***Official Napoli vs City Thread***

[Plain Speaking]

Very dissappointed. I thought the team generally looked tired. I would have liked to see the changes made earlier with some fresh legs. Napoli looked dangerous on the counter.

[Ted Hughes]

Mancini cost us tonight..his record in this comp was and still is SHIT.

His subs tonight were 10 mins too late..NDJ was abysmal and the commentator said he didn't look happy coming off...well I wasn't happy him being on in the first place !!!..Kolarov, dear me..... they should have scored another 2 goals due to his fuck ups.

Overall, Mancini played the same team just about as he did before - so he learnt nothing.

We are out...believe me....even if Napoli draw their goals scored are better than ours and we will never put 3 goals past BM.

PISSED OFF TO THE MAX.

The sad thing is, some of those players turned in the exact same performances when we struggled away from home in the Europa last season. It is looking like they're simply not up to the level required for those kind of games. Their legs seem to go too.

[freshie]

There are various selection things that can be argued after the event but when Platt was interviewed at half time, he stressed the importance of not giving the ball away in the middle & how they had talked about it. We kicked off & Yaya Toure could not have done a better job of giving the ball away in the middle if he had been hired to do so; he was fucking pathetic.

It set the tone for a build up of pressure & their goal resulted from it. I made the point in the thread about him that when he plays the withdrawn role he is unreliable. Against Bayern he failed to track players going into our box & he did the same today; players were left to take up positions inside our penalty area whilst he stood in open space, eventually they scored from such an area. A quality defensive midfielder would have piled in & stopped Cavani from getting a shot in. Yaya could have done so without breaking sweat but didn't. It's no use saying "oh so & so should be there" " it's not my job" etc move your fucking arse, bail out the defence & then shout about it. He has been a weak link in that position & a strong point when played further forward. I never wat to see him in that role again v a decent side.

Kolarov btw has proved today that he's not good enough to play fullback at the top level but I think at least half of us already knew that.

I don't mind losing games if we do our best but imo both v Napoli & Bayern, we have played at a level which would lose us most PL away games. We are dodgy at the back & lack the same threat up front; it is not the same team. That team we saw tonight would not get top 4 in the Prem; no chance.

Spot on re Yaya Toure not being a defensive midfield player as has been brought up in the 'What Does Yaya Toure Actually Do?' thread. It is no coincidence that our 2 defeats in the chumps league have come about when he has played in a more withdrawn role. He should either play further upfield or not at all

[Lev Bronstein]

What's the odds that we face the rags in the Europa League final?

[Goaters 103]

We sleep-walked into the 2nd half, conceded as a result and didnt have the fluency to retrieve it.

Slice it and dice it any way you want but over our 180 mins of football against them Napoli have been the better side.

I would play the Gnomes in the Europa League, get out of that comp asap in Feb, and concentrate on the Prem.

[carl_feedthegoat]

[quote="colonel_muck"]think some of the criticisms are absurd to say the least. Thing that frustrated me most was how whenever someone out wide went past one of their full backs or defenders, our attacking prowess was anywhere but near the napoli penalty area. Having a go at Nige and Yaya is a bit harsh, I don't think they did anything particularly wrong They were just better than us. But Kolarov should have been replaced the minute Hamsik hit the post. I know some people aren't gonna appreciate this but it was A* for effort tonight. It took United about 10 years of regular champions league to get a decent result in italy.[/quote

Who gives a fuck how long it took the scum.....we are Man City, with a better team than the scum have ever had.

Tonight was a shocking result - end of.

[Ted Hughes]

There are various selection things that can be argued after the event but when Platt was interviewed at half time, he stressed the importance of not giving the ball away in the middle & how they had talked about it. We kicked off & Yaya Toure could not have done a better job of giving the ball away in the middle if he had been hired to do so; he was fucking pathetic.

It set the tone for a build up of pressure & their goal resulted from it. I made the point in the thread about him that when he plays the withdrawn role he is unreliable. Against Bayern he failed to track players going into our box & he did the same today; players were left to take up positions inside our penalty area whilst he stood in open space, eventually they scored from such an area. A quality defensive midfielder would have piled in & stopped Cavani from getting a shot in. Yaya could have done so without breaking sweat but didn't. It's no use saying "oh so & so should be there" " it's not my job" etc move your fucking arse, bail out the defence & then shout about it. He has been a weak link in that position & a strong point when played further forward. I never wat to see him in that role again v a decent side.

Kolarov btw has proved today that he's not good enough to play fullback at the top level but I think at least half of us already knew that.

I don't mind losing games if we do our best but imo both v Napoli & Bayern, we have played at a level which would lose us most PL away games. We are dodgy at the back & lack the same threat up front; it is not the same team. That team we saw tonight would not get top 4 in the Prem; no chance.

Spot on re Yaya Toure not being a defensive midfield player as has been brought up in the 'What Does Yaya Toure Actually Do?' thread. It is no coincidence that our 2 defeats in the chumps league have come about when he has played in a more withdrawn role. He should either play further upfield or not at all

We need more pace & athleticism all round imo. Yaya is lightning going forward but seems to be no faster than Nige or Barry coming back. Then we have either Nige or Barry then Zabba & Kolarov the Lescott & Vinny. Not a yard of pace between them. For all the mistakes they made, I actually think Vinny & Lescott did well tonight because they were so often left exposed against players who were faster than them. We just can't play all the slow players in the same team v decent opposition. No way would that team have won at OT or the Lane.

[CityGer]

Anyone see Bobby's post match interview?

What did he say?

[PALUS]

I dont get mancini line up tonight , but i must say to all of u "U CANT WIN ALL GAMES , AND U ARE COMPLAININ ON YOUR PLAYERS TO MUCH WHO BRING U SO MUCH VICTORIS THIS SEASON THEY ARE NOT ROBOTS ,THEY PLAY ALL THE TIME".
City still have chance napoli is not that good when they need to win ,they have counter but that is it .....

[Plain Speaking]

Bitterly disappointed tonight. Bob blew it with his starting lineup. No excuse for not playing Micah unless he is injured as he was not even on the bench.
On a bright note, Scum blew it at home and might join us in the Europa !!
There is still hope though. We have to beat Bayern (which is more than doable) and hope that Yellow Submarines can take a point off Napoli.

Can't see us beating Bayern, unless they make a lot of changes and I'm not sure Villareal will get a point, however, they won't want to go out with another defeat at home, so maybe.

I predict Villareal will draw, but we'll draw with Bayern, after gifting them a goal in the first 5 minutes.

I would be astonished if Napoli dont beat Villereal, over both legs they scored 3 goals against both us and Bayern. Villereal look out of their depth and depleted with injuries, but I suppose its not over 'till the fat lady sings...

[colonel_muck]

think some of the criticisms are absurd to say the least. Thing that frustrated me most was how whenever someone out wide went past one of their full backs or defenders, our attacking prowess was anywhere but near the napoli penalty area. Having a go at Nige and Yaya is a bit harsh, I don't think they did anything particularly wrong They were just better than us. But Kolarov should have been replaced the minute Hamsik hit the post. I know some people aren't gonna appreciate this but it was A* for effort tonight. It took United about 10 years of regular champions league to get a decent result in italy.[/quote

Who gives a fuck how long it took the scum.....we are Man City, with a better team than the scum have ever had.

Tonight was a shocking result - end of.

singling out united was a mistake. english teams in general struggle in italy. tonights result did not shock me.

[Jon London]

Anyone see Bobby's post match interview?

What did he say?

He said we can still qualify and we deserved to win?

We deserved to win the 1st half but second half we were so slow out of the blocks. Did we not realise 2-2 and we only needed a draw vs. Bayern. All the coaching staff and we could not communicate that to the players.

In my opinion should have gone for that second goal from the beginning and that meant bringing Nasri on at half time and Aguero on at 60 minutes. Adam Johnson tonight was a waste of a sub. Too bloody late and AJ fluffed his lines with that appaling cross on 92 minutes.

[Bridge'srightfoot]

Bad game but was bound to happen eventually. It's more important how we respond and I'm confident we will do.

[guv111]

Mancini cost us tonight..his record in this comp was and still is SHIT.

His subs tonight were 10 mins too late..NDJ was abysmal and the commentator said he didn't look happy coming off...well I wasn't happy him being on in the first place !!!..Kolarov, dear me..... they should have scored another 2 goals due to his fuck ups.

Overall, Mancini played the same team just about as he did before - so he learnt nothing.

We are out...believe me....even if Napoli draw their goals scored are better than ours and we will never put 3 goals past BM.

PISSED OFF TO THE MAX.

The sad thing is, some of those players turned in the exact same performances when we struggled away from home in the Europa last season. It is looking like they're simply not up to the level required for those kind of games. Their legs seem to go too.

I think they're good enough footballers, Ted, but we definitely have an inferiority complex in Europe. Why, when we can win 5-1 at Spurs and 6-1 at United I really don't know, though playing the likes of Wolves, Blackburn and Wigan week in and week out is hardly
going to make our players feel like battle hardened troops. Having said that, I expect it's the same for the best teams in every league, which again points to psychological difficulties as well as Mancini's occasionally unwise love of rotation.

[Bluemoon16]

The akward moment when you wish wanker Tevez was on the field running behind everything that moves

[sheblue]

as good as barcelona, real madrid? do you agree?

[Ted Hughes]

Mancini cost us tonight..his record in this comp was and still is SHIT.

His subs tonight were 10 mins too late..NDJ was abysmal and the commentator said he didn't look happy coming off...well I wasn't happy him being on in the first place !!!..Kolarov, dear me..... they should have scored another 2 goals due to his fuck ups.

Overall, Mancini played the same team just about as he did before - so he learnt nothing.

We are out...believe me....even if Napoli draw their goals scored are better than ours and we will never put 3 goals past BM.

PISSED OFF TO THE MAX.

The sad thing is, some of those players turned in the exact same performances when we struggled away from home in the Europa last season. It is looking like they're simply not up to the level required for those kind of games. Their legs seem to go too.

I think they're good enough footballers, Ted, but we definitely have an inferiority complex in Europe. Why, when we can win 5-1 at Spurs and 6-1 at United I really don't know, though playing the likes of Wolves, Blackburn and Wigan week in and week out is hardly
going to make our players feel like battle hardened troops. Having said that, I expect it's the same for the best teams in every league, which again points to psychological difficulties as well as Mancini's occasionally unwise love of rotation.

We need some alternative, with pace & athleticism, to Yaya, DeJong & Barry, to sit in front of the defence & cover crosses & counter attacks. There's a big hole opening up there v every team we play in Europe, usually down to Yaya but Nige was well dodgy today too.

[Alex Sapphire]

there are some real whining bitches out there. Bad night. Move on.

[maxhorowitz]

hahahahhahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahhaha.

Fickle.

[Tokyo Blue]

Yes, after Yaya had twice been lost possession in EXACTLY the manner Platt had just said we had set out to avoid. As I said it suddenly built a pressure situation where they went up a gear, the crowd went up a gear & we got the shits. DeJong's pass was fucking woeful but it was the result a lack of composure running through the whole team because of the way Toure started the half.

For a player of his experience it's absolutely fucking awful. DeJong was poor as well.

De Jong lost possession. The rest is total speculation on your part - unless you are a mindreader.

Moaning on about how this player was the wrong choice or that player was shite takes away from how well Napoili played and that is a little unfair in my opinion.