***city v watford official match thread***

[Pretty Boy Lee]

Well played pellers

[iwasthere2012]

Nacho Man.

[bigblue]

come on NACHO get a goal

and hopfully it quites the 'play the youth' brigade

[bigblue]

get in great performance yet again, looks like chelea losing again too

good few touches by Delhp and Nacho at the end as well

[bigblue]

Delph loks like he fits in flawlessly

Sterling looks like the buy of the season

we look incredible

I'm loving being a City fan now!

[Pretty Boy Lee]

Chuffed for sterling getting his goal and nacho getting his debut. Two big pluses for
Me.

[Cocacolajojo1]

Was it just me or did we we go to a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 in the second half, with Sterling playing as the second striker and Nasri to the left and Silva to the right? I liked it but it does seem Agüero gets a bit stiffed in that formation with Sterling taking up similar positions at times.

[Dameerto]

Was it just me or did we we go to a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 in the second half, with Sterling playing as the second striker and Nasri to the left and Silva to the right? I liked it but it does seem Agüero gets a bit stiffed in that formation with Sterling taking up similar positions at times.

It's the sort of shape he uses when Bony and Aguero are on the pitch together.

[iwasthere2012]

Was it just me or did we we go to a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 in the second half, with Sterling playing as the second striker and Nasri to the left and Silva to the right? I liked it but it does seem Agüero gets a bit stiffed in that formation with Sterling taking up similar positions at times.

It's the sort of shape he uses when Bony and Aguero are on the pitch together.

I think, kudos to Manuel, for changing things early. Making the changes to shape with the substitution at half time, opened it up for us. We hit them early before they worked out who was playing where. Nasri fitted in perfectly and gave us a variety we didn't have first half.
We have so many options this year.

[Tru_Blu]

Sagna is going the right way to taking my motm vote today

+1

+2

[Blue Blood]

Top notch from City again today.

Absolutely motoring atm, silky stuff, front to back.

[london blue 2]

Wonderful team performance. I'm saying this for the forth game running. Bodes well.

Loving footy atm

[PrezIke]

Chances created first three games:

Silva: 9
Toure: 7
Kolarov: 7
Navas: 7
Agüero: 4
Sagna: 3
Sterling: 3

This is why stats can be misleading.

In terms of this game, in the first half we kept trying to attack with pace from the wings with Navas and Sterling. Navas had more chances, yes but he did less than I saw Sterling do with them, and apparently Pellegrini agreed that we needed to change things, and Navas's poor execution with crossing, passing and shooting in the final third were not good enough.

Sterling in the 28th minute ran past his opponent with a rather impressive play where he also knocked the ball past his opponent, and I thought, "Is he really going to get that before the defence?" And not only did he, but he then made a good strike on target that the keeper had to make a very good save to prevent from it going in, You do recall that, no?

That in itself was more than I saw Navas do with all of his "chances" where the one time he took a shot it was ridiculously wide and seemed like an errant cross. Some of his crosses looked good but they didn't reach anyone from our team. His one corner I think was the same as well.

Sterling also had one chance earlier were he also ran past his defender receiving the ball from Yaya, but I think it was a very tight space, the defender recovered well and his shot was blocked. we never see Navas do that, and against teams that play like Watford did we need our wingers to help with being a scoring threat since we only use one striker now, especially. Nasri was clearly brought on after the half to address this specifically.

As for the change at the half which someone noted about Sterling going to the middle, and Nasri and Silva out wide, you could see that our attempt to utilize the pace of Sterling and Navas on the wings was not getting the job done. It was a brilliant tactical move that also shows how quick Pellegrini is willing to change things now that he has such options, where the nifty creative passing would come from Silva/Nasri, and we would instead use Sterling's pace and directness to target the centre of the defence. It worked in no time and shows us the value that Sterling gives us which we have lacked.

I am not a Navas hater, as I said I think he has qualities, but in certain situations, against certain opponents he can be a liability, where as I don't see what kind of team would be able to limit Sterling's effectiveness. That will come down to his own ability to finish and remain composed. Thus far he's doing very well, and on the defensive end he is also a huge asset, as we could see in a few situations where he stopped a counter from developing.

[Dameerto]

We tried the same thing we'd been doing for the first three games but Watford had enough data to be able to counter it (and Navas was having a poor game). We changed things at halftime and profited as a result.

[PrezIke]

Sagna is going the right way to taking my motm vote today

+1

+2

He was great. Very tough call between he and Raheem.

[Cocacolajojo1]

It's the sort of shape he uses when Bony and Aguero are on the pitch together.

Off course! Thanks. Aggerrah and Sterling seem like a dream combo up top but they probably need to work at it. Or rather, Agüero needs to adapt. If today is anything to go by. If not, who cares.

[City64]

We are awesome ! We are going to win the league . Gay pride can fuck off ! Shit train ride home ........ THE END ! :-)

[budfox]

Superb today and the other results just the icing on the cake.

Currently 1.57 on Betfair for the Premiership. Not sure I'd have us that short but the money doesn't lie.

Well pleased for Sterling too.

[Nick]

another great result.

atmosphere was absolutely piss poor though. A disgrace that fans can only get up for it for the Chelsea's of this world...

All new faces so looks like not many season ticket holders around 110 this year. And people in the 'standing section' voluntarily sitting down :-\

[john@staustell]

another great result.

atmosphere was absolutely piss poor though. A disgrace that fans can only get up for it for the Chelsea's of this world...

All new faces so looks like not many season ticket holders around 110 this year. And people in the 'standing section' voluntarily sitting down :-\

Trust me mate it was our first time this season and, listening from CB level 3, the atmosphere is 20 times better than the previous arrangement