of Yaya), he did more in the 30 minutes or so than Yaya did in the whole 90.....but we all know it won't happen. Yaya imo needs to be shown he's not relied upon as he once was and he can be dropped just like everyone else....this will send a clear message to him and the rest of the team that the gaffer means business and if you don't play well, you're dropped.

I honestly do think something is amiss at the club. The atmosphere doesn't look great...and that can come from the Manager. MP is tinkering around with the team far too much IMO.

I hate this 'defending' of the lazy fucker. After the Munich game, he got absolutely slaughtered by the media, the fans etc for his lack of effort. MP decided to stick with him and defend him...and last night was another abject performance in Europe to add to his pathetic efforts in the PL....and if you were Milner and get dropped to the bench for the Villa and the lazy fucker keeps his place, would you be thinking of signing a new contract?

MP is the only one who has allowed this to happen, so maybe he's starting to feel the strain of it all.

Maybe it may come down to something radical like a 3-5-2 system to change our lethargy in Europe.

But surely...that's the Managers job on the sideline to be barking orders, making changes to the formation? MP and his team just sat there until half time....the only change was Navas came to the left for 2 mins, then went back to the right.

Like I said, Milner must be fucked off watching the £220k pw lazy fucker strolling around the pitch for 90 mins.

Something isn't right within the club.

Can't see it ever happening Rich, but i'd give it a go.....dropping Yaya and sticking Lampard in the middle.

I have to agree with most that's already been said.

Now in his ate 20s, Hart still cannot distribute the ball effectively.
How many times did Roma spring our offside trap or get behind us? They attacked us at pace causing us problems then got everyone behind the ball and harried us. Duh. That's what we should be doing to them.

2 up top does not work in Europe unless they work their bollocks off and are very very good.

I'd much rather we went 4-5-1 like most other teams do.

I'm better than Jesus Navas, even at my age. He is just faster than me that's it. He cannot take on a man without his pace.

I'd like to see Fernando and Milner in CM with Jovetic. Out wide I'd have Silva and Nasri (when fit again) and Aguero up top on his own.

blueboy wrote:I honestly do think something is amiss at the club. The atmosphere doesn't look great...and that can come from the Manager. MP is tinkering around with the team far too much IMO.

I've noticed this too, but I'm not so sure that the tinkering is the issue.  Maybe there's some players who feel they're better than to be rotated, but when you're in for four trophies in a season, you can't keep fielding the same eleven and expect to get away with it.  Everyone needs to be given a go, or the second string end up not being fit enough to cover when needed.

For me, the feeling within the club seems very similar to Mancini's last season.  We'd just won the league and then the complacency set in.  We became lethargic.  But also, in that year, there was no big International summertime competition.  Is it possible the players turn it on for the WC or Euros, but not otherwise?

Paulpowersleftfoot wrote:Why are we playing so slowly,the tempo is appalling,whenever we actually ran at Roma with the ball they were panicked but the majority of the game,as in munich,we passed the ball slowly and deliberately which is so easy to defend against.

It's been like that since we got beaten at home by Chelsea in the league last season.  We were free-flowing and scoring for fun up until that game, and then suddenly we became much more cagey.  Granted, we did then lose Serge and Nedge for a bit, but even afterwards, we never looked quite the same.  It's almost as though our cavalier attacking got squashed in favour of retaining the ball.  And now we're back to the tippy tappy bollocks and, last night, I saw something else I thought we'd abolished along with Mancini:  Trying to walk the ball into the net.

Once Milner and Lampard were on, our whole demeanour changed for the better.  Suddenly we were opening Roma up.  Lamps was bossing the midfield, controlling everything.  Milner charged at the defence, fought for every ball.  But by then, Serge had all but given up.  I saw the frustration in his eyes.  He'd put in a lot of effort for no reward.  And it's the first time I've seen him look like that since he joined us.  I worry he'll be off in the summer if he gets a big offer.

shakencity wrote:Can't see it ever happening Rich, but i'd give it a go.....dropping Yaya and sticking Lampard in the middle.

Me too.  Lampard is a breath of fresh air in the team.  He's put in more effort in four games than Yaya has in three fucking years!

Topdawg wrote:I'd like to see Fernando and Milner in CM with Jovetic. Out wide I'd have Silva and Nasri (when fit again) and Aguero up top on his own.

I'd go along with this, but switch Milner with Silva.  David is a cracking player, but he can't do wide, he just keeps cutting inside.

I think we've been damn unlucky with Fernando being out injured and, to a lesser extent, Jovetic too.

Fernando is a certain starter for me and Fernandinho and Yaya need to fight it out for one place. Jovetic also brings bags of much needed energy to the team.

This season is tremendously important for a few players. I can see some sulking and not fighting for their place, thinking they have it by rights (Hart for instance).

I said a few weeks ago we needed a world class creative midfielder to put pressure on others.

We'll always have injuries, but not being able to count on Nasri, Jovetic, Fernando and Mango has hurt us by not putting enough pressure on the guys in the team.

I'm sort of with you there Dawg, however, it's back to the same old argument that gets thrown at us..."look at the money you've spent and how many players you have"

And to be fair, it's true. We shouldn't expect our footballing philosophy or effort to drop, just because lose Fernando and Jovetic for 3 or 4 games, or Nasri for one month.

If we look at last seasons players.

Fernando out....we have Fernandinho who should be easily good enough after the season he had last year.

Nasri out, we now have James Milner playing some of his best football in a City shirt. Also, we now have Lampard.

Jovetic out, we have a world class striker and Dzeko.....or we can switch Silva in behind a striker, or even 'the lazy fucker'.

There's really no excuse for a drop in effort...and to be fair, the effort came from 2 of the subs last night, Milner and Lampard.

Therefore, you have to ask what is happening within the club whereby Navas, the lazy fucker, Dzeko, Silva....are suddenly not performing as a collective in the games this season?

Personally, I agree with Leo. Our attacking philosophy has gone out of the window, except for 45 mins against Wednesday when they were down to 10 men.

In previous seasons, we were always concerned with our defending when we attacked this way. Now we have Mangala as a potential top class CB. Kolorov and Clichy haven't been great though in defence and we have the best RB in the PL.

So why the abandonment of what gave us our success?

I can only think MP is now setting the team up to play this 'keep ball' style so we can use it in Europe, because this is what he's been told is a priority this season....and it's just not working.

For MP's sake, he needs to reassess what he is doing, as I think last night and for most of the season, we can blame the players for lacklustre efforts....but we've called it during and after games about why we decided to set up like this or that and play this keep possession football (all geared for the CL)...and we've seen that teams in the PL are quite happy for us to have the ball 35 yrds from their goal and just get bodies back. That style of football is set up for counter-attacking play by the opposition....and if we see last nights goal, the goals against Stoke and Chelsea, they're all classic breakaway goals at pace.

I fear for MP that he is losing sight of what we do well as a team. Play quick interchanging football in the oppositions third....and that just ain't happening this season....and it COULD lose him his job.

However, I can honestly say, with hand on heart...I don't want to see 'the lazy fucker' in a City shirt again. He's a fucking disgrace.

He's a disgraceful lazy fucker then. I've said nit many times that we rely on individual brilliance or moments of magic.  We don't smother teams like the great united teams used to do. We seem to be lacking in the effort department too. Maybe the world cup hangover and our best players are the English ones who basically went on a long holiday.

Again, we only have to look at the Chelsea players who were mostly at the WC....and some came home early as well. I don't see it affecting how they play, or lack of effort in their games.

Motivation has to come from the players first, but then it's up to the Manager to set the team up right (which we didn't last night and waited until half time) and get them fired up for the game....maybe the players dislike the system and type of football we are playing.
But surely, they can speak to MP or Kidd about it, or through Vinny.

Once again, they just don't look happy, and they are the defending PL Champions and double winners of last season FFS.

Something is fundamentally amiss within the team and the club and until that something is fixed, removed or changed....this season will be just like the one 2 season ago.

Do you think there is now 'fan' apathy with how we are playing and that's why we suddenly are not filling the stadium?

If so, this will not do MP's cause any good with the extra stand being put in...the owner won't be too chuffed with a half empty stadium every week or so.

We've played 10 games this season I think. Can anyone honestly say we've played like a top team in any of them?

We did a decent job against Newcastle, were a little lucky that we scored first against Liverpool, were too defensive against Bayern, were crap for the first half against Wednesday, useless against Stoke, crumbled against Hull when looking in control, were shit against Arsenal in the Community Shield and should have been more aggressive against them in the league.

We haven't hit any heights and really don't look like doing so. 10 games is like nearly 20% of the season. When are we going to hit top form?

This weekend....hopefully

Does this tweet from Vinny go anyway to explain what's wrong?

https://twitter.com/VincentKompany/status/517079245680828416

Same old same old.  They keep saying the same stuff and nothing really changes.  I bet bobby said the same stuff 2 years back