*** city v stoke official match thread ***

[Grandad Rosler]

De Bruyne and Fernandinho are right off there game for some reason at present ??? Fucking awful frustrating game that never got going and we still missed 2 or 3 chances to win it . Stoke are shite with no ambition and some horrible cynical fouls thrown in but we cant blame them we should have been better !!! Wasted 60 minutes with Navas , no end product and per usual despite creating good positions frustrates the crowd to fuck and his team mates . And Stoke fans celebrate a 0-0 ??? fuck off nuff said night night !!!

Navas is the deal of the day. He didn't do much wrong but gets lambasted. Kev was atrocious tonight and pep needs to drop him.

He didn't do much full stop which is where the frustration lies in my opinion. Agree about Kev though been a few games now he has played like that

[aaron bond]

Poor performance. Similar to our performances a few months ago although at least we didn't concede. Navas offered nothing and Sane was off his game. KDB was poor and only looked lively in the last 15 minutes.

I would rather us have played a full strength side today and rotated on the weekend.

Top 4 is going to be tough for us. Along with United we have by far the hardest run-in. We blew it tonight.

[Pretty Boy Lee]

The problem with navas is the side loses balance instead of being dangerous down both sides and making defenders choose they get to mark sane out the game and know navas does fuck all. Playing with 3 up top and swapping him for nacho should have happene at half time for me.

KDB has been struggling for games now, I said as much last game too. As much as I got laughed at 3 months ago that middle 3 of yaya, Silva and KDB were doing the biz and is still our best attacking setup.

[phips]

and Kevin's dreadful run of form continues (not singling him out as the only one who is off/who had a poor match but just the only one im commenting on)

[phips]

Kev Won't play that bad again. Sane was extremely poor as well.
Big players let us down.

Kev was just as bad last Wednesday.

and before that and before that and before that and before that

[Mase]

The reason we didn't win tonight is our back 4....in my humble opinion they all have to be replaced, although they kept a clean sheet, they offered absolutely nothing going forward and nothing from corners..and sometimes a team really needs that, just the odd goal, but ours....nothing!!

Kolarov' fault.

[london blue 2]

Did Nolito shag Pep's missus?

Started the season decent and scores a few vital goals. Not sure where this relationship broke down.

[Mase]

Did Nolito shag Pep's missus?

Started the season decent and scores a few vital goals. Not sure where this relationship broke down.

Turned down Barca for us as well poor guy

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Kev Won't play that bad again. Sane was extremely poor as well.

Big players let us down.

Kev was just as bad last Wednesday.

Against Huddersfield? Not a chance, he was well below par last night, easily one of his worst overall performances in a City shirt ( until he moved wide ) but he was decent against Huddersfield following a slow enough start to that one.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

Did Nolito shag Pep's missus?

Started the season decent and scores a few vital goals. Not sure where this relationship broke down.

Turned down Barca for us as well poor guy

Can't get my head around it. Pep can't keep putting it down to form when Navas is not producing.

[Justified logic]

Dangerous to prioritise Saturday's FA Cup game over this PL game. Winning the FA Cup only gets us into the Europa League but more results like last night's game with our difficult run in could mean we only get to the Europa League anyway. A bad decision I feel to have taken the killer instinct out of our team last night. Get the game won and then rest players!

[Dub City]

De Bruyne and Fernandinho are right off there game for some reason at present ??? Fucking awful frustrating game that never got going and we still missed 2 or 3 chances to win it . Stoke are shite with no ambition and some horrible cynical fouls thrown in but we cant blame them we should have been better !!! Wasted 60 minutes with Navas , no end product and per usual despite creating good positions frustrates the crowd to fuck and his team mates . And Stoke fans celebrate a 0-0 ??? fuck off nuff said night night !!!

Should that not be wasted 4 years with Navas no end product. Surely gone in summer. Roberts coming back in from Celtic would offer a lot more next season, fuck couldn't offer less.

[Fidel Castro]

Don't get why we rested players for the cup. Boro are shite and will likely put out a second string themselves, seeing as they will be focusing all their energy on avoiding relegation. With our run of games coming up, we could now easily drop out of the top 4. Then again, if we somehow get results in those games we could solidify second or third spot. Not holding my breathe though, we don't tend to do very well vs top 6 sides. Not that we do much better against even the crap sides at home.

[sheblue]

De Bruyne and Fernandinho are right off there game for some reason at present ??? Fucking awful frustrating game that never got going and we still missed 2 or 3 chances to win it . Stoke are shite with no ambition and some horrible cynical fouls thrown in but we cant blame them we should have been better !!! Wasted 60 minutes with Navas , no end product and per usual despite creating good positions frustrates the crowd to fuck and his team mates . And Stoke fans celebrate a 0-0 ??? fuck off nuff said night night !!!

Should that not be wasted 4 years with Navas no end product. Surely gone in summer. Roberts coming back in from Celtic would offer a lot more next season, fuck couldn't offer less.

Good point about Roberts, much better option than Navas.
Navas is and always has been a one trick pony every defender knows what he will try to do.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Leaving out our best two players should not have cost us last night but it probably did. Not really sure it was a mistake because they needed a rest but it was more about simply playing poorly than anything else.

Kevin hasn't hey grabbed a game when given the key central role and last night for 50+ minutes he was well below his best. Silva on and a move to the right and he was quality and puting some great balls in which we should have scored from.

I wanted just one chance for Kelechi and I thought we would win.It came and this time he missed it. Kun worked quite hard but was crowded out most of the time, Sane wasn't at his best either so we were lacking the required quality where it matters most.

Dinho was way off with his passing but at least we were ok at the back with the 2 center backs getting it right apart from the Otter losing his man that one time. The one other player left out who might have made a difference is Zaba. Against a defensive team he has much more to offer than Sagna with his clever runs and looking for one twos.

[South Stand Balti]

I didn't want the rotation any more than anyone else, but I'm not sure anyone was worse last night than Sterling was at Sunderland, especially in the first half. His deflected cross was the sort of luck we lacked last night. The problem for me was our lack of strength in depth. No replacement for Silva and we know Navas is not the answer.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

I didn't want the rotation any more than anyone else, but I'm not sure anyone was worse last night than Sterling was at Sunderland, especially in the first half. His deflected cross was the sort of luck we lacked last night. The problem for me was our lack of strength in depth. No replacement for Silva and we know Navas is not the answer.

KDB was a hell of a lot worse last night than Sterling was against Sunderland. Navas was just there, at least when Sterling is playing poorly, or his touch is letting him down, or whatever, he still commits defenders which opens up space or he makes runs that need to be tracked which also opens up space for others to exploit. He is integral to how we're playing this season, just as much if not more than Silva is.

[Original Dub]

I didn't want the rotation any more than anyone else, but I'm not sure anyone was worse last night than Sterling was at Sunderland, especially in the first half. His deflected cross was the sort of luck we lacked last night. The problem for me was our lack of strength in depth. No replacement for Silva and we know Navas is not the answer.

KDB was a hell of a lot worse last night than Sterling was against Sunderland. Navas was just there, at least when Sterling is playing poorly, or his touch is letting him down, or whatever, he still commits defenders which opens up space or he makes runs that need to be tracked which also opens up space for others to exploit. He is integral to how we're playing this season, just as much if not more than Silva is.

Directly responsible for 29 goals I think...

However, Silva makes us tick and pulls all the strings, often drawing two or more players to him.They both create space for each other, so dropping them both was the mistake IMO. One may have been ok, but it was a bridge too far.

[phips]

Did Nolito shag Pep's missus?

Started the season decent and scores a few vital goals. Not sure where this relationship broke down.

saw something in the papers (so you decide if you should believe it or not) that Pep is unhappy with Nolito's training.

regardless though, he didnt exactly prove his worth in the first Huddersfield match.

[South Stand Balti]

I didn't want the rotation any more than anyone else, but I'm not sure anyone was worse last night than Sterling was at Sunderland, especially in the first half. His deflected cross was the sort of luck we lacked last night. The problem for me was our lack of strength in depth. No replacement for Silva and we know Navas is not the answer.

KDB was a hell of a lot worse last night than Sterling was against Sunderland. Navas was just there, at least when Sterling is playing poorly, or his touch is letting him down, or whatever, he still commits defenders which opens up space or he makes runs that need to be tracked which also opens up space for others to exploit. He is integral to how we're playing this season, just as much if not more than Silva is.

I know Sterling is having a good season. He looked stale at Sunderland so giving him a rest was no reason for our poor performance. For all the good stuff he has done, he did need a break imo. That was my point.