We will bounce back, says De Jong

[Mark (Blue Army)]

Nigel de Jong is determined that City will bounce back from the last-gasp derby defeat and claim a ticket to next season's Champions League by finishing in fourth place.

Holland midfielder De Jong tackled his way to the man-of-the-match award only to see a vital point snatched from the Blues' grasp and leave the way open for Tottenham to nip in.

But Nigel plans to be putting the bite on Europe's elite after his World Cup campaign and insists that his hurting team-mates will be ready to duel with Arsenal on Saturday.

He said: "When you lose a big derby to a goal in the last 20 seconds, everybody is devastated in the dressing room. We can be angry or disappointed, but now we have to focus again.

"It wasn't a good day for us. Of course, we kept believing that we could win, we had our chances. United played it very well and had more possession, but we had a couple of chances.

"The belief is always there that we can score against them - we've proved that already this season in the first three games. But if you don't score you're vulnerable at the other end.

"We'll keep giving 200 per cent but we have to learn from that. We've a lot of young guys, but we do need to remind ourselves about these last-minute strikes."

De Jong, yet to score in more than 50 City matches since signing from Hamburg, misfired with one of the Blues' openings on Saturday but insists he will keep plugging away.

He admitted: "That isn't my best ability and I'm trying to develop my shooting skills. Everybody knows I am the most defensive midfielder in the squad but sometimes you have to go on the attack. I'll try in the last few games if I get the chance."

mcfc.co.uk

[Blue Since 76]

De jong is the only one who earnt the right to speak to the press, but i hope the club avoids pushing them all forwards for the next few weeks. Everytime one of them opens their mouth, the next match is a fiasco.
It's not like we need the publicity and most of the papers don't deserve an interview, so just stick to the football till after the last game.

[Bear60]

Fed up of all this talk. do it on the pitch ffs thats what we all want.

[lets all have a disco]

Talk is cheap.

I remember in the week De Jong said the lads wouldnt switch off until the final whistle.


Hmmmmmm.

[gillie]

Rather than start a new thread i think NDJ was carrying a knock yesterday and thats why he was replaced someone please correct me if i am wrong.

[Goaters 103]

New idea for City players, keep their mouths shut for a while and produce a performance on the field in a big game, ie dont go hiding when it really counts.

We need a squad that will stand up and be counted on the field next saturday, not a selection of rent-a-quotes from several squad members (usually De Jong, Kompany and Given) stating how they will bounce back.

[Mase]

Shut the fuck up Nige and tell the people you are sat in the fuckin dressing room with!

[ant london]

I know that lots of you have been seeing your arse about these kind of "stories"/quotes from the players on the OS and, to date, I have largely ignored them BUT

- despite the fact that I am relatively "over" the derby loss on Saturday now
and
- notwithstanding the fact that I do still believe we can get fourth

Can you cunts all shut up...I am sick of hearing that we can bounce back/recover/we're still in the driving seat/it's not beyond us

If you useless twatbuckets in sky blue shirts...you know, the 11 or so of you who were on the field.....actually applied yourselves a bit better throughout THE WHOLE CUNTING MATCH....we would not have to be playing constant fucking catchup

Concentrate....tackle.....try to score.....keep hold of the ball....just try not to do anything fucking stupid DURING the match and then we would all be spared your cheap talk trying to placate us after the shitting event.

Kudos to Mancini, he picked a team that should have been able to win that match. The fact that we didn't win...and didn't even manage to salvage a point is down to EVERY player on that park

So shut the fuck up and concentrate on performing you utter wankers