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I can’t put my finger on whether the defence is playing shit or the rest of the team are letting them down.

Our ball retention is dog shit at the moment, last year we would be camped out side an opponents final third, retaining the ball and waiting for the opportunity to strike. This year we seem to rush forward, overplay, lose the ball and sit back and defend for the next five minutes. In previous games when we went ahead we'd dictate the game, keep the ball moving and ultimately push oppo backwards.

It's inevitable that we will leak stupid goals, make mistakes etc if the defence are consistently camped inside their own 18 yard box.

I think Yaya is poor as a defensive midfielder and NDJ and Barry are a bigger miss than we expected.

Anyone agree or disagree?

Zabba was a bit strange v Arsenal (made some odd positional decisions & a bit dodgy defensively) but imo the defence unit was a lot sharper & didn't concede many chances other than the one where Gervinho fell over his own shit, useless, feet & passed it to Joe Hart. That in itself was a bit unlucky as the pass went straight through Clichy.

The other main chance was when Lescott fucked up & got robbed 1st half but he & the others got back into position quick enough to be goalside before a shot came in, which they did in most circumstances, hence very few decent shots for JH to save.

What is happening a lot though is, like the Lescott incident, Vinny several times, Clichy, Zabba, all gave the ball directly to Arsenal near our box due to bad decision making. That is easily solved; Lescott kick it in row Z or foul the bloke, the others; be more careful when passing. I'm not worried about that happening forever & imo defensively the back 4 were almost at last season's level again. We are on track to sort that if we let them play together.

In front of them though; shambles tactically & individually. We are playing EXACTLY like we did when Hughes was sacked; no protection for the back 4 & sometimes even back 2, as we're getting caught with fullbacks forward & no cover. There is also a gap in front of the defence, even when we are all in place, & it invites shots from distance or 1-2s through the middle. Arsenal weren't good enough to exploit it but Real Madrid were. It was happening before Garcia arrived, so it's not just his fault (although he has made it worse) & it still hasn't been sorted.

I think Barry and yes, NDJ are big misses.
I also think we've not seen our first eleven yet, with a minimum of 3 players each week who are "second best" in their slot. We're also paying the price for doing our business in the last week of the window.
I also also think that we dropped points against Stoke and Scouse away last year just like this and it worked out alright.
So the difference in results this time is Sunday's game (we beat em at ours last time) and the contrast between tonking Swansea and making a meal of Southampton.
Anyone expecting 17 goals again in the first 5 games, was having a laff.
Straight comparison: against the same teams last time we were F6A4P8, this time F7A5P6.
Could be worse and it's a long season.

Alex Sapphire wrote:I think Barry and yes, NDJ are big misses.
I also think we've not seen our first eleven yet, with a minimum of 3 players each week who are "second best" in their slot. We're also paying the price for doing our business in the last week of the window.
I also also think that we dropped points against Stoke and Scouse away last year just like this and it worked out alright.
So the difference in results this time is Sunday's game (we beat em at ours last time) and the contrast between tonking Swansea and making a meal of Southampton.
Anyone expecting 17 goals again in the first 5 games, was having a laff.
Straight comparison: against the same teams last time we were F6A4P8, this time F7A5P6.
Could be worse and it's a long season.

True but I made the 'Hughes' reference above & I recon that unless we go up a level, particularly re organisation, we have got 'draw' written all over us. All of our games have been borderline draws.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Alex Sapphire wrote:I think Barry and yes, NDJ are big misses.
I also think we've not seen our first eleven yet, with a minimum of 3 players each week who are "second best" in their slot. We're also paying the price for doing our business in the last week of the window.
I also also think that we dropped points against Stoke and Scouse away last year just like this and it worked out alright.
So the difference in results this time is Sunday's game (we beat em at ours last time) and the contrast between tonking Swansea and making a meal of Southampton.
Anyone expecting 17 goals again in the first 5 games, was having a laff.
Straight comparison: against the same teams last time we were F6A4P8, this time F7A5P6.
Could be worse and it's a long season.

True but I made the 'Hughes' reference above & I recon that unless we go up a level, particularly re organisation, we have got 'draw' written all over us. All of our games have been borderline draws.

this time last year we'd drawn at home to Napoli which I'd argue cost us progress in that comp. I don't think the loss in Madrid is as bad.
There is something missing which is leaving the defence sometimes flapping. If Garcia is meant to be the calming influence (just give it me) he's not (yet). Let's get Barry on the park and our defence will look like world beaters again. I hope

Alex Sapphire wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Alex Sapphire wrote:I think Barry and yes, NDJ are big misses.
I also think we've not seen our first eleven yet, with a minimum of 3 players each week who are "second best" in their slot. We're also paying the price for doing our business in the last week of the window.
I also also think that we dropped points against Stoke and Scouse away last year just like this and it worked out alright.
So the difference in results this time is Sunday's game (we beat em at ours last time) and the contrast between tonking Swansea and making a meal of Southampton.
Anyone expecting 17 goals again in the first 5 games, was having a laff.
Straight comparison: against the same teams last time we were F6A4P8, this time F7A5P6.
Could be worse and it's a long season.

True but I made the 'Hughes' reference above & I recon that unless we go up a level, particularly re organisation, we have got 'draw' written all over us. All of our games have been borderline draws.

this time last year we'd drawn at home to Napoli which I'd argue cost us progress in that comp. I don't think the loss in Madrid is as bad.
There is something missing which is leaving the defence sometimes flapping. If Garcia is meant to be the calming influence (just give it me) he's not (yet). Let's get Barry on the park and our defence will look like world beaters again. I hope

Napoli is a good example because we played with a similar lack of organisation v them as we have done v most teams this season. At that time, we were playing a more solid game domestically though. This season, every game has looked like the Napoli game in parts, with players running around randomly trying to block holes rather than the solid, one block, unit we saw for example v rags.

I don't think it's just Garcia. We were the same v Southampton when they ran at us & Nige was playing then. In fact it could be argued that Southampton were actually much more dangerous than Arsenal during that period when they attacked.

We are not right.

I think we looked a lot more solid defensively when we had a central midfield three after half time. I don't like Yaya being part of a defensive midfield two against the teams with quality midfield like Arsenal. I'm not just saying that after the event; I posted that when I saw the team sheet.

Lescott's pitiful effort on the touch line was clearly his fault( I've seen him do that before which is why I don't see him in a back three). However, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on the poor headed clearance because he looked as though he was caught by surprise by Garcia's dreadful flick at the near post.

blues2win wrote:I think we looked a lot more solid defensively when we had a central midfield three after half time. I don't like Yaya being part of a defensive midfield two against the teams with quality midfield like Arsenal. I'm not just saying that after the event; I posted that when I saw the team sheet.

Lescott's pitiful effort on the touch line was clearly his fault( I've seen him do that before which is why I don't see him in a back three). However, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on the poor headed clearance because he looked as though he was caught by surprise by Garcia's dreadful flick at the near post.

The touch line effort was poor but anyone blaming him for the goal is a tit, he barely even saw it. Garcia misjudged the flight of the ball at the near post & none of the players behind him saw it.

Why Lescott was the bloke defending his own clearence & no other City player was there to deal with it is a more important point.

Ted Hughes wrote:

blues2win wrote:I think we looked a lot more solid defensively when we had a central midfield three after half time. I don't like Yaya being part of a defensive midfield two against the teams with quality midfield like Arsenal. I'm not just saying that after the event; I posted that when I saw the team sheet.

Lescott's pitiful effort on the touch line was clearly his fault( I've seen him do that before which is why I don't see him in a back three). However, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on the poor headed clearance because he looked as though he was caught by surprise by Garcia's dreadful flick at the near post.

The touch line effort was poor but anyone blaming him for the goal is a tit, he barely even saw it. Garcia misjudged the flight of the ball at the near post & none of the players behind him saw it.

Why Lescott was the bloke defending his own clearence & no other City player was there to deal with it is a more important point.

If that Lescott performance was Nastis performance you would have been over it like a rash....he was skinned in this game and if it wasnt for SHITE finishing then it would have been a different story.

You are right about the goal against,Ive watched it again and the cunt knew very little of that ball coming to him..it was Garcias fault but that still doesnt detract from another below average performance from Lescott.

I saw FUCKALL that you saw, to claim we are starting to resemble something like last season in defence , we are all over the plaqce...actually, we are all over the place everywhere on the pitch.

Mancini seems to have lost the fuckign plot.

carl_feedthegoat wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

blues2win wrote:I think we looked a lot more solid defensively when we had a central midfield three after half time. I don't like Yaya being part of a defensive midfield two against the teams with quality midfield like Arsenal. I'm not just saying that after the event; I posted that when I saw the team sheet.

Lescott's pitiful effort on the touch line was clearly his fault( I've seen him do that before which is why I don't see him in a back three). However, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on the poor headed clearance because he looked as though he was caught by surprise by Garcia's dreadful flick at the near post.

The touch line effort was poor but anyone blaming him for the goal is a tit, he barely even saw it. Garcia misjudged the flight of the ball at the near post & none of the players behind him saw it.

Why Lescott was the bloke defending his own clearence & no other City player was there to deal with it is a more important point.

If that Lescott performance was Nastis performance you would have been over it like a rash....he was skinned in this game and if it wasnt for SHITE finishing then it would have been a different story.

You are right about the goal against,Ive watched it again and the cunt knew very little of that ball coming to him..it was Garcias fault but that still doesnt detract from another below average performance from Lescott.

I saw FUCKALL that you saw, to claim we are starting to resemble something like last season in defence , we are all over the plaqce...actually, we are all over the place everywhere on the pitch.

Mancini seems to have lost the fuckign plot.

He wasn't skinned at all apart from the incident I referred to, he was filling holes, along with Vinny, left by our tactical shambles.

If you think Nastasic would catch Gervinho on his own you're fucking deluding yourself. Our defenders were often left 1v1 against quicker players. If you do that, you are asking a lot of any defence & the fact that they managed to prevent Arsenal from getting any easy chances is the reason I think they did ok. Put any other back 4 in the same situation & they will struggle.

Ted Hughes wrote:

carl_feedthegoat wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

blues2win wrote:I think we looked a lot more solid defensively when we had a central midfield three after half time. I don't like Yaya being part of a defensive midfield two against the teams with quality midfield like Arsenal. I'm not just saying that after the event; I posted that when I saw the team sheet.

Lescott's pitiful effort on the touch line was clearly his fault( I've seen him do that before which is why I don't see him in a back three). However, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on the poor headed clearance because he looked as though he was caught by surprise by Garcia's dreadful flick at the near post.

The touch line effort was poor but anyone blaming him for the goal is a tit, he barely even saw it. Garcia misjudged the flight of the ball at the near post & none of the players behind him saw it.

Why Lescott was the bloke defending his own clearence & no other City player was there to deal with it is a more important point.

If that Lescott performance was Nastis performance you would have been over it like a rash....he was skinned in this game and if it wasnt for SHITE finishing then it would have been a different story.

You are right about the goal against,Ive watched it again and the cunt knew very little of that ball coming to him..it was Garcias fault but that still doesnt detract from another below average performance from Lescott.

I saw FUCKALL that you saw, to claim we are starting to resemble something like last season in defence , we are all over the plaqce...actually, we are all over the place everywhere on the pitch.

Mancini seems to have lost the fuckign plot.

He wasn't skinned at all apart from the incident I referred to, he was filling holes, along with Vinny, left by our tactical shambles.

If you think Nastasic would catch Gervinho on his own you're fucking deluding yourself. Our defenders were often left 1v1 against quicker players. If you do that, you are asking a lot of any defence & the fact that they managed to prevent Arsenal from getting any easy chances is the reason I think they did ok. Put any other back 4 in the same situation & they will struggle.

Lets just agree, that right now, we are a fuckign shambles.

Garcia is playing too deep. Continually. He's not breaking up play. He is getting bypassed before he gets in anyones' face. He's not covering wide players.

BUT, he will get better. As he gets better, so will our results.