***Official Villa vs City Thread***

[Crossie]

Its frustrating that scum, arse chel and even spuds would go to Villa Park and win, or scrape a draw in the last minute if they'd been in our circumstances. I actually felt confident that we would end up scoring tonight, even if we were abit shit. I think the last 2 months of football have built up our confidences and expectations.

Today was just a glimpse back at old typical City, something which will now hopefully be dead and buried forever after the backlash we should see from this result.

[Longball]

lots of other teams are gonna do what villa and everton have done to us- lie deep, be organised- and Keegan just wrote us of for the title there on ESPN :(

[dick dastardley]

kolorov is fuckin shite, yaya non existant.

Kolarov was by far the best player in the first half

that maybe so but hes shite at freekicks and shite at shooting!!

4th goal v Leicester?

wow look at how many freekicks and shots that either go sky high over the bar or straight at the defender, seeing hes sposed to be a freekick specialist i wouldnt have him near a freekick outside the box, did you see the shot he did with 5 mins to go with nobody near him. 15yds over the bar!!!

[david yearsley]

Piss poor - Villa played for that and we duly obliged . Very disillusioned and extremely fed up
We need to do a deal Mon to secure 4th

[blues2win]

Doug The team were tired, did everything but score. Just not our day. LOL

De Jong unlucky at the end. Tevez should have scored in the first half. A couple of other chances. I don't think we were as bad as everyone's saying. Certainly deserved a point; we could have been at home with all our possession but we can certainly play better. Mancini hasn't yet figured out how to break down massed defences. In my view we need more pace in the team but there we are.

Pity we missed a golden opportunity to open up a 10 point lead over Spurs

[craigmcfc]

kolorov is fuckin shite, yaya non existant.

Kolarov was by far the best player in the first half

that maybe so but hes shite at freekicks and shite at shooting!!

4th goal v Leicester?

wow look at how many freekicks and shots that either go sky high over the bar or straight at the defender, seeing hes sposed to be a freekick specialist i wouldnt have him near a freekick outside the box, did you see the shot he did with 5 mins to go with nobody near him. 15yds over the bar!!!

Seriously you've chosen a player who had a half decent game when there's probably half a dozen worse out there. He carried our only attacking threat in the first half down the left and put in some dangerous corners, one of which should have led to a goal for Tevez.

Oh and that shot. No-one near him? They were all rushing out to close him down

[the_georgian_genius]

Shit happens, bring on Notts County.

I actually thought we did well, not enough but we did well, we were the only team in it.

[Redna]

Starting to calm down now and realising that we couldn't score. Thats it. Tevez lost the ball on several occasions and Silva wasn't there. These things happens to us. It could have been worse. Securing a CL spot is the goal from now on. And good cup runs.
The most depressing thing is that Villa will be tonked over at Wigan come Tuesday. That's for sure.

[brite blu sky]

That was dire. Not enough urgency from the start, let in a soft goal again and all the players who normally take it on and run at the oppo had a bad day. Not enough directness not enough speed and not enough movement. Silva not back up to speed, Dzeko not used to it and Tevez having a bad day. We needed to have changed tactics at half time with someone to run at them as the ball broke.
That puts any title challenge on hold.

[feedthegreek]

we played ok, even better when johnson came on had he played the full 90 i rekon wed have won.
i mean he played from the off v them at home and we went in 3-0 up at h time.
we finally got in behind them when aj came on.

[paddyblue]

stats on ss score centre say, villa 6 shots on and 1 shot off target ----city 4 on and 3 off

dont sound right to me

[MaineRoadMemories]

The format that the opposition are starting to use against us when they play at home is increasingly like the format they play away. By making City the "home" team i.e. putting everyone behind the ball, a straight bank of 5 and then 4 with one up top then counter when City misplace a pass after boring themselves with 30 meaningless passes in the centre circle is turning into 3 point golden template.

Everton showed everyone else how to do it and more managers are starting to implement it against us. The end result is we have 60% to 70% possession about 20 odd shots (all from distance) and hopelessly wide but no real threat upon their goalkeeper. They attack with speed and surprise and we all go home empty handed.

The only way to beat this format is to draw them out - by giving them more of the ball and let them commit players forward then counter them with a range of direct and high tempo passing plus movement.

By having too much of the ball at a shockingly slow pace we are helping the opposition to beat us.

[Bear60]

The format that the opposition are starting to use against us when they play at home is increasingly like the format they play away. By making City the "home" team i.e. putting everyone behind the ball, a straight bank of 5 and then 4 with one up top then counter when City misplace a pass after boring themselves with 30 meaningless passes in the centre circle is turning into 3 point golden template.

Everton showed everyone else how to do it and more managers are starting to implement it against us. The end result is we have 60% to 70% possession about 20 odd shots (all from distance) and hopelessly wide but no real threat upon their goalkeeper. They attack with speed and surprise and we all go home empty handed.

The only way to beat this format is to draw them out - by giving them more of the ball and let them commit players forward then counter them with a range of direct and high tempo passing plus movement.

By having too much of the ball at a shockingly slow pace we are helping the opposition to beat us.

Hope Roberto reads this.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

The format that the opposition are starting to use against us when they play at home is increasingly like the format they play away. By making City the "home" team i.e. putting everyone behind the ball, a straight bank of 5 and then 4 with one up top then counter when City misplace a pass after boring themselves with 30 meaningless passes in the centre circle is turning into 3 point golden template.

Everton showed everyone else how to do it and more managers are starting to implement it against us. The end result is we have 60% to 70% possession about 20 odd shots (all from distance) and hopelessly wide but no real threat upon their goalkeeper. They attack with speed and surprise and we all go home empty handed.

The only way to beat this format is to draw them out - by giving them more of the ball and let them commit players forward then counter them with a range of direct and high tempo passing plus movement.

By having too much of the ball at a shockingly slow pace we are helping the opposition to beat us.

Hmmm whilst most of that ir about right I quite quite work out what you mean by "giving them more of the ball".Are you suggesting we jus pass it to them or keep players deep and just lump it?

I am sure you don't but what is the answer. Of course teams , most of them , willl adopt this tactic or close to it. Has Mancini not realised? It was clear after about 5 or 10 minutes when they were playing 6 across the back. The fact is today we had no answers and a part of that was that too many just had poor games. Not enough urgency, a lack of movement and not enough variation in our play. It's just one match lost and we now need to go back on another good run but that will only happen if we can work out how to play when teams don't attack.

[MaineRoadMemories]

Hmmm whilst most of that ir about right I quite quite work out what you mean by "giving them more of the ball".Are you suggesting we jus pass it to them or keep players deep and just lump it?

I mean when we are losing a game we need to cut down on the possession/tippy tappy football in the middle and be more forward thinking with our passing and running. e.g. De Jong wins it at the back, passes it out wide to Boateng, who passes it straight down the flank for the onrunning Tevez who then plays a cross field ball 35 yards to the left where Dzeko is running at goal for a snapshot at goal.

By the very nature of playing like this you will have less possession of the ball and the opposition will come at you more and expose their half.

I don't suggest for one minute we play like this every week. Sometimes our set-up is perfect but often it is not. We need to attempt to play like this when the tippy tappy football is yielding no results.

[DelaBlue]

Just got back from game (Live in Birmingham)

Reading the comments on here, (city crap, dire,) well let me tell you it was great to see city virtually camped in the Villa half.

They had a bit of luck with blocks, hitting goal post etc, on another day we could have had 3 or 4 goals. Sometime footballs like that.


Whilst I left unhappy with the result, NO WAY WAS I UNHAPPY WITH THE TEAMS PERFOMANCE.

[brite blu sky]

The format that the opposition are starting to use against us when they play at home is increasingly like the format they play away. By making City the "home" team i.e. putting everyone behind the ball, a straight bank of 5 and then 4 with one up top then counter when City misplace a pass after boring themselves with 30 meaningless passes in the centre circle is turning into 3 point golden template.

Everton showed everyone else how to do it and more managers are starting to implement it against us. The end result is we have 60% to 70% possession about 20 odd shots (all from distance) and hopelessly wide but no real threat upon their goalkeeper. They attack with speed and surprise and we all go home empty handed.

The only way to beat this format is to draw them out - by giving them more of the ball and let them commit players forward then counter them with a range of direct and high tempo passing plus movement.

By having too much of the ball at a shockingly slow pace we are helping the opposition to beat us.

Hmmm whilst most of that ir about right I quite quite work out what you mean by "giving them more of the ball".Are you suggesting we jus pass it to them or keep players deep and just lump it?

I am sure you don't but what is the answer. Of course teams , most of them , willl adopt this tactic or close to it. Has Mancini not realised? It was clear after about 5 or 10 minutes when they were playing 6 across the back. The fact is today we had no answers and a part of that was that too many just had poor games. Not enough urgency, a lack of movement and not enough variation in our play. It's just one match lost and we now need to go back on another good run but that will only happen if we can work out how to play when teams don't attack.

Yes, and the answers are urgency and speed, direct running at and through defences and mixing play up.. like some old fashioned pile into the box stuff. All the things you have pointed out and we lacked today.

We have to be prepared to not get it right sometimes, just a real shame we had to lose when we didn't and not a get a bit of luck.

[CITYSTEVEDON]

Hmmm whilst most of that ir about right I quite quite work out what you mean by "giving them more of the ball".Are you suggesting we jus pass it to them or keep players deep and just lump it?

I mean when we are losing a game we need to cut down on the possession/tippy tappy football in the middle and be more forward thinking with our passing and running. e.g. De Jong wins it at the back, passes it out wide to Boateng, who passes it straight down the flank for the onrunning Tevez who then plays a cross field ball 35 yards to the left where Dzeko is running at goal for a snapshot at goal.

By the very nature of playing like this you will have less possession of the ball and the opposition will come at you more and expose their half.

I don't suggest for one minute we play like this every week. Sometimes our set-up is perfect but often it is not. We need to attempt to play like this when the tippy tappy football is yielding no results.

we played tippy tappy football against leicester in the fa cup and they scored there 2nd. we really need to get the ball and players upfront as fast as we can, hate passing ball between 4-5 players near the halfway line and not really going anywhere. must put more effort in going forward

[Burt]

can't see anything good from Edin. Maybe it is too soon to put him in. A game like this, Tevez is the only one who can break the defense. Edin's time must be waited.

I've just read 2 posts of yours today including this one and I am intrigued. The statement that you "can't see anything good about Edin" is utterly baffling.

My rag sensors are tingling like fuck at the moment..................

[Swales4ever]

Too upset for a serious comment, angry, betrayed, I'd say.
After seeing that banner at about 80' [goal attempt AV 9 . MC 24] and the Nige's diverted onto the post, one could even talk of a very bad day at the office.
Truth is that only the 2 FBs and our natural skipper earned their wages and, most importantly, their right to wear the MCFC Kit.
The Rags, who own half the skill we filled the pitch today, would have won this game, easily. Probably in the first half only. That's why they win and we chat.

In a nutshell: Darrent Bent can tap in [1/1], Tevez and Dzeko cannot [0/5] .
I can forgive Dzeko, because is clearly not fit after the break and not already entered the gear, but why the fuck, Tevez has to ignore Kolarov who made a 50 yard run, just to turn on his feet a lose the a yard wiider because he was breathless???

Let's move the "Time to believe" topic to next year, enjoy the ride to 3rd place, hope Dub and Ronk shall witness the first trophy since 34. Be confident even if we will arrange another streak ok 6/7 wins in a row, including derby, These Juniors shall always find out a WHU to fuck it all.