Poll: How do you feel about our performance tonight?

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Wrong selection for a game against a team who were never gonna come at us. Milner was the 'safe option' and it meant we never really got behind them. Johnson was the braver choice and we looked better for his introduction.

[Original Dub]

Definitely one of those games.

I was delighted with the team Mancini put out (De Jong aside obviously), happy enough with the tactics, but completely pissed off with how nobody at all was interested in closing the ball down for almost all of the first 20 mins. We still had the majority of possession in that time, but were waiting for the ball to come back to us, rather than snapping at their heels.

The first 20 mins there can never be any excuses for not closing down.

Last night was the prime example for what happens when you let the other team dictate the play in the opening minutes.

And ALL of that blame lies firmly at the players feet, because not closing down is certainly not a tactic Mancini ordered.

The mountain was made within 19 mins. The fact the referee was a blind cunt didn't help, nor did the high-fiving swear monkey Howard; but our players fucked up royally and paid the price.

So did we do EVERYTHING right bar win? No.
On the balance of play, taking everything into account, there should be an option that said

"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and nearly climbed it".

[Ted Hughes]

Definitely one of those games.

I was delighted with the team Mancini put out (De Jong aside obviously), happy enough with the tactics, but completely pissed off with how nobody at all was interested in closing the ball down for almost all of the first 20 mins. We still had the majority of possession in that time, but were waiting for the ball to come back to us, rather than snapping at their heels.

The first 20 mins there can never be any excuses for not closing down.

Last night was the prime example for what happens when you let the other team dictate the play in the opening minutes.

And ALL of that blame lies firmly at the players feet, because not closing down is certainly not a tactic Mancini ordered.

The mountain was made within 19 mins. The fact the referee was a blind cunt didn't help, nor did the high-fiving swear monkey Howard; but our players fucked up royally and paid the price.

So did we do EVERYTHING right bar win? No.
On the balance of play, taking everything into account, there should be an option that said

"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and nearly climbed it".

Agree with this but I think there's a pattern emerging when DeJong doesn't play; that we have nobody else in the squad who wins the ball back so quickly. That's not a criticism of Barry, who I thought was excellent but we aren't the same team at all without DeJong. That doesn't excuse the defending though, which was identical to the stuff that cost us last season. People neglecting to do their jobs pure & simple. The problem Hughes had was that he tried to go on the attack & trusted those blokes to do their jobs but more often than not, they failed to do elementary things correctly. Bob now has to solve the same problem. If we're not going to be a bus parking team who sit behind the ball, the defenders have to learn how to defend witout 5 others to bail them out.

How the fuck can Cahill be unmarked?

[ant london]

I had meant to say actually...I thought Gareth Barry had a brilliant game last night, he is no De Jong I agree but he was snapping into challenges and bringing the ball away (at feet) nice and quickly and using it well.

One of the best performances from him this season easily I'd say

[sandman]

We are lacking Effort, Passion, Intelligence, Guts, Fight...

What infuriates me is how we were on top in the second half and we have people strolling around the pitch like they were walking the fucking dog (Yaya and Mario) and we have a wonder boy (Johnson) who cant make a single decent pass, cross or shot, we have a defence and keeper that pass between themselves wasting time while the clock is running down and we are approaching three points lost. When Silva managed to get the ball in decent positions he had nobody to pass to because those few who did get forward were not finding space them selves, instead they were sticking to their area as if they had concrete boots expecting the ball to fall to their feet.

When we lose but the squad have given everything I walk away from the stadium thinking its just one of those days. Last night I felt the squad and manager had let the club and fans down big style.

In my Rugby Union days we had one rule "Get Forward", if you dont have a clear run then you can pass down the line once or at worst case twice, but if there still is no clear way through then you take it straight through the opposition, mowing them down if needs be in the process. The fact is if you have control of the ball and so the opposing player needs to take it off you, make sure they dont, if you have possesion then you must have the confidence and bravery to know you are in charge of the situation. Instead of taking it to them like Kinkladze used to we have a squad full of pussys who pass left, then right, then left, then back, then left, then right, then lose possession. If we are going to challenge for anything anytime soon then we need someone with a pair of fucking testicles who is going to take ownership of the ball and say fuck it, if I cant get a clear shot from where I am then I am going to make an opportunity and take it through the defence myself. Always passing and never having a go is pathetic. If you lose then ball but are having a go then at least you had a go, if you pass it to someone else and never give it a go then you should be ashamed of yourself.

Now I appreciate we had five shots on target, but given the amount of possession and the amount of time we spent on their doorstep it was abysmal, we could have had a lot lot more if it wasnt for gutless wasted efforts, I have just been on the guardian chalkboards and looked at the state of the passing, everything is horizontal and never vertical, its pathetic.

We were never going to get back into that game because our squad simply dont want it enough, I hate to compare ourselves to the Munichs in this light but we dont have a single player who shows the fight, passion, courage that they get from players like Neville, Vidic, Rooney (when he's on form), Scholes, Giggs... That is why they have won so much, Chelsea have battlers like Terry, Lampard, Drogba etc all people who are willing to take the game by the scruff of the neck and give the attitude "no, fuck off, we're fucking in charge".

Gutless, spineless, pussies... I hope thats what they see when they look in the mirror, they should feel ashamed of themselves, unfortunately I think we have so many pricks with ridiculous ego's that they all believe they are part of the cure rather than the problem? Pearce said something once about struggling to look his wife and kids in the face because he was so ashamed of himself... That is the way it should be, that is what we're missing... If they dont want it enough then we'll never get it!!

[sandman]

I had meant to say actually...I thought Gareth Barry had a brilliant game last night, he is no De Jong I agree but he was snapping into challenges and bringing the ball away (at feet) nice and quickly and using it well.

One of the best performances from him this season easily I'd say

I though Gareth Barry was absolutely fucking dreadful, I thought he gave the scousers far too much time on the ball, he was regularly in poor positions and he didnt move about anywhere near quick enough to keep up with the pace of the game.

But everyone has their own opinion hey?

[sandman]

And Milner needs a month or so on the bench of the EDS so he can learn what football is all about, utter clueless turd!!

[ant london]

But everyone has their own opinion hey?

yep....I was just reading your post above and I was thinking just the same!

[sandman]

But everyone has their own opinion hey?

yep....I was just reading your post above and I was thinking just the same!

Ha ha, fair enough :o)

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Everton came with a plan and it worked perfectly. We started badly to make it easier for them but even when we "played well" we were still playing as they expected us to so didn't have to change their plan.
Overall I would say 5 out of 10 .
I thought Barry was very good as well but he isn't Nigel.

[Bingo Lewis]

I had meant to say actually...I thought Gareth Barry had a brilliant game last night, he is no De Jong I agree but he was snapping into challenges and bringing the ball away (at feet) nice and quickly and using it well.

One of the best performances from him this season easily I'd say

I though Gareth Barry was absolutely fucking dreadful, I thought he gave the scousers far too much time on the ball, he was regularly in poor positions and he didnt move about anywhere near quick enough to keep up with the pace of the game.

But everyone has their own opinion hey?

I'm with Ant. Barry is no De Jong, nor will he ever be, but he played top last night.

[StrikeAnywhere]

I had meant to say actually...I thought Gareth Barry had a brilliant game last night, he is no De Jong I agree but he was snapping into challenges and bringing the ball away (at feet) nice and quickly and using it well.

One of the best performances from him this season easily I'd say

I though Gareth Barry was absolutely fucking dreadful, I thought he gave the scousers far too much time on the ball, he was regularly in poor positions and he didnt move about anywhere near quick enough to keep up with the pace of the game.

But everyone has their own opinion hey?

I'm with Ant. Barry is no De Jong, nor will he ever be, but he played top last night.

Barry was our best last night. Easily.

[Martinez]

I think we did everything right after those two, extremely costly, f**kups in the first 20. I missed NdJ but even without him I thought we battled quite well, Everton are always super- aggressive when we play them for some reason. Offensively, there's not much to say, we should have put at least one more of our chances away, and let's face it, had we been Chelsea at Stamford Bridge or Rags at the Swamp we would have got at least one pen, I guess we're not quite there, yet

[Beefymcfc]

I think the stats say it all. Lots of huff and puff, but we couldn't blow the house down.

[center]Man City - Team Statistics - Everton

1 Goals 2

0 1st Half Goals 2

5 Shots on Target 2

12 Shots off Target 2

16 Blocked Shots 1

11 Corners 0

10 Fouls 13

2 Offsides 2

2 Yellow Cards 1

1 Red Cards 1

87.1 Passing Success 73.9

20 Tackles 20

65 Tackles Success 75

69.3 Possession 30.7

59.2 Territorial Advantage 40.8[/center]

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I think we did everything right after those two, extremely costly, f**kups in the first 20. I missed NdJ but even without him I thought we battled quite well, Everton are always super- aggressive when we play them for some reason. Offensively, there's not much to say, we should have put at least one more of our chances away, and let's face it, had we been Chelsea at Stamford Bridge or Rags at the Swamp we would have got at least one pen, I guess we're not quite there, yet

How can we have done evrything right if we only scored one goal and lost the game? And that goal was a rebound own goal!

[ruralblue]

We had 25 attempts at goal to their 4.

We had three decent penalty shouts.

We hit the post.

Howard made some greats saves.

It was one of those nights. Shit happens.

About sums it up for me too. We all could have guessed Cahill would nick one woefull error but he did. The second, well shit happens. We took them to Town in the second half and lady luck played no bearing on us.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

It was THE most gutting loss for ages. We were better side in patches. We should've won it. However we lost because of lack of concentration and, what's worst, yet again when Tevez had an off day in front of goal we were clueless in finishing. This has been problem for ages now and for some odd reason especially at home. We NEED to find top goalscorer in january, regardless of the price.

[Ted Hughes]

It was THE most gutting loss for ages. We were better side in patches. We should've won it. However we lost because of lack of concentration and, what's worst, yet again when Tevez had an off day in front of goal we were clueless in finishing. This has been problem for ages now and for some odd reason especially at home. We NEED to find top goalscorer in january, regardless of the price.

I would bring in two. Perhaps the second one could be a veteran or a young player but I think Tevez is the only reliable striker at the club.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

It was THE most gutting loss for ages. We were better side in patches. We should've won it. However we lost because of lack of concentration and, what's worst, yet again when Tevez had an off day in front of goal we were clueless in finishing. This has been problem for ages now and for some odd reason especially at home. We NEED to find top goalscorer in january, regardless of the price.

I would bring in two. Perhaps the second one could be a veteran or a young player but I think Tevez is the only reliable striker at the club.

Something like that mate. One thing's for sure though, if we try to rely on wantaway Tevez to carry us to top 4, nevermind title challenge, it's going to be uphill struggle.

[bluej]

The fact is if you have control of the ball and so the opposing player needs to take it off you

A passionate (!) post, with a lot I agree with but this part is one of the reasons we struggled last night, Everton really didn't need/want the ball. They were quite happy with us having posession and then booting it long whenever they had it.