***Official Sporting vs City Match Thread***

[NorthernHope]

Great header by Balo. Unlucky.

That could be our last chance. Mancini waited wayyy too long to bring on Balo.
Ed was bad from the start.

Im not some stupid Edin's fan, but sometimes I cannot believe how people can put all the fucking blame on this one, single player, when our entire team is playing poorly.

Yes, poor guy Edin, its his fault even when he's not on the pitch.
I cant believe how many whiners there are here. Just whining and whining and complaining .... all the f***g time.
And shitting on the players.

You all say that he's not bothered, but forgetting his defensive efforts (several defensive headers and clearances), nice diagonal pass to Kolarov on the wing, a few passes to the back for Silva, 1-2 with Silva that Silva lost... (no one blaming Silva for lost ball?!)

What happened with the attacks that were not going over Dzeko? What Aguero did today? What was Silva doing? (I remember several lost balls and late passings where there could have been a good chance).

The point is - entire squad had a bad game, not just one player.
Aguero and Silva were just as bad as Dzeko today, yet the latter always ends up with all the blame, and I just dont agree with that.

The team played bad today, but the same players will put in a better game next time, and the less whining and more positivity - the better for the team, I think.

[BlueinBosnia]

The point is - entire squad had a bad game, not just one player.

Agree with this.

Aguero and Silva were just as bad as Dzeko today, yet the latter always ends up with all the blame, and I just dont agree with that.

This is absolute nonsense.

All in all, after that performance I doubt Dzeko will get another start for the rest of the season unless there are injuries. It would appear from Mancini's comments yesterday (although I may be reading too deeply into them) that he's hardly Mancini's flavour of the month any more.

I'd say it's 50/50 as to whether we take a €10m loss on him and ship him off to Italy in the summer.

[phips]

The point is - entire squad had a bad game, not just one player.

Agree with this.

When Silva, Aguero, and Ed are all on the pitch together and all playing badly, barring injury, Mancini will take off Dzeko as his sub rather than the other 2...its just how it is and thats how it should be. Ed bad is worse than Silva and Aguero bad. That's just how I see it.
Sorry NH.

[Sister of fu]

Great header by Balo. Unlucky.

That could be our last chance. Mancini waited wayyy too long to bring on Balo.
Ed was bad from the start.

Im not some stupid Edin's fan, but sometimes I cannot believe how people can put all the fucking blame on this one, single player, when our entire team is playing poorly.

Yes, poor guy Edin, its his fault even when he's not on the pitch.
I cant believe how many whiners there are here. Just whining and whining and complaining .... all the f***g time.
And shitting on the players.

You all say that he's not bothered, but forgetting his defensive efforts (several defensive headers and clearances), nice diagonal pass to Kolarov on the wing, a few passes to the back for Silva, 1-2 with Silva that Silva lost... (no one blaming Silva for lost ball?!)

What happened with the attacks that were not going over Dzeko? What Aguero did today? What was Silva doing? (I remember several lost balls and late passings where there could have been a good chance).

The point is - entire squad had a bad game, not just one player.
Aguero and Silva were just as bad as Dzeko today, yet the latter always ends up with all the blame, and I just dont agree with that.

The team played bad today, but the same players will put in a better game next time, and the less whining and more positivity - the better for the team, I think.

We get on at him as every time he has the chance to shine he doesn’t, the lad doesn’t even try. I can forgive Silva a bad game every now and then because I know 99% of the time he will turn up the following game, same with Aguero. If you can put your hand on your heart and say he put a 100% effort in and tried his best then it’s you that knows nothing about football. That was one of the most half hearted displays I have seen from a City player in some time. I don’t slag City players off lightly but he is really not helping himself with his lacklustre displays.

[NorthernHope]

Great header by Balo. Unlucky.

That could be our last chance. Mancini waited wayyy too long to bring on Balo.
Ed was bad from the start.

Im not some stupid Edin's fan, but sometimes I cannot believe how people can put all the fucking blame on this one, single player, when our entire team is playing poorly.

Yes, poor guy Edin, its his fault even when he's not on the pitch.
I cant believe how many whiners there are here. Just whining and whining and complaining .... all the f***g time.
And shitting on the players.

You all say that he's not bothered, but forgetting his defensive efforts (several defensive headers and clearances), nice diagonal pass to Kolarov on the wing, a few passes to the back for Silva, 1-2 with Silva that Silva lost... (no one blaming Silva for lost ball?!)

What happened with the attacks that were not going over Dzeko? What Aguero did today? What was Silva doing? (I remember several lost balls and late passings where there could have been a good chance).

The point is - entire squad had a bad game, not just one player.
Aguero and Silva were just as bad as Dzeko today, yet the latter always ends up with all the blame, and I just dont agree with that.

The team played bad today, but the same players will put in a better game next time, and the less whining and more positivity - the better for the team, I think.

We get on at him as every time he has the chance to shine he doesn’t, the lad doesn’t even try. I can forgive Silva a bad game every now and then because I know 99% of the time he will turn up the following game, same with Aguero. If you can put your hand on your heart and say he put a 100% effort in and tried his best then it’s you that knows nothing about football. That was one of the most half hearted displays I have seen from a City player in some time. I don’t slag City players off lightly but he is really not helping himself with his lacklustre displays.

He didnt put a 100% effort, probably not. :)
But I am afraid that that's just the way he plays. I strongly believe that sometimes when he does put an extra effort, that those games are the odd ones. Putting an effort is not part of his game, this is maybe becoming an obvious fact for all of us.

I know he can play great, and Im dissapointed too when I see him not doing it. And surprised, over and over.

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

It's been said before i know, but overall i think we need more pace

[trueblue64]

Tonight we lacked pace, we gave the ball away and never took our chances. The whole team played poorly tonight not just 1 or 2.I think at home we will go through lokks like Vinnie could be out for 10 days 2 weeks, but we will have yaya back. All is not lost my fellow blues, it is only half time.

[london blue 2]

But I am afraid that that's just the way he plays. I strongly believe that sometimes when he does put an extra effort, that those games are the odd ones. Putting an effort is not part of his game

If that's the case he deserves all the shit he gets and more!

But I don't think that's the case, I just just think him Kolarov and Milner aren't up to scratch.

[Goaters 103]

Poor tonight, very poor. Ya Ya's absence loomedl arge on how we shifted the ball, and it was noticeable that untill Mario came on we had too few occasions where a City player ran at the defence or carried the ball for any period.

Passing was way off and Dzeko and Aguero gave us nothing up top. Milner poor, Barry and De Jong gave the ball away too often and missed challenges they needed to make. As for the goal, a gaffe by Joe Im afraid. After he did the same thing with Darren Bent last year, then with Villaeal this season, he needs to eradicate palming the ball back in to play as it can and has cost us goals; sending the thing off to the side or around the post is a far better idea whenever possible. Still, he's been brilliant all season so its a bit churlish to criticise him too much.

The urgency we finally showed came too late; a poor showing and the damage needs repairing. Gentlemen, there is work to be done.

I do hope we dont play at that tempo or with that attitude on sunday, otherwise we will lose.

[halnone]

Just got home and was unable to watch the game. Can somebody give a brief summary of the game?

[Ted Hughes]

Just got home and was unable to watch the game. Can somebody give a brief summary of the game?

They played like Blackburn last week but scored. We played like Steve Bruce's Sunderland.

[Duckman]

it was one of them joe's goal. he rarely makes mistakes, but he manages the make the same mistake over and over again. this might be his only shortcoming.
we looked so in control most of the time, but we lacked creativity in the middle. silva had a night off, ndj, johnny and bareth were useless.

kolarov was really potent unlike sergio, but dzeko was...he was with palus having a fuckin laugh while wanking each other off.

mancini: we needed a double sub. barry and milner off, nasri and pizzaro on. ten minutes later, dzeko off and mario on.

every decent side that gets the right spiritual speech from the boss seem to be able to beat us just by total commitment to the Plan with fucking reanimation kits waiting for after the game.

our most important player is our own chin of glass ;)

[Sister of fu]

Great header by Balo. Unlucky.

That could be our last chance. Mancini waited wayyy too long to bring on Balo.
Ed was bad from the start.

Im not some stupid Edin's fan, but sometimes I cannot believe how people can put all the fucking blame on this one, single player, when our entire team is playing poorly.

Yes, poor guy Edin, its his fault even when he's not on the pitch.
I cant believe how many whiners there are here. Just whining and whining and complaining .... all the f***g time.
And shitting on the players.

You all say that he's not bothered, but forgetting his defensive efforts (several defensive headers and clearances), nice diagonal pass to Kolarov on the wing, a few passes to the back for Silva, 1-2 with Silva that Silva lost... (no one blaming Silva for lost ball?!)

What happened with the attacks that were not going over Dzeko? What Aguero did today? What was Silva doing? (I remember several lost balls and late passings where there could have been a good chance).

The point is - entire squad had a bad game, not just one player.
Aguero and Silva were just as bad as Dzeko today, yet the latter always ends up with all the blame, and I just dont agree with that.

The team played bad today, but the same players will put in a better game next time, and the less whining and more positivity - the better for the team, I think.

We get on at him as every time he has the chance to shine he doesn’t, the lad doesn’t even try. I can forgive Silva a bad game every now and then because I know 99% of the time he will turn up the following game, same with Aguero. If you can put your hand on your heart and say he put a 100% effort in and tried his best then it’s you that knows nothing about football. That was one of the most half hearted displays I have seen from a City player in some time. I don’t slag City players off lightly but he is really not helping himself with his lacklustre displays.

He didnt put a 100% effort, probably not. :)
But I am afraid that that's just the way he plays. I strongly believe that sometimes when he does put an extra effort, that those games are the odd ones. Putting an effort is not part of his game, this is maybe becoming an obvious fact for all of us.

I know he can play great, and Im dissapointed too when I see him not doing it. And surprised, over and over.

Well if thats the case then the lad needs to find a new job other than a prof footballer.

[Im_Spartacus]

Interesting comment from the tactical genius that is gordon strachan. He observed very similar to what oliver kahn said earlier in the season about our passing.

All the opposition had to do was defend against our passing, there was not a single player on the pitch, in particular in midfield who tried to go past a player with pace, and when they did it was half arsed and lethargic, and resulted in losing the ball. Anyone with an organised defensive system can easily do a hit and run on us when we play like this.

Given how we toile without yaya previously, i have to say this was a spot on observation by strachan, and goes back to the whole dzeko argument, and why bother having him on the pitch if you are going to try and pass the ball on the ground through the middle all the time.

Hardly panic stations, but as i have said in another thread about united, there will be the likes of swansea, norwich, wolves and others who will figure this out and can nullify us in the run in if we dont mix things up a little

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Our attacking threat was meant to come from Aguero,Dzeko,Silva and maybe Milner and I think it's fair to say they were all either poor or very poor. We still only lost one nil and we were the team looking like scoring in the last 15 or 20 minutes and with a little luck we would have done.

Mario made it all look different when he came on .He made one or two mistakes but simply looked threatening from the minute he came on.I am guessing he would have started if it hadnt been for his escapade last Friday! Defensively we were decent and Joe made a bit of a mistake for their goal. We should go through but it might need a clean sheet to do it.

[getdressedmctavish]

I have to say I can't see what Mancini thinks 2 up top gives us in these two legged ties away,when its pretty obvious he thinks rightly one of them is wank. 4 5 1 is the way to go away in europe but Bob keeps this nonsense going with identical results. We lost Ya Ya so need two to replace him. Pizzero would have kept the ball. That said its hard when such obviously good players as Dave and Milner are so feckin abject.Dont think Milner is ever gonna make it in this team.Dzeko is dead meat in my view. One of mancini's short comings as a manager is that he cant tolerate lack of technique and players quickly become aware of what he thinks of them and their game evaporates.And dare I say it, Savic would have given us some forward options at RB compared to Clichy who achieved zilch.Another peice of piss poor management by Bob in Europe.But we will overcome at the Etiad quite easily in my view.Doesn't make these performances less annoying. Thank God I've given up doing days and hundreds of quid on them, I'd be feckin furious if I had.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I have to say I can't see what Mancini thinks 2 up top gives us in these two legged ties away,when its pretty obvious he thinks rightly one of them is wank. 4 5 1 is the way to go away in europe but Bob keeps this nonsense going with identical results. We lost Ya Ya so need two to replace him. Pizzero would have kept the ball. That said its hard when such obviously good players as Dave and Milner are so feckin abject.Dont think Milner is ever gonna make it in this team.Dzeko is dead meat in my view. One of mancini's short comings as a manager is that he cant tolerate lack of technique and players quickly become aware of what he thinks of them and their game evaporates.And dare I say it, Savic would have given us some forward options at RB compared to Clichy who achieved zilch.Another peice of piss poor management by Bob in Europe.But we will overcome at the Etiad quite easily in my view.Doesn't make these performances less annoying. Thank God I've given up doing days and hundreds of quid on them, I'd be feckin furious if I had.

I would agree 4.5.1 seems to be the way to go for these matches and giving licence for Yaya when he's there but also Nasri when he isnt to get past the lone striker. Control the game,pass the ball around and break quickly. But irrespective of that if you have 4 or 5 players having a mare you don't win football games.

[getdressedmctavish]

Well I'll be the first to admit arm chair management is easy Doug, lol, but in my view players play badly when the wrong system and personnel are employed. To me, Mancini does so much that is smart and professional at our club, by far the most complete manager we've ever had, that these stupid away set ups drive me mad.In his own words, the team that controls midfield controls the game. Stop underestimating oppos and give us a feckin chance to do it, mate. Every team in Europe has technically gifted players in midfield and we have to set up away to nullify them. You'd think after Bayern and Napoli he'd have learned .

[DoomMerchant]

i don't wanna blow sunshine up your asses, but i couldn't watch the match (i'm the new PBL), BUT i did play two legs on FIFA 12 on my iphone on the plane flight and i can tell you we won the second leg 3-0, so everyone just cool their jets and fuclin chillax.

We got this.

cheers

[DoomMerchant]

i don't wanna blow sunshine up your asses, but i couldn't watch the match (i'm the new PBL), BUT i did play two legs on FIFA 12 on my iphone on the plane flight and i can tell you we won the second leg 3-0, so everyone just cool their jets and fuclin chillax.

We got this.

cheers

oh, and before someone asks how we did in the first leg in my virtualization -- of course...we DID lose the first leg 1-0...so, i have to be right about the second leg.

Someone should put a 20 on 3-0 to City.