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Premier League Round Up (Mar 2-3 2019)


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Shitty weekend for us as we lost top spot. We only have ourselves to blame for not being able to take care of a shite team like Everton, but life isn’t exactly being made easier by the way other teams approach games with City is it?

 

I’ve had a soft spot for Bournemouth and Eddie Howe for a number of years. I root for them to do well and quite enjoy watching them play. I may need to rethink all that though after what they did this weekend. Or more specifically, what they didn’t do.

 

Not a single shot on or off target and no corners. At home. Honestly, I’m not being melodramatic here, but that is genuinely the most cowardly thing I can ever remember from a top flight team. Had City been playing a League Two side they’d have been given more trouble than this.

 

The frustrating thing is City were bang average again, just as they had been when needing a phantom penalty to beat West Ham last week. They aren’t playing well but when opponents are doing this, what does it matter anyway? 

 

Part of the problem is that (other than us) nobody really hates City. They have no rivals because they were lovable losers for decades. Even United don’t really hate them. The rest of the top clubs are happy for City to win the title because it gives them a ready made excuse for not doing so. Look at how Chelsea and (to a lesser extent) Arsenal approached their games at the Etihad. The white flag was raised at the first sign of adversity. It's like "It's City, they're loaded. What can we do?"

 

The year Leicester won it blew everybody else’s bullshit excuses out of the water and it would be similar this year if we won it. I'm not comparing us to Leicester, what they did was miraculous, but fans of Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and United would rightly be able to ask the powers that be at their clubs “if Liverpool can win it then what's your excuse?” When City are winning it though there’s a ready made excuse for everyone, because how can you compete with oil money?

 

That’s why no-one hates City, but they should do, because the cheating fucks are breaking all the rules that everyone else is playing by, yet somehow hardly anybody seems to have an issue with that. 

 

Why? In most cases it’s because the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and so many of these fuckers want to see us come up short that City are seen as the lesser evil. They're fighting the good fight against the evil scouse empire.

 

In fairness that wasn’t Bournemouth’s motivation (I doubt their fans give a fuck who wins it, this show of cowardice is 100% on Howe), but it’s a fact that a lot of opponents we face (specifically the crowd) are more up for it when they play us than they are when they play City. 

 

It’s almost like manager's think “as long as we don’t get embarrassed a defeat is fine” and the crowds around the country are generally fine with it too. When they play us though they’re bang up for it. 

 

Old Trafford was rocking the other week even though they barely left their own half. The United fans were more up for that than they have been for any game in years. Will they be the same when City go there? No chance. 

 

The players might be up for it and give it a right good go, but will they have the same determination to not concede as they when they played us? Nope. The crowd will definitely lack the frothing at the mouth intensity they had when we went there. That’s just a stone cold fact.

 

I’m not lumping Bournemouth in with the ‘anyone but Liverpool’ brigade though. They don’t have a horse in this race and I imagine that, in general, their fans don’t give a shit if we win it or City do.

 

They probably expected their side to have a go at City, as what did they have to lose? They’re mid table, safe, and they’d been hammered by Arsenal so if the same happened against City, so what?

 

They kept the score down to 1-0 and on paper that seems like a good effort, but it’s a phoney ‘victory’. Like Everton the other week. They made it look good, but the result was never, ever in any doubt because they had no interest in doing anything other than not get thumped.

 

Bournemouth were even worse than Everton, as statistically it was the most inept effort since nerds began keeping records on this stuff. 

 

I know exactly what happened here though. They’ve had some real beatings away from home and were coming off a spanking at the Emirates a few days before. So they got gun shy. Normally Bournemouth at home are a handful for anybody, but instead of taking the game to City like they’d normally do, Howe had them curl up into the faetal position and begged City to go easy on them.

 

And how shit must be Begovic be if he’s lost his place to Boruc? That turd was beaten at his near post by a weak as piss shot from Mahrez.

 

Howe said the only blemish was they gave up an ugly goal but otherwise they did very well. 18% possession and not a single shot. Oh yeah, you did fantastic, you bad shithouse. 

 

Defending with everyone behind the ball is fine. Palace and Newcastle both beat City playing like that. You know what else they did though? They attacked when they had the opportunity to do it. 

 

So fuck Eddie Howe and fuck Bournemouth. The days of me wanting them to do well are over now. Thanks for nothing, losers. I just hope the likes of Palace and Burnley will have a go at City, as I’m not relying on United or Spurs for any favours, that’s for damn sure. And anyone thinking Brendan is going to do something against them with Leicester has read too many fairy tales.

 

 

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Great round up Dave.

 

I have been saying Howe is a fraud for ages. His teams look great against fellow no mark teams. When they play a decent side and go for it they get s**t on. In todays game you cant only have one game plan. You need to be able to win games in 2 or 3 ways.

 

Sign Wilf and just use him when we have teams who pack the defence like the blue shite and the mancs. That way we have that bit of individual magic who could unlock a defence or go down the wings and get a cross in from wide. 

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Great stuff as ever.

'Anthony Taylor was fucking shocking though' - that's a redundant comment, isn't it, as he's always shocking. City ought to give him one of their medals if they win the title, as his failure to send off Kompany against us could prove to be the most pivotal decision of the season.

 

As for the Chelsea goalie - can't imagine him pulling that shit if Conte had still been manager - that would have been funny.

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4 hours ago, DaveT said:

'Anthony Taylor was fucking shocking though' - that's a redundant comment, isn't it, as he's always shocking. 

 

As for the Chelsea goalie - can't imagine him pulling that shit if Conte had still been manager - that would have been funny.

Yeah he's terrible. One of the worst, which is quite the accomplishment.

 

Conte would have been on the pitch dragging him off. I thought Sarri would have been too. Disappointing.

5 hours ago, AdamD said:

Sign Wilf and just use him when we have teams who pack the defence like the blue shite and the mancs. That way we have that bit of individual magic who could unlock a defence or go down the wings and get a cross in from wide. 

I wouldn't complain, but I can't see it as he'll cost too much money. Personally I reckon he'd tear it up for us, but he'd need to adapt to the high press and wouldn't be able to take it easy without the ball like he does at Palace. Huge talent though, beats people for fun.

2 hours ago, Trumo said:

By 'February', you mean 'March', right?

Don't know what you mean...

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I think the reason Bournemouth decided to play like they did was the fact they have been taken apart by anyone decent when having a go. Howe's taken a bit of flak for it too. I just think he thought it was worth a shot trying to pack the defence like the other mid-table plodders do. Bournemouth aren't really as well suited to that style though (or trained to play that way), and therefore looked even worse than they intended.

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16 hours ago, lebron said:

I think the reason Bournemouth decided to play like they did was the fact they have been taken apart by anyone decent when having a go. Howe's taken a bit of flak for it too. I just think he thought it was worth a shot trying to pack the defence like the other mid-table plodders do. Bournemouth aren't really as well suited to that style though (or trained to play that way), and therefore looked even worse than they intended.

I agree with the first part of that. The motivation was not to get spanked, but I disagree about them not being able to play like that as they're usually a dangerous counter attacking side and have loads of pace on the break.

 

It's almost as though Howe told them not to even counter in case they lose it and get caught themselves.

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