***Official Yellow Sub vs City Match Thread***

[guv111]

Did I hear city fans singing "there's only one alfie haaland" at half time or did I imagine it?

It would have been appropriate with Dogging Keane lurking around.

[bluej]

Did I hear city fans singing "there's only one alfie haaland" at half time or did I imagine it?

It would have been appropriate with Dogging Keane lurking around.

Yup, and I didn't imagine it -

MOgdenTelegraph Mark Ogden
Roy Keane being baited by chants of 'One Alfie Haaland' by #mcfc fans during touchline interview in Villarreal...

http://twitter.com/#!/MOgdenTelegraph/s ... 9572661248

[brite blu sky]

I thought Nasri worked hard but rarely created anything that wasn't obvious; mostly played passes you could see coming a mile off, to obvious runners, even when it would be better to do something else. His workrate was very impressive though & could really help.

Much as I love Nige's contribution, the difference Barry makes by turning defence into attack is huge & we look much more fluid when he plays there. Nige's value may be shown when we're in a backs to the wall situation though. In the end, as I've said before, what we need is a great player in that position, who can do the job of both, is 2 yards quicker, & scores goals. A Yaya Toure with energy.

Silva was too often left without a pass because we didn't get enough players close enough to him. He was twisting turning & getting caught. If we're going to try & play like Barca, that's just not on; they always have a group of players in contact with the man on the ball. It won't work otherwise & better teams will kill us. We support him better in league games & were still not as good last night for some reason, even though the oppo was below the standard we usually meet on a weekend.

I rekon Nasri is getting slightly more into the groove, given the role it will take some time to build the familiarity with the others and certain key players. To illustrate this if you see how easily he links with Clichy because they both know each others play. It will come.

Nige is getting back to speed. The player you are hoping for there Ted I'm not even convinced exists, if a player was that good at forward play he would be a forward mid and wouldn't want to be a holding mid, imo. In addition it is asking too much, if that player were to get caught advancing it would leave the team exposed. Far better to share that role and encourage Nige to improve the forward passing a la Barry.

Finally VR showed zero ambition, so you cannot compare their play with better teams, who by being better would have some ambition and therefore not be all concentrating on Silva. I take your point though and wonder if it was more the case after we had scored 2, when City went into cruise control mode tbh.

Ultimately it wasn't a game I would read very much into. They were like a poor man's Everton - ha if that is actually possible!

[Jon London]

Just to clarify the "What happens if we finish level on points thingy,


From the BBC site
Teams level on points are separated by:

1) The results of games between the teams in the tie (if tied, by goal difference and then by away goals counting double).

2) Goal difference in all group games.

3) Highest number of goals scored in all games.

4) Highest Uefa ranking over the previous five seasons.

So, a 2-2 draw agianst Napoli, and a draw against Munich would see us qualify

Lose to Napoli and we will either need Villareal to beat Bayern and us to beat Bayern 3-0 or Villareal to draw with Napoli and us to beat Bayern to qualify. I pray we win in Napoli to forget about the permutations and having to rely on Villareal to get a positive result in their last two matches.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

They tend to favor all English sides, us included. [highlight]They gave us plenty of praise[/highlight], stop being paranoid.

No they fucking didn't. You must have been tripping

Yes they did. Constantly went on about how well we've been playing and how good Silva, Toure etc have been.
If it really bothers you that much you need to get a life.

[Ted Hughes]

I thought Nasri worked hard but rarely created anything that wasn't obvious; mostly played passes you could see coming a mile off, to obvious runners, even when it would be better to do something else. His workrate was very impressive though & could really help.

Much as I love Nige's contribution, the difference Barry makes by turning defence into attack is huge & we look much more fluid when he plays there. Nige's value may be shown when we're in a backs to the wall situation though. In the end, as I've said before, what we need is a great player in that position, who can do the job of both, is 2 yards quicker, & scores goals. A Yaya Toure with energy.

Silva was too often left without a pass because we didn't get enough players close enough to him. He was twisting turning & getting caught. If we're going to try & play like Barca, that's just not on; they always have a group of players in contact with the man on the ball. It won't work otherwise & better teams will kill us. We support him better in league games & were still not as good last night for some reason, even though the oppo was below the standard we usually meet on a weekend.

I rekon Nasri is getting slightly more into the groove, given the role it will take some time to build the familiarity with the others and certain key players. To illustrate this if you see how easily he links with Clichy because they both know each others play. It will come.

Nige is getting back to speed. The player you are hoping for there Ted I'm not even convinced exists, if a player was that good at forward play he would be a forward mid and wouldn't want to be a holding mid, imo. In addition it is asking too much, if that player were to get caught advancing it would leave the team exposed. Far better to share that role and encourage Nige to improve the forward passing a la Barry.

Finally VR showed zero ambition, so you cannot compare their play with better teams, who by being better would have some ambition and therefore not be all concentrating on Silva. I take your point though and wonder if it was more the case after we had scored 2, when City went into cruise control mode tbh.

Ultimately it wasn't a game I would read very much into. They were like a poor man's Everton - ha if that is actually possible!

When Silva got mugged though; if the same thing happened v Napoli or Bayern, they would suddenly have 4 or 5 players bypassing our midfield running at our back 3 or 4 (which they did on several occasions when they played us) & the only hope would be that they did something stupid or greedy & fucked the chance up (which they also did on several occasions).

We don't tend to leave Silva isolated like that in the Prem very often; there are almost always an easy couple of get out passes available close by, ala Barca. For some reason we're not quite 'at it' in the Chump's Lg.

[brite blu sky]

When Silva got mugged though; if the same thing happened v Napoli or Bayern, they would suddenly have 4 or 5 players bypassing our midfield running at our back 3 or 4 (which they did on several occasions when they played us) & the only hope would be that they did something stupid or greedy & fucked the chance up (which they also did on several occasions).

We don't tend to leave Silva isolated like that in the Prem very often; there are almost always an easy couple of get out passes available close by, ala Barca. For some reason we're not quite 'at it' in the Chump's Lg.

You've probably got a point there tbh. So what is the difference.. Is it more oppo players on him or us not having as much awareness in CL, or that Bob has given tighter positioning instructions, or that the players playing the CL are not as caution minded as the Prem ?

[Ted Hughes]

When Silva got mugged though; if the same thing happened v Napoli or Bayern, they would suddenly have 4 or 5 players bypassing our midfield running at our back 3 or 4 (which they did on several occasions when they played us) & the only hope would be that they did something stupid or greedy & fucked the chance up (which they also did on several occasions).

We don't tend to leave Silva isolated like that in the Prem very often; there are almost always an easy couple of get out passes available close by, ala Barca. For some reason we're not quite 'at it' in the Chump's Lg.

You've probably got a point there tbh. So what is the difference.. Is it more oppo players on him or us not having as much awareness in CL, or that Bob has given tighter positioning instructions, or that the players playing the CL are not as caution minded as the Prem ?

I don't know. I've been scratching my head trying to figure it out. V Napoli we were an absolute mess tactically & very lucky that they weren't more efficient at exploiting it. V Bayern we failed to defend elementary positions, the kind of which we come up against week in, week out. Bob said he'd particularly warned them about letting Ribery cut in & shoot but we let him cut in & shoot. V Villareal at home we were ponderous on the ball, never crossing early & when we did create a chance, people who are scoring for fun, fucked it up. Last nigt we coasted through it like a practice match instead of going for goals like we do in the Prem.

Against the rags we did all of these things & more, correctly, in what was, imo, a much more difficult game than any we have faced in he Chump's Lg. We were comfortable v Bayern then just fell apart. The rags would have pissed on us if we'd played like that. Also we were so much quicker & had so much more variety v a Wolves team which imo, was set up & defended superbly, much better than our Chump's Lg opponents when not in possession. I don't klnow what it is, but we're not quite right so far in the CL.

[Mingchester Mingy]

Enough with all this squabbling..... LET ME GET A BIG "BLUUUUUUUUE MOOOOOOOOON......" lol
I thought the men played well. Balo is the man and I really think he could turn into something really special for MCFC. Got to watch the replay last night on Fox Sports......Had to dodge the score a few times , but made it to the replay at 9pm eastern time in the states with no idea what to expect......and got a great match from City !

[brite blu sky]

I don't know. I've been scratching my head trying to figure it out. V Napoli we were an absolute mess tactically & very lucky that they weren't more efficient at exploiting it. V Bayern we failed to defend elementary positions, the kind of which we come up against week in, week out. Bob said he'd particularly warned them about letting Ribery cut in & shoot but we let him cut in & shoot. V Villareal at home we were ponderous on the ball, never crossing early & when we did create a chance, people who are scoring for fun, fucked it up. Last nigt we coasted through it like a practice match instead of going for goals like we do in the Prem.

Against the rags we did all of these things & more, correctly, in what was, imo, a much more difficult game than any we have faced in he Chump's Lg. We were comfortable v Bayern then just fell apart. The rags would have pissed on us if we'd played like that. Also we were so much quicker & had so much more variety v a Wolves team which imo, was set up & defended superbly, much better than our Chump's Lg opponents when not in possession. I don't klnow what it is, but we're not quite right so far in the CL.

The change in players starting has not been significant enough to suggest a problem, so that leaves mentality or the set up/instructions they are given not being interpreted very well. Maybe the team 'feels' it is different in the Chumps and 'believes' it has to adapt. Whereas in reality they could play as they have been and would be fine.
It kind of looks self-inflicted and it may well be.
Unless Bob is giving them too much to think about... nerves from Mancini?

[Ted Hughes]

I don't know. I've been scratching my head trying to figure it out. V Napoli we were an absolute mess tactically & very lucky that they weren't more efficient at exploiting it. V Bayern we failed to defend elementary positions, the kind of which we come up against week in, week out. Bob said he'd particularly warned them about letting Ribery cut in & shoot but we let him cut in & shoot. V Villareal at home we were ponderous on the ball, never crossing early & when we did create a chance, people who are scoring for fun, fucked it up. Last nigt we coasted through it like a practice match instead of going for goals like we do in the Prem.

Against the rags we did all of these things & more, correctly, in what was, imo, a much more difficult game than any we have faced in he Chump's Lg. We were comfortable v Bayern then just fell apart. The rags would have pissed on us if we'd played like that. Also we were so much quicker & had so much more variety v a Wolves team which imo, was set up & defended superbly, much better than our Chump's Lg opponents when not in possession. I don't klnow what it is, but we're not quite right so far in the CL.

The change in players starting has not been significant enough to suggest a problem, so that leaves mentality or the set up/instructions they are given not being interpreted very well. Maybe the team 'feels' it is different in the Chumps and 'believes' it has to adapt. Whereas in reality they could play as they have been and would be fine.
It kind of looks self-inflicted and it may well be.
Unless Bob is giving them too much to think about... nerves from Mancini?

Sorry, just ducked out of discussion to go & get pissed.

I think you're probably right that the players are feeling some kind of special occasion type thing & not playing the same way. I think Bob was a bit lax tactically v Napoli also. I recon he'll be keen to make up for it over there.

We seem to be the only sad bastardos discussing it, but I think it's worth talking about; there is a difference & it's not just down to the oppo.

[brite blu sky]

I'm goin with the idea that Mancini has been a bit too precious and overloaded tactical instructions on everyone, rather than letting them go and play.

Also I think they will put it right, the players will be working it out too and i'm sure there will be discussion about it.

Also quietly confident they will do the business against both Napoli and Bayern.

[Ted Hughes]

I'm goin with the idea that Mancini has been a bit too precious and overloaded tactical instructions on everyone, rather than letting them go and play.

Also I think they will put it right, the players will be working it out too and i'm sure there will be discussion about it.

Also quietly confident they will do the business against both Napoli and Bayern.

I'm not sure it's down to Bob, we played the home leg v Napoli like Brian Horton was in charge. I just think the players lost it & Bob had let them off the leash like he's done in the Prem.

I'd be happy with a point in Naples but I recon we can beat Bayern at home & not only that, with the crowd up for it, I recon if we actually win in Naples we can fuck Bayern up in a big way & get top spot.

[Slim]

I think we can beat Napoli simply because we have to and we have shown that when it's on the line, we can pull it together and win.(Villarreal home, FA Cup semi-final)

[zuricity]

I think we can beat Napoli simply because we have to and we have shown that when it's on the line, we can pull it together and win.(Villarreal home, FA Cup semi-final)

I agree with Slim's sentiments here, i don't think Napoli will be able to maintain a threat all the way through the game and as we saw in the absolutely ruthless and efficient distruction of the Trafford rangers, we can wait to pick off Napoli. We have very gifted attackers who know what they are doing on the big stages. We have enough permutations, skilled and very fit players to meet all the needs for these games.

Furthermore, the injury to Schweinsteiger, for the Bayern game shouldn't be forgotten, in midfield he is their dynamo, so it will be interesting to see how they get on as well over the next few weeks. There are enough what ifs for this group, It would be fantastic if Villareal get something at Bayern.