*****Official 5 star match thread MCFC v Dortmund*****

[london blue 2]

Hard to stay positive when game after game we are all waiting for us to snap out of this shit form but we seem to be moving backwards. I don't know what the answer is, I'm sure we will get it right eventually but I can't help but think that the signings we have made are no where near the quality we need.

[Beefymcfc]

Basically , Mancini is proving to be clueless this season and NEVER seems to learn anything from last years cl games.h
Shocking.

You could have a point there mate. I'm just not getting it, he must have the freedom to do what he wants over the next couple of years. We were told he's got a few years to do well in the CL and I think we have to take it literally.

After tonights selections, not performance, I'm writing us off this year. Such a shame really as I think we could've at least made the quarters. Maybe though, it'll all come good next season, or two.

[clawbaggio]

On the plus side we have the same points as we had from 2 games last year. I know we didn't qualify but we got 10 points which is normally enough. This should be a massive kick up the arse. Surely we can't play that shit again?

[MARKMAKAVELI]

don't try and psyche balo out you mong hahahaha that gif is class.

[halnone]

On the plus side we have the same points as we had from 2 games last year. I know we didn't qualify but we got 10 points which is normally enough. This should be a massive kick up the arse. Surely we can't play that shit again?

nice optimism

[shawzy]

Sky have just said Dortmund had 57 shots 22 on target...WTF?

[PeterParker]

We have to understand that Last year's August-September-October City would had destroyed this year''s team.

The issue is that instead of going to the next level, we look like we went down a level.

[brite blu sky]

I'd like to suggest that we deserved something from that game but we didn't. Joe Hart was immense and if it wasn't for him we'd have been well out of it by half-time. Saying that, we both had chances and their keeper did equally as well but the stats won't lie.

The problem for me is the playing staff. From what I've been seeing (not the full picture of course) there is just not enough trust out there. Throwing Nastasic in for these type of games just doesn't work. He's a young lad who does well when no pressure is applied but when in a position where he has to act/react then there lies the problem. It's not his fault, he's a young lad thrown in the limelight but in doing so Kompany doesn't look the same player. There's no trust between them, proved by the fact that Vince shifted him to the right so that he could stop the onslaught.

Moving to the midfield, firstly, why play Garcia who obviously hasn't got to grips with our game yet. Then, we sub him for Rodwell, another young lad thrown infront of the headlights, it was always going to lead to a fuck up in front of goal. Yaya can't look after it all and with the formation set many teams are realising that if he comes under pressure he won't trust the young bloke and will try and take it on himself or pass it straight back to Joe.

Too many youngsters, too many new faces, in a Champions League game?

Where was Gareth Barry, a player we can always rely on! Where was Joleon Lescott, a player that Vince trusts?

For me, wrong playing staff, no trust. Didn't work for me and won't unless we get a little stability.

this.
was just about to write the same, so thanks for saving me the effort.

We missed Barry, though there are many who wont admit it.
Mancini took too many chances just as v Real. The shift to 3 should only happen v shite teams till we know how to do it.

That said Ballack pointed out that this was an exceptional performance from Dortmund. Ok so maybe Bob made it easy for them but none the less they were good at exploiting exactly our weak points and they clipped Yaya's wings early on by getting stuck straight into him as soon as he received the ball.. Our players were too slow and the Dortmund effort put us off.

I will wager a grand that the Dortmund manager watched the vids of Everton City games over the last 2 years. Get at us in numbers and we are at a loss. The only player we have who can calm things some in that situation is Barry. Otherwise we have to devise a different plan to swamp the midfiled and battle it out or bypass it. That is why Bob was changing stuff so much. I think losing Garcia actually hurt us as he was passing forwards well.. Rodwell looked a bit overawed to me and looked a spare part for most of the game. Poor choice to bring on.
Bypassing didn't quite work although we should have scored a couple. We didnt try to battle it out in midfield with any conviction, Yaya was off the pace and knew it so didn't take any control, Vinnie was shackled to come out too far and the other contenders are not well established enough in the team to take on the resposibility - Garcia or Rodwell.

Mancini needs to realise he is asking too much of new players to just take responsibilty like that in such games while simultaneously playing with formations. Unlike many perhaps I think Bob is right to tinker and try to progress to other ways of playing.. he just has to choose his moments a lot more carefully.

Other than that there was no where near enough effort put in to win the midfield there. Yaya off the pace leaves a big whole in this team.

[FA cup winners 2006]

I'd like to suggest that we deserved something from that game but we didn't. Joe Hart was immense and if it wasn't for him we'd have been well out of it by half-time. Saying that, we both had chances and their keeper did equally as well but the stats won't lie.

The problem for me is the playing staff. From what I've been seeing (not the full picture of course) there is just not enough trust out there. Throwing Nastasic in for these type of games just doesn't work. He's a young lad who does well when no pressure is applied but when in a position where he has to act/react then there lies the problem. It's not his fault, he's a young lad thrown in the limelight but in doing so Kompany doesn't look the same player. There's no trust between them, proved by the fact that Vince shifted him to the right so that he could stop the onslaught.

Moving to the midfield, firstly, why play Garcia who obviously hasn't got to grips with our game yet. Then, we sub him for Rodwell, another young lad thrown infront of the headlights, it was always going to lead to a fuck up in front of goal. Yaya can't look after it all and with the formation set many teams are realising that if he comes under pressure he won't trust the young bloke and will try and take it on himself or pass it straight back to Joe.

Too many youngsters, too many new faces, in a Champions League game?

Where was Gareth Barry, a player we can always rely on! Where was Joleon Lescott, a player that Vince trusts?

For me, wrong playing staff, no trust. Didn't work for me and won't unless we get a little stability.

Totally agree, Mancini has got so many things wrong lately but worst of all is he is doing nothing to change it.

When we beat utd 6-1 last season, we shook them badly and they knew it. after that game they went back to an all out defence and they won (i think) the next 5-6 games 1-0. a few clean sheets.

thats what we need now. keep the full backs sitting back, leave one CM sitting the whole time. get a few clean sheets and the confidence will grow. we can still play with the same 11 we normally would but just change the attitude.

[Beefymcfc]

Sky have just said Dortmund had 57 shots 22 on target...WTF?

Sounds conservative to me! They played like a team possessed, we played like a team surpressed. Three at the back (or the alternative 5/4/3 at the back) is not working. We just don't trust it, especially with the changes.

I'm not going to slate Mancini because I don't know his remit but he did say we'll be playing for all silverware, that in it itself says he'll put the best team out. Well, if that's the best team and formation then I reckon I'm seeing things wrong.

I called Wenger as a fraud for his part in ensuring the Arse fans believed their £1000 plus season tickets were worth their non-silverware winning, Champions League qualifying winning team, are doing the business. If this carries on I'll call Mancini a fraud for portraying us as team that are playing for multiple silverware when clearly we are not.

[twosips]

From where I was sat - second tier, central, it was pretty fucking obvious that things went wrong when we messed about with the formation in the second half.

The first half was ridiculously open - they had chances but so did we. It was a shoot out basically. I fancied us getting something from it though, despite Yaya being borderline useless in a two man midfield. However in the second half we made the stupid, stupid switch to 3-5-2 and took off Nasri for Kolarov and after that we lost all shape, didn't gain any noticeable width and were just a man down in the centre. We lost Nasri's composure on the ball and instead had two left backs on the left doing a whole lot of fucking nothing.

The loss of a man in the middle too meant we weren't switching play with anywhere near enough conviction then and Silva wasn't anywhere to be seen.

It was so frustrating to watch as it was pretty clear that that switch fucked things over for us royally. Terrible, terrible decision. It was also a terrible decision to start Yaya as part of a 2 initially. Great going forward, but just a passenger against any mobile decent team as he's terrible going backwards. Tonight he was slow and out of position frequently. We should have played 3 men in the middle as we did at the weekend.

We've got lucky tonight, but terribly disappointed as it felt like a problem of our own making.

[PALUS]

Sky have just said Dortmund had 57 shots 22 on target...WTF?

Yap they destroy us , Bob never was good in CL even in Inter , he just dont know play on groups and he confuse all of us with players formation i think we are ok how much changes he bring this season.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Sky have just said Dortmund had 57 shots 22 on target...WTF?

Sounds conservative to me! They played like a team possessed, we played like a team surpressed. Three at the back (or the alternative 5/4/3 at the back) is not working. We just don't trust it, especially with the changes.

I'm not going to slate Mancini because I don't know his remit but he did say we'll be playing for all silverware, that in it itself says he'll put the best team out. Well, if that's the best team and formation then I reckon I'm seeing things wrong.

I called Wenger as a fraud for his part in ensuring the Arse fans believed their £1000 plus season tickets were worth their non-silverware winning, Champions League qualifying winning team, are doing the business. If this carries on I'll call Mancini a fraud for portraying us as team that are playing for multiple silverware when clearly we are not.

It was 57 shots in the 2 CCL games so far and not just tonight's game.

[blues-clues]

We have at the moment a poor conection between defence and midfield, there lays the problem. Sloppy,slow and backward passing all over the place.

Nailed it there mate. square balls across the defence are killing us. We don't have defenders who can pass so we need the midfield to be dropping in and creating options. Barry Milner DeJong did it last season but no one seems to be doing it this season so we end up playing tikataka in defence. Going nowhere not exerting pressure and inevitably when or if we lose possession it is in the worst part of the pitch.

Yaya needs to step up. Garcia needs to step aside Barry needs to get fit and if we have to play Milner instead of Silva to tighten up at the back then so be it but four defenders and a defensive mid like last year will sort it. Come on City.

[shawzy]

Sky have just said Dortmund had 57 shots 22 on target...WTF?

Sounds conservative to me! They played like a team possessed, we played like a team surpressed. Three at the back (or the alternative 5/4/3 at the back) is not working. We just don't trust it, especially with the changes.

I'm not going to slate Mancini because I don't know his remit but he did say we'll be playing for all silverware, that in it itself says he'll put the best team out. Well, if that's the best team and formation then I reckon I'm seeing things wrong.

I called Wenger as a fraud for his part in ensuring the Arse fans believed their £1000 plus season tickets were worth their non-silverware winning, Champions League qualifying winning team, are doing the business. If this carries on I'll call Mancini a fraud for portraying us as team that are playing for multiple silverware when clearly we are not.

It was 57 shots in the 2 CCL games so far and not just tonight's game.

Thanks for the correction DH and my apologies for miss hearing.... Still a bad stat though.

[Duckman]

a wonderful game of football by Dortmund. they pressed our dms so hard, flooded the midfield, very german like discipline. we were sooo so so lucky to snatch a point.
when they were attacking us they out numbered our fullbacks, it just seemed they had more players on.

I got so high so it wasnt THAT bad

sunderland next. bring it on.

[Beefymcfc]

Sky have just said Dortmund had 57 shots 22 on target...WTF?

Sounds conservative to me! They played like a team possessed, we played like a team surpressed. Three at the back (or the alternative 5/4/3 at the back) is not working. We just don't trust it, especially with the changes.

I'm not going to slate Mancini because I don't know his remit but he did say we'll be playing for all silverware, that in it itself says he'll put the best team out. Well, if that's the best team and formation then I reckon I'm seeing things wrong.

I called Wenger as a fraud for his part in ensuring the Arse fans believed their £1000 plus season tickets were worth their non-silverware winning, Champions League qualifying winning team, are doing the business. If this carries on I'll call Mancini a fraud for portraying us as team that are playing for multiple silverware when clearly we are not.

It was 57 shots in the 2 CCL games so far and not just tonight's game.

Cheers Doug, but it still seemed conservative to me.

I'm saying no more, I'm calm. Acceptance is a great virtue.

[blue 68]

Perplexed why we didn't grab the game by the scruff of the neck, felt like a waste and time and money tonight. Dortmund fans were brilliant and reminded me of an 80s disco, sang at us in English too and really proved that once you dilute our solidarity with huge fan disruption coupled with lack of desire, beer our belief is diminished somewhat.
We'd have never been able to out do their fans even if we'd have been winning but it might have helped, we knew it and actually acted rather like the English defeatist, it spreads and their fans made the difference for sure, bit fed up really.

[clawbaggio]

All the football was played in our half. They got tight on us all the time and we were reduced to playing like England, ie passing across the back 4 without making any progress until either they took it off us or we got fed up and lumped it up the pitch and lost it.
Looking at their goal, Kompany wins the ball and could then have carried on into about 30 yards of space down the left. Instead he stops and plays a 2 yard pass to YaYa who is already tight, who then plays a 2 yard pass to Rodwell who then fucks up.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Interesting game. We were 2nd best and got a fortunate draw thanks to Joe Hart.I hear Mancini has said after the match that we basically didn't work hard enough.I would say it's definitely more than that although being 2nd to most balls doesn't help.

For starters I just didn't understand the team selected. I really like Dzeko but for me Tevez had to start with Aguero.Dortmund play a strong pressing game and we needed to move the ball quickly and Edin doesnt really help much with that approach.I think we also needed as much experience out there as possible.Lescott definitely for me but that debate has been done already but also Barry. His know how would have been valuable in the defensive midfield role.I can only assume he picked up an injury as he was not on the bench either.

Dortmund knew how we were going to play and stopped it.Nasri and Silva couldnt get into the game and at times almost seemed to be hiding.I know they weren't but somehow they were just invisible and its either great organisation and play from Dortmund or we were seriously lacking.Aguero I thought played really well and was instrumental in anything we did well attacking wise but he was virtually alone.

At the back we were all over the place and just not playing as a unit. yaya just in front was trying to pull strings but could never get any passing going apart from sideways and Garcia and then Rodders just seemed to look for Yaya and give him the ball.The movement and sharpness around the middle of the park was poor but credit to Dortmund who worked hard to close everything down quickly.

And their fans were excellent.