****City v Newcastle MATCH THREAD****

[dick dastardley]

and if pellers keeps saying we are unlucky and playing well i'll get even more pissed off.

we rely solely on silva and aguero.

He does keep saying it, maybe we should just record what he has to say and play it aft every game

[sheblue]

It will be okay dzeko and Jovetic are world class.

Flicking shote the pair of them.

But that's only a TINY part of the problem.

God I am not looking forward to Monday morning, thanks manuel fucking thanks.

[everyonehatesus]

we've been shit from the off, ok we've had a couple of ok games but when it matters we've been guttless, lack gears and ideas. Its been shambolic at best.
I dont have any answers but someone needs to work a few out or we can right this season off, we now have a bloody big game on our hands this weekend. they will be full of it from their result the weekend and our last couple.
Our players need to react and come out bloody fighting.

[patrickblue]

Last time I saw us play that bad, Bobby got sacked next morning.
Still, the Geordies didn't have to sing "where were you when you were shit".

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

No, we won it because we had the bottle to do it on both occasions and the other teams didn't.

Oh fucking hell, that's a bit tenious isn't it?
So we showed a lot of bottle by scraping it on goal difference and liverpool fucking up did we?

We won the last 6 games of the season in the run-in against the rags, and the last 5 against the dippers, whilst they were fucking up. Hardly tenuous.

[Nick]

after the pairing of negredo and aguero going tits up; why the fuck did we not address the problem? the 3 we have left dont look like they can play together.

our early season form last year relied on negredo and aguero linking up and the others like navas etc all chipped in when our tails were up.

dzeko is shite when we need a spark and jove needs the pressure off.

:(

[zuricity]

after the pairing of negredo and aguero going tits up; why the fuck did we not address the problem? the 3 we have left dont look like they can play together.

our early season form last year relied on negredo and aguero linking up and the others like navas etc all chipped in when our tails were up.

dzeko is shite when we need a spark and jove needs the pressure off.

:(

Jovetic is average at best. Shouldn't be anywhere near this team.

[City64]

after the pairing of negredo and aguero going tits up; why the fuck did we not address the problem? the 3 we have left dont look like they can play together.

our early season form last year relied on negredo and aguero linking up and the others like navas etc all chipped in when our tails were up.

dzeko is shite when we need a spark and jove needs the pressure off.

:(

And we are shit at the back aswell.

[nottsblue]

Can we please, as a group of sensible people, stop romantisising how we won the league? On either occasion? We won both times because the team that should have won it cocked it completely up

Got to disagree here. The team that is top of the pile after 38 games deseves it. People can argue that rags and dippers/chavs let it slip but that is down to the pressure we put them under. Both titles were well deserved

[twosips]

Only thing worse than the performance was the fucking shite atmosphere. I'm sick to death with the "match day experience" at the Etihad - it's a depressingly sterile environment. It was just 90 minutes of groaning and sighing and people sat there looking miserable either slagging off Dzeko or Yaya. Totally inane depressing bollocks.

I found myself feeling fed up twenty minutes in. The whole stadium was so anxious and you could actually see it reflected on the pitch, even through players like Milner. He started working harder but he was desperate and increasingly erratic as a result. Loads of misplaced passes and bowed heads.

It's become a pretty naff place to play football and I'd not really be looking forward to it that much at the moment as a city player. The fans just do fuck all and don't get behind the team. It's pathetic.

[Green & Blue]

Silva has a twisted knee so surely out for the next couple of matches. Toure apparently ok. I hope Jovetic plays on Sunday. He never stopped trying and stood out in a poor bunch.

I can't fault jovetic for effort but he had countless stray passes tonight.

[Goaters 103]

Im not sure the words exist to fully explain how abject that was tonight.

I never leave games early, yet tonight I did giving up with 5 mins to go when Navas sidefooted wide from 7 yards.

That's the worst home performance since Forest in the FA Cup in January 2009. There wasn't one City player who did himself any justice at all, and Id give special shout-outs to Sagna and Dzeko who put forward genuine 0 out of 10 showings. Neither of them did anything in the game that helped us in any way; every time they touched it they gave possession back to Newcastle or tapped it over the dead ball line to concede goal-kicks or throw-ins.

Im a Dzeko fan but on nights like tonight I struggle to see why Pellegrini left him on for the full 90. As for Sagna - on a free transfer we were still fookin robbed. Fernandinho belonged in their company as well, whilst Toure is what Toure has been for 95% of this season, a passenger.

Newcastle were average and still won with a cigar on, with their B team. I think that sums the night up perfectly.

[City64]

Im not sure the words exist to fully explain how abject that was tonight.

I never leave games early, yet tonight I did giving up with 5 mins to go when Navas sidefooted wide from 7 yards.

That's the worst home performance since Forest in the FA Cup in January 2009. There wasn't one City player who did himself any justice at all, and Id give special shout-outs to Sagna and Dzeko who put forward genuine 0 out of 10 showings. Neither of them did anything in the game that helped us in any way; every time they touched it they gave possession back to Newcastle or tapped it over the dead ball line to concede goal-kicks or throw-ins.

Im a Dzeko fan but on nights like tonight I struggle to see why Pellegrini left him on for the full 90. As for Sagna - on a free transfer we were still fookin robbed. Fernandinho belonged in their company as well, whilst Toure is what Toure has been for 95% of this season, a passenger.

Newcastle were average and still won with a cigar on, with their B team. I think that sums the night up perfectly.

Worst performance for quite a few years , Pelligrini also panicked with his team selection and substitutions , it doesn't look a happy camp at all at the moment.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Silva has a twisted knee so surely out for the next couple of matches. Toure apparently ok. I hope Jovetic plays on Sunday. He never stopped trying and stood out in a poor bunch.

I can't fault jovetic for effort but he had countless stray passes tonight.

I think that's the nature of his game. He tries little flicks and passes that if they come off get us into dangerous positions, and if they don't they look wasteful.

[Original Dub]

We look completely off because our simple one touch passing has gone to shit. Because of this, teams are closing us down on every breaking ball and our players are passing it slower or taking two touches which slows down our overall play.

We look a slower team and I don't know if it's because of lack of confidence in one touch passing, or we simply aren't concentrating on close play/5 asides in training, as much as we were last season.

We don't have lightening quick players, but you don't need them if your passing is crisp and without second thought.

We either inject some pace in the squad that gives us a plan B for times like this, or we need to make sure our passing stays on point. It looks like the latter is our style through thick and thin, so they better get back on the training ground pronto and sort it out NOW before this really does become a crisis.

We need to stop complicating it so much. A lot of the panicky passing at the back is obviously down to the constant changing of our rear guard, but up front I can only think it's a confidence thing right now.

Get back to basics Manuel and fucking quick.

[AG7]

Only thing worse than the performance was the fucking shite atmosphere. I'm sick to death with the "match day experience" at the Etihad - it's a depressingly sterile environment. It was just 90 minutes of groaning and sighing and people sat there looking miserable either slagging off Dzeko or Yaya. Totally inane depressing bollocks.

I found myself feeling fed up twenty minutes in. The whole stadium was so anxious and you could actually see it reflected on the pitch, even through players like Milner. He started working harder but he was desperate and increasingly erratic as a result. Loads of misplaced passes and bowed heads.

It's become a pretty naff place to play football and I'd not really be looking forward to it that much at the moment as a city player. The fans just do fuck all and don't get behind the team. It's pathetic.

This ...

Just like players walk around thinking someone else will go and make that tackle and get the possession back for us or make that tackle and defend for us ... is the fans sitting there, thinking someone else would make the fucking noise while I sit here and relax ...

[PrezIke]

Aye we have talent. But it's pretty much the same team that won the league 3 seasons ago. It feels very much like we've stood still whilst Chelsea have strengthened 2 years running, even Wenger has got his purse out for flair players.

When players like hazard, Sanchez, Suarez, fabregas and di maria have all made moves in the past 2 years, it feels criminal to me that we've signed squad fillers. We all need a squad filler, but we also need somebody new to come in and make it spicy. We haven't had that since aguero. Unless you count Scott Sinclair.

difficult to argue against this point.

why?

also difficult to assess.

we missed out on hazard.

think the club wanted the previous team to see what they could do under a new manager.

so...we won some trophies, and progressed in the cl so confidence was high.

yet, it is harder to see the team remaining the same after the next two windows, even with a turnaround. too many players at/near/past their peak or performing below what we need of them.

did concerns about ffp affect our transfer policy? i think so, and why i think frustration about our attempts at compliance with ffp were expressed. we spent big in the past to land many of our key players. silva, yaya, aguero, nasri, milner, etc.

we have not done so much of late for top quality commodities perhaps because the costs to buy are far higher, and we are not real madrid, united, barca, etc. in terms of revenues.

i think we seem to have been more responsible the past few seasons but we have some valuable players to many clubs, and have strong negotiation/talent assessment skills with txiki.

not sure who we are targeting, but we have been quite clandestine about this since he has come aboard. it would be difficult to see us not making a pretty big move by this summer, winning things or not.

[phips]

just watched the match.

utter garbage. very worrying times.

[stevefromdonny]

I am getting worried by how away team s are coming here and know how we are. Going to play. The away teams just sit back and then counter attack us on the break.. We need to up our passing and to attack at speed. None of this pass pass pass near the halfway line.

[stevefromdonny]

I am getting worried by how away team s are coming here and know how we are. Going to play. The away teams just sit back and then counter attack us on the break.. We need to up our passing and to attack at speed. None of this pass pass pass near the halfway line.