***Champions v Palace Official Match Thread***

[City64]

I'll say it again. Alvarez is an upgrade on Jesus. Is pressing and movement, he'll add goals soon.
Should start ahead of Mahrez.

Alvarez is going to be class but Pep is keeping him wrapped in cotton wool for now as our new system evolves . Mahrez is brilliant in certain games and was one of our most consistent performers last season . This is a different City this season slowly evolving again .

[City64]

.I feel he played the wrong team to begin with and we only ever made the comeback when he did eventually change it around - Alvarez was KEY in this game.
Alvarez , for me , is a perfect partner for Haaland and Foden in certain games - this being one of them.

Add Bernardo to that aswell, he was sensational once Alvarez and Gundo came on .

[carl_feedthegoat]

I'll say it again. Alvarez is an upgrade on Jesus. Is pressing and movement, he'll add goals soon.
Should start ahead of Mahrez.

Alvarez is going to be class but Pep is keeping him wrapped in cotton wool for now as our new system evolves . Mahrez is brilliant in certain games and was one of our most consistent performers last season . This is a different City this season slowly evolving again .

Alvarez is already class and no need to keep him wrapped in anything - he was Latin Americas leading scorer last year and also player of the year to boot.
He has more to his game than Haaland and that compliments the working parts.

I think he will be a perfect partner for both Haaland and Foden -the interchanging of passing was brilliant and lets not leave Gomez out of this conversation either , he was also brilliant when he came on - Cancelo should never play ahead of Gomez in that position again.

[carl_feedthegoat]

.I feel he played the wrong team to begin with and we only ever made the comeback when he did eventually change it around - Alvarez was KEY in this game.
Alvarez , for me , is a perfect partner for Haaland and Foden in certain games - this being one of them.

Add Bernardo to that aswell, he was sensational once Alvarez and Gundo came on .

PeP switched him didn't he ? was MOTM for me.

[City64]

.I feel he played the wrong team to begin with and we only ever made the comeback when he did eventually change it around - Alvarez was KEY in this game.
Alvarez , for me , is a perfect partner for Haaland and Foden in certain games - this being one of them.

Add Bernardo to that aswell, he was sensational once Alvarez and Gundo came on .

PeP switched him didn't he ? was MOTM for me.

Yeah moved Bernardo out wide right where Mahrez was . Gundo into mid and 3 at the back , perfect ! Can never start a game like that though , luckily we have class in abundance and can change 2nd half if things aren’t working out .

[City64]

I'll say it again. Alvarez is an upgrade on Jesus. Is pressing and movement, he'll add goals soon.
Should start ahead of Mahrez.

Alvarez is going to be class but Pep is keeping him wrapped in cotton wool for now as our new system evolves . Mahrez is brilliant in certain games and was one of our most consistent performers last season . This is a different City this season slowly evolving again .

Alvarez is already class and no need to keep him wrapped in anything - he was Latin Americas leading scorer last year and also player of the year to boot.
He has more to his game than Haaland and that compliments the working parts.

I think he will be a perfect partner for both Haaland and Foden -the interchanging of passing was brilliant and lets not leave Gomez out of this conversation either , he was also brilliant when he came on - Cancelo should never play ahead of Gomez in that position again.

As earlier post , pep is deffo tinkering with a couple of systems and Alvarez is pivotal.

[Dimples]

Thought our bench looked really light pre-match with Gundo being the only player with PL experience.

I have changed my mind.
Alvarez and Gómez look really good. We know how good Palmer is going to be.
Much happier about our squad depth now.

[aaron bond]

Thought our bench looked really light pre-match with Gundo being the only player with PL experience.

I have changed my mind.
Alvarez and Gómez look really good. We know how good Palmer is going to be.
Much happier about our squad depth now.

I agree with that. The subs yesterday all did really well.

I would have liked for Jesus to stay but Alvarez has many similarities - technically excellent and a high work rate. But I think he may have a higher ceiling than Jesus.

Main worry is the defence. Hopefully Ake returns quickly because Stones is again showing he’s not good enough. And hopefully Gomez can start challenging for a starting spot because Walker and Cancelo have had shaky starts to the season.

[s1ty m]

I think it's harsh on Walker. This nonsense formation exposes him and Cancelo and also Rodri to some extent. When Pep realises how crap it is, like last Sunday and yesterday, we reverted to a more traditional formation and looked brilliant all over the pitch. The inverted full backs shit show must stop and stop now.

For me, Cancelo is any defensive role is garbage. He might be an option in midfield or even high up on either side but in defence he's a complete disaster. Baffles me how highly people rate him as I think he's a diabolical full back. Still, opinions and all that.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Ederson needs dropping or at the least threatened to be dropped by Pep IMO - he has been utter shit so far.

That 3rd goal could easily have been given and it wouldn't have been an outrageous decision - He cannot even hold onto a ball lately ffs!!

[sheblue]

The comeback was great but we can't keep doing that and we really need to sort out the defence and goal keeper.

[Mase]

Positive - that’s a match we’d have lost last season

Negative - defence is thin and not up to speed at all. Dias coming back from an injury and Stones barely played. This inverted fullbacks isn’t working in some matches and luckily yesterday Pep realised and changed it.

[nottsblue]

Ederson needs dropping or at the least threatened to be dropped by Pep IMO - he has been utter shit so far.

That 3rd goal could easily have been given and it wouldn't have been an outrageous decision - He cannot even hold onto a ball lately ffs!!

Saw it on MotD and was very surprised it wasn't given. We deffo got away with that as I think 3-0 at HT is a different second half.

I've said before a few times, that his saves to shots ratio, considering he plays for the champions and is a multiple golden glove winner, is bang average at best and that's being extremely kind.

[s1ty m]

There are definitely questions about Ederson. He doesn't save much.

[zuricity]

There are definitely questions about Ederson. He doesn't save much.

you can't be refering to yesterday's game surely . He had no chance on the first howler own goal or the second power header .

[nottsblue]

There are definitely questions about Ederson. He doesn't save much.

you can't be refering to yesterday's game surel. He had no chance on the first howler own goal or the second power header .

Be interested to know what his saves per shots on target ratio is over the last 20/25 games is though

[branny]

There are definitely questions about Ederson. He doesn't save much.

you can't be refering to yesterday's game surel. He had no chance on the first howler own goal or the second power header .

He lost the ball for the first which resulted in Cancelo committing the foul. Pretty easy take for any keeper. He got away with one with the Palace disallowed goal. Ball was released so should have stood. How bad has he got to be before he gets dropped?

[johnny crossan]

Analysing Erling Haaland’s first Manchester City hat-trick

Haaland, Manchester City
By Sam Lee

What did Manchester City sign Erling Haaland for? Well, that. And Pep Guardiola says that’s exactly what he told him when he was substituted after bagging his first Premier League hat-trick.

With the home side trailing 2-0 to Crystal Palace at half-time, they needed a spark and… well, actually, others delivered it and got Guardiola’s men going.

The difference between the two halves was that City didn’t rush to get the ball to Haaland. In the first half, Joao Cancelo, Rodri and Kyle Walker seemed overly keen to play a ball over the top and see what happened. The answer was nothing.

Crosses from out wide went the same way and City looked disjointed. Another “how many touches has Haaland had?” conversation loomed.

Then City sorted themselves out.

The Athletic’s tactics writer Ahmed Walid will explain exactly how, but in short, City stopped rushing things, Walker didn’t have to generate quite so much play and, in turn, they ended up finding Haaland at the right moments.

And then it was all about him.

His first goal, the equaliser, is one of those goals you couldn’t really imagine City scoring in the past couple of seasons: quite simply, a big header in the box.

It’s not the kind of goal Haaland has always scored. He was fairly spindly as a kid and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, his manager at Molde when he was a teenager, was pretty blunt on the subject. “‘You cannot even head’,” Haaland says he told him. “I was like, ‘Fucking hell, I agree with you!’”

He has worked on them since then. One of the impressive aspects of this particular header was the movement beforehand, dropping slightly so he could go back in and attack it rather than staying where he was to connect from a stationary position.

He steps out just a yard or so from here…


… to here…



… and the arm across Marc Guehi was pretty expert, too.



By the point of contact, he is back inside the six-yard box.



“Finally, Phil played the ball to me,” he said with a grin afterwards, a nod to one or possibly two non-passes from Phil Foden in recent games.

As for the second, maybe any City player could have scored it. They have got enough people in attack to take up positions like that and they have certainly scored enough tap-ins over the years to make this fairly routine.



Had he only scored this you’d probably say “Yeah, good goal, fine” and think no more of it, but ultimately he is the only City player who is actually in the six-yard box while everything else is unfolding; the only one to occupy a space even relatively close to the back post.

Bernardo Silva and Julian Alvarez had the typical calm heads to make good passes in the box and John Stones was up there to put the ball towards goal, but Haaland was the one to actually convert it.

As Guardiola said on Friday when talking about cut-backs and low crosses: “Erling is always there, it’s his biggest talent.” It’s where you want him to be.

The third goal, though, was truly masterful. Top-class centre-forward play, as Alan Shearer would surely call it.

Look at him demanding the ball from Ilkay Gundogan, who surely didn’t need telling what to do, although maybe the fact Haaland had two markers on him might have dissuaded him.




The presence of those two Palace defenders, though, seemed to make no difference to the outcome.

Haaland stayed on Joachim Andersen’s blind side, a feature of his Borussia Dortmund goals, and checked to see where Joel Ward was (behind him).


And when the ball arrived, he held off Ward as if he was saying, “You’re just not getting this ball, mate.”





It allowed him to take a touch to control the pass and another to settle himself before picking his spot, shrugging off Ward again as he did so.



You know it’s a ruthless finish when the goalkeeper doesn’t even dive. Look at Vicente Guaita — absolutely helpless.



That is the kind of goal you expect him to score for City and the most obvious difference Haaland could make. “We spoke about that: put the ball to his feet between the central defenders. It was quite similar at West Ham, how he used his body, and after the finish… he put the ball in the net. He doesn’t shoot, he put the ball in the net, soft, left, poof, where the keeper cannot save it,” said Guardiola.

For so long, City had become a little too unsure of themselves in those positions, usually failing to even have a shot on goal at all, but Haaland quite literally demanded the opportunity and finished it expertly.

In terms of how he’s settling in… none of his three goals were from counter-attacks! The third one was fairly transitional but it came from City knocking it about at the back until Foden, in a deep role, turned the ball around the corner and found Gundogan in space to drive forward. The Kevin De Bruyne-Haaland supply line wasn’t in operation at all, City barely had open space to break into, and Haaland coped just fine.

It is also easy to believe City might not have had enough to turn things around on Saturday without their new weapon.

It’s just a shame that Walker booted his match ball into the second tier at full-time.

[branny]

I think it's harsh on Walker. This nonsense formation exposes him and Cancelo and also Rodri to some extent. When Pep realises how crap it is, like last Sunday and yesterday, we reverted to a more traditional formation and looked brilliant all over the pitch. The inverted full backs shit show must stop and stop now.

For me, Cancelo is any defensive role is garbage. He might be an option in midfield or even high up on either side but in defence he's a complete disaster. Baffles me how highly people rate him as I think he's a diabolical full back. Still, opinions and all that.

He's yet another midfielder parading as a left back which Pep seems to have a thing for. It's great when we don't have to do any defending but gets found out when teams have a go. It will cost us at some point, most probably in the UCL.

[stupot]

Walker has been brilliant for years for us but has been off since his injury at the end of last season. Let's hope he's not lost a yard of pace and comes back to how he was.
Cancelo wasn't great yesterday but is so much better than some of the criticism on here. As stated it's a game of opinions but the opinions of all the Premier League players he plays against is obviously pretty high as they put him in their team of the year.