***toffees v Man City official match thread***

[johnny crossan]

Some couldn't wait to blame Laporte for that goal when it was a collective fuck up.

Totally agree. The defending on our left after after Dias's header out from Digne's initial cross wasn't great then, in the seconds immediately before and after Coleman's cross to Digne, our positioning went completely to pot: two defenders plus Ederson pulled over to the near post, Bernie following nobody and Laporte stranded after his failed attempt to cut out Coleman's cross. In the end, their goal seemed to me to be an unfortunate combination of circumstances, with Laporte no more culpable than any of the other City players involved.

Possibly Laporte has taken stick simply because he was picked by Pep in preference to Stones, thus breaking up what has proved to be a remarkably resilient defensive partnership during our superb current run. Two points on this. First, being chosen ahead of Stones wasn't the fault of Laporte, it was Pep's decision. Second, Pep's choice was likely a reflection of the role that Cancelo has played (very successfully, of course) in recent games, i.e. as an ancillary midfielder. When I saw that Cancelo was ostensibly playing left-back, the preference for Laporte on the LHS of the centre-back pairing seemed logical to me - to provide some left-footed 'balance' on the left flank: this interpretation more or less aligns with that given by Andy Morrison on #WNRH pre-match. I think that we should expect a fluid use of our three 'first rank' centre backs in our upcoming games, so perhaps we shouldn't get too fixated on the Stones-Dias partnership.

I blame Walker

[Beefymcfc]

I’m not sure why complaints continue when we won yet another game with a full team display.

Let the match thread die and we move onto the good things, everybody knows that immediate reactions are just that.

Carrying on to prove ego is very different.

[patrickblue]

As I previously mentioned, we're on a 17 game winning streak, 10 points clear at the top of the table, in one cup final, in the quarter finals of another, and the last 16 of the champions league.
Just think how much better we'd have done without all those shit players.

[patrickblue]

Some couldn't wait to blame Laporte for that goal when it was a collective fuck up.

Totally agree. The defending on our left after after Dias's header out from Digne's initial cross wasn't great then, in the seconds immediately before and after Coleman's cross to Digne, our positioning went completely to pot: two defenders plus Ederson pulled over to the near post, Bernie following nobody and Laporte stranded after his failed attempt to cut out Coleman's cross. In the end, their goal seemed to me to be an unfortunate combination of circumstances, with Laporte no more culpable than any of the other City players involved.

Possibly Laporte has taken stick simply because he was picked by Pep in preference to Stones, thus breaking up what has proved to be a remarkably resilient defensive partnership during our superb current run. Two points on this. First, being chosen ahead of Stones wasn't the fault of Laporte, it was Pep's decision. Second, Pep's choice was likely a reflection of the role that Cancelo has played (very successfully, of course) in recent games, i.e. as an ancillary midfielder. When I saw that Cancelo was ostensibly playing left-back, the preference for Laporte on the LHS of the centre-back pairing seemed logical to me - to provide some left-footed 'balance' on the left flank: this interpretation more or less aligns with that given by Andy Morrison on #WNRH pre-match. I think that we should expect a fluid use of our three 'first rank' centre backs in our upcoming games, so perhaps we shouldn't get too fixated on the Stones-Dias partnership.

And being honest, it was a pretty freaky goal.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Some couldn't wait to blame Laporte for that goal when it was a collective fuck up.

Totally agree. The defending on our left after after Dias's header out from Digne's initial cross wasn't great then, in the seconds immediately before and after Coleman's cross to Digne, our positioning went completely to pot: two defenders plus Ederson pulled over to the near post, Bernie following nobody and Laporte stranded after his failed attempt to cut out Coleman's cross. In the end, their goal seemed to me to be an unfortunate combination of circumstances, with Laporte no more culpable than any of the other City players involved.

Possibly Laporte has taken stick simply because he was picked by Pep in preference to Stones, thus breaking up what has proved to be a remarkably resilient defensive partnership during our superb current run. Two points on this. First, being chosen ahead of Stones wasn't the fault of Laporte, it was Pep's decision. Second, Pep's choice was likely a reflection of the role that Cancelo has played (very successfully, of course) in recent games, i.e. as an ancillary midfielder. When I saw that Cancelo was ostensibly playing left-back, the preference for Laporte on the LHS of the centre-back pairing seemed logical to me - to provide some left-footed 'balance' on the left flank: this interpretation more or less aligns with that given by Andy Morrison on #WNRH pre-match. I think that we should expect a fluid use of our three 'first rank' centre backs in our upcoming games, so perhaps we shouldn't get too fixated on the Stones-Dias partnership.

Yep, the biggest failing was allowing Coleman that time and space in the box, we were in trouble from there.

[Hazy2]

As I previously mentioned, we're on a 17 game winning streak, 10 points clear at the top of the table, in one cup final, in the quarter finals of another, and the last 16 of the champions league.
Just think how much better we'd have done without all those shit players.

Plus this manager FFS how is he still in a job.

[Mase]

As I previously mentioned, we're on a 17 game winning streak, 10 points clear at the top of the table, in one cup final, in the quarter finals of another, and the last 16 of the champions league.
Just think how much better we'd have done without all those shit players.

Maybe not have drawn to West Brom or lost to Spurs?