Man City away 21.02.10

[Juan Galonso]

Not ideal, but a point away from home? Yeah, not the end of the world.

 

Onwards and, hopefully, upwards.

 

Our season starts here. Part 27452.

[Monster Masch]

Interesting the way Bilic describes the way we control the game. He seems completely against Benitez's method of it. He feels when there is two holding midfielders, the full backs should be constantly pushing forward to create space for the likes of Gerrard and Yossi.

 

He feels that the way we control the game, should only be used by weaker teams when your main players can only do one, in attack or defend but he feels the amount of money we spent, we should have the players capable of posing a threat of attack while still being comfortable defending.

[Josef Svejk]

Gerrard was very on and off during the game. To me it looks like he wants to avoid getting injured again.

 

World Cup year comes to mind...

[KopOut]

Just not playing well enough for Fourth. We're cutting this tooooo fine and I don't have much confidence that we'll pull a rabbit out of a hat before the end of the season. Hopefully we can secure new ownership with no strings attached, no key players lost (sold), with more funds for more talent to input next season, and once again set out to do something constructive..like win the friggin' premier League!

[Antynwa]

Crock of fucking shite and with no signs of ending.

 

We set out for the point and offered fuck all attacking wise.

 

Bring out the open top bus for 5th place.

[Monster Masch]

Crock of fucking shite and with no signs of ending.

We set out for the point and offered fuck all attacking wise.

 

Bring out the open top bus for 5th place.

 

 

We'll we can hope the return of Nando and Yossi will excite things a little. Then again, we were shite earlier in the season when they played. But just think of the first goal against the mancs..

[SiliconeSoul]

That was painful viewing. I'm almost dozed off. There's not much to complain about in terms of effort and application but whether through fear or lack of quality once we got to the 18 yard line it just falls apart.

 

It goes without saying that Kuyt is major weak link these days. He slows every move down and we lose momentum. He should have went off not Babel, who looked half decent and at least has a bit of pace and trickery.

 

Aqualini did quite well when he came on and we looked far more progressive in posession. Agger hoofed the ball non stop. Insua is still average. The rest was just forgettable.

[stringvest]

No, that'd be winning the game. Controlling the game is controlling the tempo of the game and being in charge of it. You can do that when you are getting beat.

 

That would make a great signature.

 

Hitler controlled the second world war. He got beat on his terms.

 

There's one braun every minute.

[stringvest]

I haven't seen any highlights.

 

 

there weren't any.

[coop]

In all fairness it was a game we could not afford to lose otherwise fourth place was going to be a struggle so on the basis of that a draw is not the worst result.

 

Even if we finish fourth serious questions need asking of both the manager because as a team we appear to be going backwards and also the players for their largely lacklustre performances for the majority of the season.

 

Whilst atk is right in his thread regards fourth not been good enough its still vital we finish in the Champions League positions even though it will still be deemed as a failure.

 

The game today was shite as have most of our games this season but we need to drastically change our performances and the games coming up should allow us to gain points on City, Villa and Spurs.

 

For me now i can't wait for the season to end and for us to take stock of the situation and hopefully rectify it.

 

Im not holding my breath though as who knows whats going to happen in the summer regards the owners.

[stringvest]

Just watching the Baftas, and it hits me how our season reminds me of the film Precious.

 

 

Are you telling me Insua is going to prove all the doubters wrong?

[JohnnyH]

Are you telling me Insua is going to prove all the doubters wrong?

 

now THAT was funny.

[Newport]

Watching MOTD 2 and Bilic is on there.

On a sidenote would anyone fancy him as next manager ?

 

NO! Would you like a manager who runs half the length of the pitch to celebrate a goal instead of making sure the defenders keep it together for the remaining minute of the extra time and ends up losing the game?

[piscinin]

Aquilani consistently gets himself into space to recieve the ball but more often then not the defence just decide to hoof it forward.

 

There was a short glimpse of what Aquilani can offer when both he and Gerrard combined with a few short passes getting into space but then the ball went to another player and the move fell down.

 

Aquilani is not the kid of player who will spread the hollywood ball that Alonso was superb at but prefers to be constantly finding space and wants to move the ball quickly with one, two touch football.

 

The only problem is that two touch football to most of our team is one touch to recieve the ball then the second touch is about 10 yards in front of them.

 

There's more to it than that. In midweek it was Mascherano deciding he was going to run the game by himself. Taking responsibility is commendable but there needs to be balance. It was reminiscent of Carragher early in the season when he decided to take responsibility for all zones.

[Original202]

The only slight positive is our run in. We can write off the Chelsea and Manc games, but the rest are against teams from 8th and below.

 

If we fail to finish 4th, even with more injuries, then there will be no excuses.

 

Given our record against sides like Wolves and Portsmouth this season however I can seemore people pulling their hair out.

[piscinin]

He really is, isn't he? Unbelievable display of diving from him today. Gerrard gave him some competition with a pitiful effort early in the second half though and Mascherano's diving was just hilarious at times!

 

Didi is still working at the academy, needs to be giving Mascherano lessons in the art of the crumple.

[piscinin]

Watching MOTD 2 and Bilic is on there.

On a sidenote would anyone fancy him as next manager ? Just a thought.

Anyway, he was just saying how we need to get the left back Insua , running down the flanks more and I agree. I know it leaves us open a bit but fuck we have to be more adventurous. Hansen also mentioned our slow style of play which is something I think we all agree on.

 

Insua and moreso Johnson before he got injured have been noticeably reined in since it became obvious we can't defend with the full backs high.

[stringvest]

that much is obvious, as is the fact that our forward players in wide positions are not as good at going forwards (or backwards) as our full backs.

[a stoner]

I enjoyed watching the grass grow during the game. Was better than the football.

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

that much is obvious, as is the fact that our forward players in wide positions are not as good at going forwards (or backwards) as our full backs.

 

Maxi doesn't know what to do when Insua tears forward.

 

*no jokes please*

[The 5th Benitel]

that much is obvious, as is the fact that our forward players in wide positions are not as good at going forwards (or backwards) as our full backs.

 

For the first time in my life i felt a bit sorry for Babel yesterday. Cos of the way we play he hardly ever get the ball into his feet where he's going forwards and can actually run at players. Like the rest of our forwards he's either competing for aimless punts upfield or getting the ball facing the worng way 30 yards from goal with 3 defenders around him.

[ZonkoVille77]

For the first time in my life i felt a bit sorry for Babel yesterday. Cos of the way we play he hardly ever get the ball into his feet where he's going forwards and can actually run at players. Like the rest of our forwards he's either competing for aimless punts upfield or getting the ball facing the worng way 30 yards from goal with 3 defenders around him.

 

I have to agree. As much as he winds me up and does fuck all half the time, there was not much for him to work with at all yesterday. He'd never get the inch perfect passes to his feet from Lucas or Masch that he needs.

[Faustus]

Watching MOTD 2 and Bilic is on there.

On a sidenote would anyone fancy him as next manager ? Just a thought.

Anyway, he was just saying how we need to get the left back Insua , running down the flanks more and I agree. I know it leaves us open a bit but fuck we have to be more adventurous. Hansen also mentioned our slow style of play which is something I think we all agree on.

 

Yes, I'd take a punt on him.

 

As an aside, he was class on MOTD last night.

[jackofdk]

But he didn't, Jack. According to the Guardian stats, he made a mere 3 successful tackles today (not 'many') and 4 unsuccessful ones. Masch made 8 successful tackles and 0 unsuccessful ones. Masch also made far more passes than Lucas. So if he's a holding player, as you say, he simply isn't doing his job. And if he's meant to be more progressive, again he's not doing it. That's my essential problem with him - he's just mediocrity personified. The arch-mediocrity.

 

I still think that Lucas won far more than three balls yesterday, be it in tackles or just nipping the ball away. Masch was definitely better, though, and he was probably the best player on the pitch along with Zabaleta.

 

As for whether Lucas did his job as a holding player or not, I'd rather look at what City created in this game which was fuck all.

 

I'm not saying he is the second coming or anything, just that he is doing a decent job more often than not in the role the manager wants him to play.

[El Rojo]

For the first time in my life i felt a bit sorry for Babel yesterday. Cos of the way we play he hardly ever get the ball into his feet where he's going forwards and can actually run at players. Like the rest of our forwards he's either competing for aimless punts upfield or getting the ball facing the worng way 30 yards from goal with 3 defenders around him.

 

Yeah, he did his best yesterday, though as you say he was given nothing to run onto. He's unique for us in that he can move faster than a snail, and for that he deserves a run of games.

 

Probably not good enough for a top four side, but I'd still take him over Riera any day. And please don't anybody reel out some cliche about Riera 'giving us shape'. He's rubbish and cowardly.