***city v lyon official cl match thread***

[iwasthere2012]

My young lad has a bee in his bonnet about Gundogan and watched him especially last night and repeatedly came to the same conclusion as Mase and others on here.
The truth is he unbalances the midfield because he does hide from the pass rather than actively present himself for it like the two Silva.
Fern gets left with far too much to do on his own.

I've just watched the first half back due to this post and I'm sorry but that's completely inaccurate, Gundogan was showing for the ball far more often than either Silva.

Walker and Delph were horrendous, bad decision making and sloppy passing, Walker particularly guilty on the passing front. Fernandinho and Laporte guilty of some really sloppy stuff too.

Couple of occasions I'd be critical of Gundogan was on one attack he passed backwards when we were well placed to work a clear chance and on another occasion he was outmuscled for the ball in the centre which led to a counter. No hiding.

I'm affraid it's not innacurate. You see what you see on TV but you get a broader view at the game.
I'm on no witch hunt for Gundo, I thiught there were others as bad or worse.

I do however think we were totally unbalanced with his inclusion.
Why we didn't start with Sane on the left and Sterling on the right with the 2 Silvas infront of Fern, I do not know.
Bernardo out left was a waste and predictable and Sterling on the left was doing well but doubled up on because they didn't see a threat on the far side.
This was done to accomodate Gundo in the middle and personally I don't think his presence was neccesary.

I think he's a decent squad player, but not just in this game, I think he is minding himself since his injury.
I think Delph was guilty of the same the other night.

It's not a personal slight on Gundo, I just think our management got the team wrong and I don't know why Pep can't stick with players who are performing well i their positions. i.e. retain your place if you are doing well.

I also think the substitutions were right when they came but don't know why Merlin seemed more on the right and Bernardo out beside Sane. I'm sure it was more fluid than that but that is the way it seemed to me.
On Saturday Sane and Silva were linking up brilliantly, why tinker with something that's working.

In short I would say Gundo is a squad player. Keep a winning team unless absolutely neccesary to rotate players at this early stage.
Pep obviously sees it differently.

[Foreverinbluedreams]

My young lad has a bee in his bonnet about Gundogan and watched him especially last night and repeatedly came to the same conclusion as Mase and others on here.
The truth is he unbalances the midfield because he does hide from the pass rather than actively present himself for it like the two Silva.
Fern gets left with far too much to do on his own.

I've just watched the first half back due to this post and I'm sorry but that's completely inaccurate, Gundogan was showing for the ball far more often than either Silva.

Walker and Delph were horrendous, bad decision making and sloppy passing, Walker particularly guilty on the passing front. Fernandinho and Laporte guilty of some really sloppy stuff too.

Couple of occasions I'd be critical of Gundogan was on one attack he passed backwards when we were well placed to work a clear chance and on another occasion he was outmuscled for the ball in the centre which led to a counter. No hiding.

I'm affraid it's not innacurate. You see what you see on TV but you get a broader view at the game.
I'm on no witch hunt for Gundo, I thiught there were others as bad or worse.

I do however think we were totally unbalanced with his inclusion.
Why we didn't start with Sane on the left and Sterling on the right with the 2 Silvas infront of Fern, I do not know.
Bernardo out left was a waste and predictable and Sterling on the left was doing well but doubled up on because they didn't see a threat on the far side.
This was done to accomodate Gundo in the middle and personally I don't think his presence was neccesary.

I think he's a decent squad player, but not just in this game, I think he is minding himself since his injury.
I think Delph was guilty of the same the other night.

It's not a personal slight on Gundo, I just think our management got the team wrong and I don't know why Pep can't stick with players who are performing well i their positions. i.e. retain your place if you are doing well.

I also think the substitutions were right when they came but don't know why Merlin seemed more on the right and Bernardo out beside Sane. I'm sure it was more fluid than that but that is the way it seemed to me.
On Saturday Sane and Silva were linking up brilliantly, why tinker with something that's working.

In short I would say Gundo is a squad player. Keep a winning team unless absolutely neccesary to rotate players at this early stage.
Pep obviously sees it differently.

I agree with all of that bar the opening. Watch it again, everytime we were building from the back Gundogan comes into picture to receive the ball, a lot more than either Silva did.

[Stumac]

Hello City fans,

Everton fan in peace. Anyone who is travelling to Lyon and is not 100% sure of getting a ticket in the away end, then I could help getting tickets in the home section.
After the trouble Lyon had with Besiktas a couple of years ago, Lyon have restricted internet ticket sales to ip addresses outside of France and have also restricted away allocation to the max 2.500. So there is no chance of the allocation being increased if the demand is there.
I went to Everton EL game at Lyon last season. I had no chance of getting one officially through the club. The top tier at Lyon was nearly empty for the game but they refused to increase the allocation. About 1000 travelled without tickets. I managed to get a ticket from a kind Lyon fan who provided me with a promo code that enabled me to buy tickets on the Lyon website. I still receive mails from Lyon with promo codes to buys tickets for their home games. So if anyone is interested, let me know, then I will keep an eye on my mails for the promo code for your game. You'll need to sort a VPN connection for France so that you can login to the Lyon site because they block ip addresses from outside France for European games.

Stumac