The mancityfans.net football forum

The days of Real and Barca bullying everyone else for their best players are over.

patrickblue wrote:The days of Real and Barca bullying everyone else for their best players are over.

much to the dismay of the fat cunt that runs la liga

patrickblue wrote:The days of Real and Barca bullying everyone else for their best players are over.

I suspect they can still bully everyone else for their best players. Everyone but City.

Not sure why anyone would want to leave the team playing probably the best football on the planet. Fringe players might want to get more football but even those on the far edges of the first team will look at Fab Ian Delph and think "that could be me next week".

blues-clues wrote:

patrickblue wrote:The days of Real and Barca bullying everyone else for their best players are over.

I suspect they can still bully everyone else for their best players. Everyone but City.

Not sure why anyone would want to leave the team playing probably the best football on the planet. Fringe players might want to get more football but even those on the far edges of the first team will look at Fab Ian Delph and think "that could be me next week".

In all fairness, they probably couldn't bully the Scum for their best players...........but it's not because of the finances at the Swamp; more a reality that Mourinho doesn't have any players worth going after.

Nigels Tackle wrote:

patrickblue wrote:The days of Real and Barca bullying everyone else for their best players are over.

much to the dismay of the fat cunt that runs la liga

I hope he chokes on his paella.

Did I honestly see Pogba promoting the women's game at half-time?

Oh the irony!

A challenge Chopper Harris would be proud of apparently :



Manchester City's lacklustre display against Feyenoord a warning to Pep Guardiola that they are still human

The Blues took until the 88th minute to break through with Raheem Sterling's cool finish after struggling to find a cutting edge

COMMENTS

By

David AndersonFootball And Boxing Correspondent

06:37, 22 NOV 2017

We are part of the Trust Project

Play Video

TAP TO PLAY

WATCH NEXTUS Navy pilot draws giant image of a penis in the

GUARDIOLA FACES PRESS AFTER EDGING FEYENOORD 1-0

Get Football updates directly to your inbox

+ Subscribe

So Manchester City are human after all.

Just when it looked like they were beings from another planet because of their extraordinary football, they proved they are mortal.

Raheem Sterling’s 88th-minute winner did extend their record winning run to 17 games, but it was hardly a convincing display from City.

Yes, the pressure was off because they had already qualified for the Champions League group stages, and, yes, Pep Guardiola made seven changes to rest some of his big names.

But that does not excuse this pedestrian display as they just about got over the line to claim top spot against Group F’s whipping boys Feyenoord.

After their champagne football of recent months, this had all the fizz of a flat Coke.

Raheem Sterling wheels away in delight (Image: AFP)READ MOREWhy Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus won't play together for Manchester City until APRIL

Apart from Sterling’s well-worked goal, the only bright moment amidst the gloom was a debut for 17-year-old Phil Foden.

Eighteen-year-old Brahim Diaz also got a run-out at the death to show City’s expensive academy is delivering.

Guardiola used the game to give understudies Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Yaya Toure a chance to take centre stage at the Etihad.

While Gundogan assisted for Sterling’s winner, Silva and Toure fluffed their lines to underline how reliant City are on their star players.

There was no David Silva, Fernandinho, Gabriel Jesus or Leroy Sane in the starting XI - and it showed.

Guardiola admits he cannot accommodate Aguero and Jesus in the same attack, so it was the Argentinian’s turn to start.

Aguero was hungry to add to his record goals haul and shot into Brad Jones’ arms before he arrowed a header from Kevin de Bruyne’s left-wing cross just over.

It was disappointing from City and Ederson miscontrolled Jones’ punt upfield to give Jean-Paul Boetius a sniff of goal before the Brazilian snuffed out the danger with a great tackle.

The England international lifts the ball over the goalkeeper (Image: Getty Images Europe)

Sterling is mobbed by his team-mates (Image: Getty Images Europe)READ MOREDutch invasion: Thousands of Feyenoord fans take over Manchester as flares and smoke bombs are let off before City clash

Sam Larsson then curled a right-foot shot just past Ederson’s far post to give Feyenoord’s wonderful travelling support at the opposite end something to shout about.

The home fans took their cue from City’s stuttering display and the usually-rampant Blues struggled to get out of second gear.

Silva looked as nervous as a learner driver when he weakly side-footed a shot straight at Jones after great approach play by Sterling.

City’s ragged display was summed up when the mercurial de Bruyne unceremoniously up-ended Steven Berghuis just outside the box with a challenge Chopper Harris would have been proud of and Larsson fired over from the free-kick.

Sergio Aguero was blunted in front of goal by the Dutch side (Image: Getty Images Europe)

The Belgian playmaker looked more like his old self when he fired just wide before making way for Jesus.

City tried to break the deadlock and Toure fired wide from a free-kick.

Feyenoord grew in confidence and they might have snatched it when Berghuis controlled the ball before unleashing a left-foot shot, which Ederson touched over.

That was a warning to City and Aguero should have settled it when he chested the ball down in the box only to shoot wide.

City needed a lift and Guardiola provided it 15 minutes from time when he handed Under-17 World Cup winner Foden, the Blues’ first millennial player, his debut in place of Toure.

On came City’s future to replace City’s past.

Back to the present and Sterling clinched it two minutes from time for City when he exchanged passed with Gundogan to finish neatly past Jones.

POLL LOADING

Where's that from?

Just a reminder that they just can't wait for us to fail. Our media are just the dregs

Guardiola admits he cannot accommodate Aguero and Jesus in the same attack, so it was the Argentinian’s turn to start.

When was that?

Nickyboy wrote:Guardiola admits he cannot accommodate Aguero and Jesus in the same attack, so it was the Argentinian’s turn to start.

When was that?

Prematch press conference:

"In that moment [when Aguero and Jesus played together] we had Mendy and when you have Mendy you [the left-back] play wide and the winger can go inside," Guardiola explained.

"Without Mendy, Delph cannot do that and you have to go wide with Sane. That is the only reason why they don't play together."

Justified logic wrote:Where's that from?

The M****r.

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:

Justified logic wrote:Where's that from?

The M****r.

Ah. I might have guessed.

Thanks

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Just a reminder that they just can't wait for us to fail. Our media are just the dregs

This.

You can imagine that they're all lining up like a pack of hyenas, licking their collective lips at the thought of us performing at a lesser level than of late and sharpening their teeth to rip our throats out at the slightest opportunity.

I hope they're waiting in vain for a long, long time and suffer the pangs of journalistic starvation in the interim.

Original Dub wrote:A challenge Chopper Harris would be proud of apparently :
Manchester City's lacklustre display against Feyenoord a warning to Pep Guardiola that they are still human
The Blues took until the 88th minute to break through with Raheem Sterling's cool finish after struggling to find a cutting edge
David Anderson Football And Boxing Correspondent

David's a Coleraine man missing his spuds apparently and now he's the Mirror's northern sports correspondent with a specialism
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... s-11535896

Great interview with Robinho, alot on his time here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... Jesus.html

johnny crossan wrote:

Original Dub wrote:A challenge Chopper Harris would be proud of apparently :
Manchester City's lacklustre display against Feyenoord a warning to Pep Guardiola that they are still human
The Blues took until the 88th minute to break through with Raheem Sterling's cool finish after struggling to find a cutting edge
David Anderson Football And Boxing Correspondent

David's a Coleraine man missing his spuds apparently and now he's the Mirror's northern sports correspondent with a specialism
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... s-11535896

he's also ginger

Nigels Tackle wrote:

johnny crossan wrote:

Original Dub wrote:A challenge Chopper Harris would be proud of apparently :
Manchester City's lacklustre display against Feyenoord a warning to Pep Guardiola that they are still human
The Blues took until the 88th minute to break through with Raheem Sterling's cool finish after struggling to find a cutting edge
David Anderson Football And Boxing Correspondent

David's a Coleraine man missing his spuds apparently and now he's the Mirror's northern sports correspondent with a specialism
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... s-11535896

he's also ginger

Racist

Not sure if you guys know of Football365's Mediawatch, but it's usually an enjoyable read of them destroying some 'expert's' quotes.

For instance; http://www.football365.com/news/mediawa ... -this-form

This will shock you but…
…Stan Collymore thinks the Premier League is rubbish because Manchester City are running away with the title (‘League is Premier in name only’). It’s almost as if… oh you know the ending by now.



And there’s more
Sticking with Collymore, because he actually manages to use Manchester City’s dominance of the Premier League as a stick with which to beat Manchester City. You have to admit that that is fine, fine work.

‘Tottenham are probably the only team in England, everything considered, that I would pay money to watch,’ Collymore writes in his Daily Mirror column.

‘Not Manchester City – good to watch, but I just can’t get excited about them as a club. They are trying to build the best team with the biggest budget. What does that mean?

‘Is it a great team or do they simply have the biggest budget? Anyone can do that.’

There you go, Pep Guardiola. Don’t for a minute think you are special for the way Manchester City are playing at the moment, in the Premier League and Champions League. Because ‘anyone could do that’.

It’s weird City pay Guardiola so much money really, rather than just picking a fan out of the crowd each week.

and here's their recent view on the Feyernood game http://www.football365.com/news/mediawa ... minos-goal

It’s all going wrong
On Tuesday evening, Manchester City won their 17th match in a row in all competitions. Even if you count the shoot-out victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers as technically a draw, it’s fair to say that City are on a pretty good run.

Before their game with Feyenoord, which they won, City had already qualified for the knock-out stages, and from the moment Napoli took the lead against Shakhtar top spot in the group had also been confirmed with one game remaining. A chance for a gentle evening, then, and the opportunity to give chances to a couple of young players too.

So quite what put the Daily Mirror’s David Anderson in such a grump is unclear. Anderson wasn’t just unimpressed by City; he was angry.

‘The home fans took their cue from City’s stuttering display and the usually-rampant Blues struggled to get out of second gear.’
It’s almost as if they didn’t need to, Dave.

‘City’s ragged display was summed up when the mercurial de Bruyne unceremoniously up-ended (sic) Steven Berghuis just outside the box with a challenge Chopper Harris would have been proud of and Larsson fired over from the free-kick.’
The definition of ‘mercurial’ is ‘subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood’, and strongly hints at inconsistency. Mediawatch can think of few more inappropriate adjectives for Kevin de Bruyne.

‘Yes, the pressure was off because they had already qualified for the Champions League group stages, and, yes, Pep Guardiola made seven changes to rest some of his big names. But that does not excuse this pedestrian display as they just about got over the line to claim top spot against Group F’s whipping boys Feyenoord.’
Why doesn’t that excuse it? If they won a game they didn’t have to win and took the opportunity to rest key players, Mediawatch is struggling to see the issue.

The principal conclusion would seem to be this: If they’re having a pop at you for winning and keeping a clean sheet with a weakened team, things are probably going pretty well.