The mancityfans.net football forum

I could not understand why Martin did not have any part to play last night after his MOTM performance against Scunthrope and on the strength of his overall performance this season.
Mancini made mistakes last night and one of them was bringing on Ireland who has been mediocre this season and I am running out of patience with him. Again last night he was ineffective and added nothing to the team. I thought that was the perfect timing for Petrov to come on and as he has proved this season he can play anywhere (left, right, attacking midfielder) so he could have easily filled the Ireland position and moved to the right when SWP was subbed.
DH mentioned in his post that our midfield was our most ineffective last night especially in going forward and creating chances and Petrov could have been the remedy for that.
I also thought it was a mistake bringing on Ade as the guy hasn't played for 4 weeks at least and he looked rusty and it showed when he got that great chance with the free header which he met with the worst directed header I have seen for a long long time. Again, here it should have been Petrov coming on.
Petrov is without a doubt still our best crosser and our best corner taker and that was missed last night.

I wouldnt of brought him on myself so not surprised mancini didnt, petrov at his best when used sparingly in my opinion.

I'd have gone with Petrov over Zabaleta and pushed Bellamy right up front with Tevez floating behind. I also would've put Onuoha in over Boyata, but the kid did well to be fair to him. The game's gone now so let's have a good crack at the FA Cup, which would be a better prize in any case.

We need a normal midfielder, we don't have one.

Barry, dejon, zabs, Vieira all defensive minded, and panic when they get near the opposition box.

Ireland, errrrr robin........... oh hang on, mmm yea ireland, but he admits to being an attacking midfielder, and is average at best when playing a normal central role.

What we need is someone that can do both. A Gerrard, K*ane, Fabregas, someone who is all over the pitch.

No Johnson isnt the answer, im sick of waiting for him.

Dubaimancityfan wrote:I could not understand why Martin did not have any part to play last night after his MOTM performance against Scunthrope and on the strength of his overall performance this season.
Mancini made mistakes last night and one of them was bringing on Ireland who has been mediocre this season and I am running out of patience with him. Again last night he was ineffective and added nothing to the team. I thought that was the perfect timing for Petrov to come on and as he has proved this season he can play anywhere (left, right, attacking midfielder) so he could have easily filled the Ireland position and moved to the right when SWP was subbed.
DH mentioned in his post that our midfield was our most ineffective last night especially in going forward and creating chances and Petrov could have been the remedy for that.
I also thought it was a mistake bringing on Ade as the guy hasn't played for 4 weeks at least and he looked rusty and it showed when he got that great chance with the free header which he met with the worst directed header I have seen for a long long time. Again, here it should have been Petrov coming on.
Petrov is without a doubt still our best crosser and our best corner taker and that was missed last night.

would have brought him on the left and switched bellamy to the right for swp,with addy and tevez upfront for the closing stage. thus going all out for the win.

Alioune DVToure wrote:I'd have gone with Petrov over Zabaleta and pushed Bellamy right up front with Tevez floating behind. I also would've put Onuoha in over Boyata, but the kid did well to be fair to him. The game's gone now so let's have a good crack at the FA Cup, which would be a better prize in any case.

That would have been a good move and i agree about Ned coming on for Boyata in the last 15 minutes as was done in the 1st leg. To be fair to Boyata he did well but looked tired towards the end and you cannot expect a 19 year old lad with limited experience to stay focused for 90 minutes on such a big ocassion. Ned would have brought some stability to our defence as he is so level headed and composed.

Dubaimancityfan wrote:

Alioune DVToure wrote:I'd have gone with Petrov over Zabaleta and pushed Bellamy right up front with Tevez floating behind. I also would've put Onuoha in over Boyata, but the kid did well to be fair to him. The game's gone now so let's have a good crack at the FA Cup, which would be a better prize in any case.

That would have been a good move and i agree about Ned coming on for Boyata in the last 15 minutes as was done in the 1st leg. To be fair to Boyata he did well but looked tired towards the end and you cannot expect a 19 year old lad with limited experience to stay focused for 90 minutes on such a big ocassion. Ned would have brought some stability to our defence as he is so level headed and composed.

Petrov will be useful to us over the season, everyone doesn't have to play every match. We still have almost half the season left.

Mancini could have replaced Boyata but it mightn't have made a difference and we wouldn't have had any options for extra time. When you look at their bench you can see why we would have wanted to be able to counter them or not go down to 10 men.

Petrov has been great going forward but evra would have eaten him up when they attacked. SWP and Micah made him look world class.

Got to agree on this one. Pretty much the best player at the club and he doesn't get a look in. The players who came on off the bench were non existent.

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:Got to agree on this one. Pretty much the best player at the club and he doesn't get a look in. The players who came on off the bench were non existent.

And so would have been PEtrov after the first tackle. I'm sorry, he's done great this season but a semifinal derby is not the kind of game for him, I fear.

CityFanFromRome wrote:

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:Got to agree on this one. Pretty much the best player at the club and he doesn't get a look in. The players who came on off the bench were non existent.

And so would have been PEtrov after the first tackle. I'm sorry, he's done great this season but a semifinal derby is not the kind of game for him, I fear.

It wasn't the kind of game for most of them out there, I don't really follow your point sorry.

Petrov would have been useless last night as it would have meant tackling... Something fairies like him cant do. The guy really grits on me everytime he scores and points to his name and number! Yessss we know you have a nice left foot but but it doesnt make up for all the tackles you pull out of and all the whinging you do! Sell him i reckon n get Adam Johnson in!

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:

CityFanFromRome wrote:

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:Got to agree on this one. Pretty much the best player at the club and he doesn't get a look in. The players who came on off the bench were non existent.

And so would have been PEtrov after the first tackle. I'm sorry, he's done great this season but a semifinal derby is not the kind of game for him, I fear.

It wasn't the kind of game for most of them out there, I don't really follow your point sorry.

Maybe this will explain my point better then:

horlock2000 wrote:Petrov would have been useless last night as it would have meant tackling... Something fairies like him cant do

CityFanFromRome wrote:

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:

CityFanFromRome wrote:

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:Got to agree on this one. Pretty much the best player at the club and he doesn't get a look in. The players who came on off the bench were non existent.

And so would have been PEtrov after the first tackle. I'm sorry, he's done great this season but a semifinal derby is not the kind of game for him, I fear.

It wasn't the kind of game for most of them out there, I don't really follow your point sorry.

Maybe this will explain my point better then:

horlock2000 wrote:Petrov would have been useless last night as it would have meant tackling... Something fairies like him cant do

So, remind me please, how many tackles did Ireland put in and how many balls he won ??

Dubaimancityfan wrote:

CityFanFromRome wrote:

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:

CityFanFromRome wrote:

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:Got to agree on this one. Pretty much the best player at the club and he doesn't get a look in. The players who came on off the bench were non existent.

And so would have been PEtrov after the first tackle. I'm sorry, he's done great this season but a semifinal derby is not the kind of game for him, I fear.

It wasn't the kind of game for most of them out there, I don't really follow your point sorry.

Maybe this will explain my point better then:

horlock2000 wrote:Petrov would have been useless last night as it would have meant tackling... Something fairies like him cant do

So, remind me please, how many tackles did Ireland put in and how many balls he won ??

In fact Ireland played below his possibilities, nodoby is saying he played well. But, Ireland has never been one to shy out of tackles so far in his life at the club, has he? That is instead a constant with Petrov, as we have seen time and time again. Also, considering that there was already Ireland who as you said didn't win many balls and didn't tackle that much, would you have put Petrov on too, considering how the rags were playing (Throwing things at Bellamy, the Fletcher-Richards confrontation, etc.). It was the perfect game to see Petrov intimidated after two minutes, and be completely ineffective.

But, that's only my opinion, you're of course entitled to have your own. ;)

Dubaimancityfan wrote:So, remind me please, how many tackles did Ireland put in and how many balls he won ??

Actually Ireland put in a great sliding tackle on Evra after he came on. Petrov would never be capable of this in a million years. He is a talented player of that there is no doubt, but can he put a shift in like SWP or Bellers? No. Contract is up in the summer and can't see him wanting to stay, he will find another club which will be a shame. He will want a 3yr contract and I'm not sure we can offer him the first team footy he wants.

I am surprised by the tone of some of the replies which bring down the whole effectivness of a player to the fact of whether he goes into or shies away from tackles. OK, I agree Petrov is not the greatest in this department. But he so much more to offer as I mentioned in my original post and I cannot understand how anyone would begrudge him playing at least 15 minutes when we were 2-0 down and looking for avenues to come back into the match.
I don't think that anyone can rightly claim that Petrov has not played well this season and so to just say this was not his sort of game doesn't really make much sense.
And to CFFR, no I didn't say that he should have come on after Ireland was already on. I said he should have come on instead of Stevie.

Dubaimancityfan wrote:I am surprised by the tone of some of the replies which bring down the whole effectivness of a player to the fact of whether he goes into or shies away from tackles. OK, I agree Petrov is not the greatest in this department. But he so much more to offer as I mentioned in my original post and I cannot understand how anyone would begrudge him playing at least 15 minutes when we were 2-0 down and looking for avenues to come back into the match.
I don't think that anyone can rightly claim that Petrov has not played well this season and so to just say this was not his sort of game doesn't really make much sense.
And to CFFR, no I didn't say that he should have come on after Ireland was already on. I said he should have come on instead of Stevie.

Oh, I know the whole effectiveness of a player doesn't reside in that, of course, but the risk with a player like Petrov is that he can be "bullied" out of the game by a couple of crunching tackles, that was all what I wanted to point out. Also, while he is skilled enough to be able to play in a central position too, Ireland is a natural attacking central midfielder who can also play on the right if need be. I remember someone posting about Mancini insisting on playing wingers on their "wrong" side a week or two ago, and to sub SWP for Petrov would have meant putting the Bulgarian once more in a role that is not his natural one.

I think all of these considerations were made by Mancini when he decided for the sub, and I personally agree.

I think if they had scored the third earlier and we really had to chase the game, he would have been brought on. At 1-0 or even 2-0 we were just one goal away and I think some underestimate how much more vulnerable we get at the back when Petrov plays ahead of SwP or Bellamy.

If we had scored earlier I believe Stevie would never have been brought on and we could have kept our midfield shape which I thought was pretty good. At 2-1 it would have made more sense to bring on Sylvinho but that's easy to say now

Oh that's right, I forgot every player on the park has to throw themselves into tackles. Whatever happened to creating chances and scoring goals?