***city v villa official match thread***

[Ted Hughes]

Just a point; I've mentioned the near post all season as I believe we are missing goals every single game. On motd, we see the early chances, one of which involves Navas breaking away as he did v West Ham when Aguero scored.

Difference; instead of running up near Navas, like v Wham Aguero drops back to the edge of the box 20 yards away, Navas gets blocked off..

WHY ? We just scored the fucking goal last week, why the fuck doesn't he just run in there again & get the ten yard pass off Navas & fucking score ? Why make it a 20 yard pass ?

Happened with both Navas & Kolarov today, at least 4 or 5 chances. The one where Aguero was fouled for the pen not given, he was miles away from Navas yet again needing a difficult pass.

Stupid.

[iwasthere2012]

I'd like to know what is going on behind the scenes. I don't recognise this team at all. Utter shite.

Exactly my sentiments.
Something is really wrong about this.
Roll on the summer. It cant come quick enough.

[Dameerto]

I'm more concerned with why we regularly stop playing as a team for large spells of the game (or seemingly stop playing to instructions) and why the manager appears to have very little effect on the players once they're on the pitch other than making substitutions.
And those first twenty-thirty minutes don't count if we don't take out chances.

But they do count if we are assessing whether we deserved to win the game or not. Not just the middle bit counts, the whole thing does. We did create more than Villa & we did deserve to win.

The manager does not tell the players to stop working. They can't do it.

We each had 4 shots on target, Villa had more shots off target than us - Villa also had more possession than us. Pellegrini described it as one of our worst performances while in possession and I agree with him.

[Beefymcfc]

Fucking love it! Sky, with Stan, Talksport with Stan, skriking about how illa should'e won the game, but they didn't and we're now sat above the Arse nan Rags; Dippers lose, so there's a bonus ........... for us!

Fuck the fucking lot of them, I thought we deserved it and Villa were lucky, just. The way the Rag scum carry on you'd think they want us to lose and be well away from the top 4!

Do you remember the days of the Sky 4, Rags, Arse, Dippers & Chavs? Fuck, how much would these fuckers like to see the old regime back to normal.

Thank fuck for City, we have made it really happen.

If you thought we deserved it, your blue tinted specs really have no limits

We were fucking abject, the only good thing on our horizon was that we kept playing bent eke offside, and even that went tits up and should have resulted in a penalty and sending off for hart.

On the topic of hart, couple of good interventions, but aside from that my God he was fucking horrendous

Blue tints? What was the score again?

Some people.

[MilnersJaw]

These last few games Milner has looked really shit, like he doesn't give a fuck. Seems to have all started when news he was maybe leaving.

[Mase]

Was Villa's first goal offside? How many times has this happened to us this season? Is anything going to happen to these officials that keep fuckin up?!

[Im_Spartacus]

Fucking love it! Sky, with Stan, Talksport with Stan, skriking about how illa should'e won the game, but they didn't and we're now sat above the Arse nan Rags; Dippers lose, so there's a bonus ........... for us!

Fuck the fucking lot of them, I thought we deserved it and Villa were lucky, just. The way the Rag scum carry on you'd think they want us to lose and be well away from the top 4!

Do you remember the days of the Sky 4, Rags, Arse, Dippers & Chavs? Fuck, how much would these fuckers like to see the old regime back to normal.

Thank fuck for City, we have made it really happen.

If you thought we deserved it, your blue tinted specs really have no limits

We were fucking abject, the only good thing on our horizon was that we kept playing bent eke offside, and even that went tits up and should have resulted in a penalty and sending off for hart.

On the topic of hart, couple of good interventions, but aside from that my God he was fucking horrendous

Blue tints? What was the score again?

Some people.

Some people bury their heads in the sand whilst others see a very disappointing performance amidst many other disappointing performances and worry about the pattern. The last two games have been virtually identical to those that went before, other than the outcome, it doesn't mean the problem has gone away does it?

You make good contributions to footballing discussions, yet a seemingly clever bloke can't see any problem with what is on the pitch, just because we got 3 points - that's blue tinted specs defined right there

Considering even Pellegrini found the performance disappointing, you seem to be in a minority of 1 who saw nothing wrong with yesterday's performance

[Herb]

Hart is fucking shit . Good for ferd one of our most consistent players.

Hart is beyond shit. blond fucking donkey. would pay money to get rid.

Watch out fella's, Nigella's Tickle will start a thread dedicated to calling you a cunt for daring to speak the truth about Joe the clown and his flippy flappy comedy capers .

[Nigels Tackle]

Hart is fucking shit . Good for ferd one of our most consistent players.

Hart is beyond shit. blond fucking donkey. would pay money to get rid.

Watch out fella's, Nigella's Tickle will start a thread dedicated to calling you a cunt for daring to speak the truth about Joe the clown and his flippy flappy comedy capers .

joe was only as shit the rest of the cunts on show yesterday

[Ted Hughes]

I'm more concerned with why we regularly stop playing as a team for large spells of the game (or seemingly stop playing to instructions) and why the manager appears to have very little effect on the players once they're on the pitch other than making substitutions.
And those first twenty-thirty minutes don't count if we don't take out chances.

But they do count if we are assessing whether we deserved to win the game or not. Not just the middle bit counts, the whole thing does. We did create more than Villa & we did deserve to win.

The manager does not tell the players to stop working. They can't do it.

We each had 4 shots on target, Villa had more shots off target than us - Villa also had more possession than us. Pellegrini described it as one of our worst performances while in possession and I agree with him.

Pellegrini is right, you are right ; Villa had more possession & more shots on target & should have lost by more goals.

City created more chances & should have had at least one penalty & been 3 or 4 up before Villa did anything meaningful in the game. They had more possession but they were lucky to get even close to City in a game which should have been over & would have been in the ref had given Aguero a pen. They got the benefit of a blatant offside chance & missed it but are bleating about a 50/50 decision at the death.

They played the best they will ever play & lost because even on a shit day, City created more chances & won.

Nobody says we deserved to win when we have 80% possession & some cunt scores from one shot on target.

Well yesterday was our turn. We created the chances & should have won by more. And we deserved to win.

[Beefymcfc]

Fucking love it! Sky, with Stan, Talksport with Stan, skriking about how illa should'e won the game, but they didn't and we're now sat above the Arse nan Rags; Dippers lose, so there's a bonus ........... for us!

Fuck the fucking lot of them, I thought we deserved it and Villa were lucky, just. The way the Rag scum carry on you'd think they want us to lose and be well away from the top 4!

Do you remember the days of the Sky 4, Rags, Arse, Dippers & Chavs? Fuck, how much would these fuckers like to see the old regime back to normal.

Thank fuck for City, we have made it really happen.

If you thought we deserved it, your blue tinted specs really have no limits

We were fucking abject, the only good thing on our horizon was that we kept playing bent eke offside, and even that went tits up and should have resulted in a penalty and sending off for hart.

On the topic of hart, couple of good interventions, but aside from that my God he was fucking horrendous

Blue tints? What was the score again?

Some people.

Some people bury their heads in the sand whilst others see a very disappointing performance amidst many other disappointing performances and worry about the pattern. The last two games have been virtually identical to those that went before, other than the outcome, it doesn't mean the problem has gone away does it?

You make good contributions to footballing discussions, yet a seemingly clever bloke can't see any problem with what is on the pitch, just because we got 3 points - that's blue tinted specs defined right there

Considering even Pellegrini found the performance disappointing, you seem to be in a minority of 1 who saw nothing wrong with yesterday's performance

I'm fairly certain that I haven't really mentioned the performance apart from this so I'm not quite sure where you're getting it from, unless it's to aid your debate.

I'm at the match steaming!!

I don't usually get that way but I'll admit, that wasn't the best. We seemed to take it easy, knowing we are winning. We didn't try to get forward and allowed them space. Villa have a game plan which is similar to what we've seen for years but that fuck-up let us in.

It said it all when Kolarov had a throw-in and said 'For Fuck Sake' as nobody was moving for him. No wonder we're saying that Pellers is here next season!

We as City fans have come to expect more and we'e all complained about not getting wins when we have plenty of possession and enough chances to be out of sight. However, this wasn't one of those games and it was a game that all's we needed was a win, to give us confidence going forward.

All this 'Deserved' stuff just irritates me because the reality is we won 3-2 with an excellent last minute goal. The media et al can say all they want about the offside foul on Benteke (not goal) but the truth is it was easy to see why it wasn't given as when you look at the line it's only Demi's heel of his foot that's playing him onside while he's actually running away from goal. From the lino's pov Benteke would of certainly looked offside, and probably was when the ball was actually played.

And let's not forget Benteke could/should have been flagged for their 1st goal and the possibility of us having a couple of penalty shouts dismissed, one which I though was nailed on. Swings and roundabouts I'd say.

What does make me laugh is that Fernandinho scores a fairly spectacular goal to win us the game in the last minute yet the world and his dog can't even be arsed talking about it. If that was Wiggy, Stevie Me, Hazard or any other player, it would be lauded as some kind of super goal, being shown over and over, non-stop looped to keep us informed of how good they are, but not us. From yesterdays build-up, commentary and post-match, what I got was that they were all gunning for a Villa win. Whether it be because they see Villa as a team who shouldn't be relegation threatened, prefer to see City below the Rags and scrapping with the Dippers, or because they now have Sherwood there, I'm not sure but it felt like everybody was ainst us, even the ref.

The performance was not the best, we've been lacklustre for a number of months now and we are well aware of how we've done, but to not take heart out of a game where we could've walked it but ended up having to come back from the brink, is not in my nature.

I'll take those points and take a little heart in us being above the Rags and Arse, for 24 hours at least, and then hope we can build on what we've got for the last 4 games. If we play that way again and win, I don't really care, points in the bag are what counts, not pretty football.

Edit: And has anybody seen the report that Villa had the most possession at the Etihad than any other team in 6 years? BBC stats say they had 55% possession but I seem the remember the Dippers game in the 1st PL winning season where they had around 65%. We went on to beat them 3-0.

Not like the media to do such things is it. Sort of goes to back-up the line that most of them were wanting a Villa win, even if it was just to spout more shit about our club.

[Cocacolajojo1]

On hart, he did really well to smother the ball on two occasions that's his strength and there's probably few better, but beyond that, his kicking and general decision making was again, a disgrace, a total and utter fucking disgrace. I'm not even particularly pissed off with him about their goals, I'm just really fucking annoyed about the fact that he loses posession for us every time he touches it.

He did not lose possession for us every time he touched the ball. He passed it short as often as he could but when the midfield is as lethargic as ours is, he has no choice but to punt it long or he'll put our defenders under unnecessaryu pressure. His aim was poor yesterday, I can agree with that, but it doesn't really help when the receiving city players are 50 centiimeters long and Agüero does not even bother to fight for the ball. If you look at the replays you'll see he more than not does an adebayor and can't even be bothered and lets the oppo players step in infront of him. And the height is perhaps an explanation but not an excuse, as Tevez could play target player under Mancini and did it with some aplomb if I remember correctly. Then when Bony came on we started winning more of those long balls because he was able but also willing to fight for them.

[Im_Spartacus]

On hart, he did really well to smother the ball on two occasions that's his strength and there's probably few better, but beyond that, his kicking and general decision making was again, a disgrace, a total and utter fucking disgrace. I'm not even particularly pissed off with him about their goals, I'm just really fucking annoyed about the fact that he loses posession for us every time he touches it.

He did not lose possession for us every time he touched the ball. He passed it short as often as he could but when the midfield is as lethargic as ours is, he has no choice but to punt it long or he'll put our defenders under unnecessaryu pressure. His aim was poor yesterday, I can agree with that, but it doesn't really help when the receiving city players are 50 centiimeters long and Agüero does not even bother to fight for the ball. If you look at the replays you'll see he more than not does an adebayor and can't even be bothered and lets the oppo players step in infront of him. And the height is perhaps an explanation but not an excuse, as Tevez could play target player under Mancini and did it with some aplomb if I remember correctly. Then when Bony came on we started winning more of those long balls because he was able but also willing to fight for them.

I agree totally about Aguero, but this just begs the question about Harts decision making to keep booting the fucking thing to a midget!

Every time we go under pressure, Hart's head goes and he starts booting the fucking thing aimlessly, at which point the ball comes straight back because we don't have any presence in the area he's kicking it. Not just yesterday, but time and time again the pattern is the same.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

3 very welcome points but fuck me we are a broken fucking mess !!!! Atmosphere in the Etihad was the worst yet and that is saying something for this season. At least we didn't give up but boy that was hard to watch . Just about to get on my train totally fucking depressed and we have won WTF !!!!

Worst atmosphere? Wasn't great, but I thought it was one of the best this season. Even the standing section did some singing

Atmosphere was brilliant considering & fair play to the South Stand mob for getting the whole ground (except Victor) singing.

Pity Joe Hart intervened just as the whole ground was really starting to kick off. Augurs very well for next season when the singing section is officially opened though. Optimistic we may get some proper atmos back next season after seeing that today.

We really do need some fresh blood in the team though; ran out of legs after ten mins again & Aguero again was unfit & just making the best of it. Another 5 or 6 near post goals went begging.

The spontaneous gasp of incredulity wh8ch went round the ground when Kolarov was announced as motm was funny.

Yes, most amusing.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

I thought we deserved to beat Villa. Whether we deserved to beat Joe Hart is another matter.

[Cocacolajojo1]

I agree totally about Aguero, but this just begs the question about Harts decision making to keep booting the fucking thing to a midget!

Every time we go under pressure, Hart's head goes and he starts booting the fucking thing aimlessly, at which point the ball comes straight back because we don't have any presence in the area he's kicking it. Not just yesterday, but time and time again the pattern is the same.

When the midfield and the defense provides outlet, he usually uses it. It's when they don't provide outlet he punts it. And I think we all agree that he shouldn't punt it to Yaya. Hence, the alternative is a bunch of short players who don't put up a fight. With Bony, it's a completely different scenario.

[Im_Spartacus]

I agree totally about Aguero, but this just begs the question about Harts decision making to keep booting the fucking thing to a midget!

Every time we go under pressure, Hart's head goes and he starts booting the fucking thing aimlessly, at which point the ball comes straight back because we don't have any presence in the area he's kicking it. Not just yesterday, but time and time again the pattern is the same.

When the midfield and the defense provides outlet, he usually uses it. It's when they don't provide outlet he punts it. And I think we all agree that he shouldn't punt it to Yaya. Hence, the alternative is a bunch of short players who don't put up a fight. With Bony, it's a completely different scenario.

I agree, but if his 4 defensive outlets are marked, that means that there must be at least 2 players missing from the opposition midfield, space which can be exploited by a clever pass into the space rather than just the big hoof.

Whilst it could be a tactical failing of Pellegrini, the likelihood is that Joe hasn't got the ability to play a neat 40 yard pass to feet because of the risk of it going straight to their centre forward.

As a footballing team looking to break quickly that inflexibility becomes a serious hindrance

[everyonehatesus]

Was Villa's first goal offside? How many times has this happened to us this season? Is anything going to happen to these officials that keep fuckin up?!

But that's making an assumption that they are fucking up...... how many stone wall penalties have we had waved away and all the soft first time tackle bookings do we seem to pick up compared to other top 4 teams. It's no mistake imo

[Cocacolajojo1]

I agree, but if his 4 defensive outlets are marked, that means that there must be at least 2 players missing from the opposition midfield, space which can be exploited by a clever pass into the space rather than just the big hoof

There should be players unmarked but are there? If we had an agile midfield who worked for the team yeah, but we don't. However, I don't know as I'm not at the game and the camera angle is limited I don't know. If you're right, yes, that needs working on probably. But again, the entire team is playing on fumes and as far from a unit as possibly imaginanible. I think it unfair to single out players that much. I could have a go at Fernandinho (well not from yesterday's game) but I think he, as much as any other player, is suffering from playing in a dysfunctional team. Hell, even Caballero might be more of a competition for Hart if the squad got its act together.

[Ted Hughes]

Amazing how Sky have just gone into detail about the goals & Villa's 'offside' but completely ignored the pen on Aguero & the offside for their first goal.

Or perhaps not that amazing when there is almost certainly a rag or scouse or similar loving twat producing the show.