neymar

[Wonderwall]

So should we sell the Brazilian we already have in the squad? Don't remember the objection when we signed Maicon.

Yes

[Avalon]

Maicon has done fine for what he was signed for, a backup.

As for Neymar, I hope we do not sign him. Absolute cunt. He's being kicked about in Brazil these days for humiliating his colleagues, being pelted at by fans because he's a twat. There's enough clips to be found where he's the target. Arrogant fuck.

Falcao, hell yeah. He's a player I'd love to see.

If we get any player from Brazil, I'd rather have Paulo Henrique,same club as Neymar. Problem is, he's another midfielder.

[john68]

Sid,
I don't get this about not getting behind them yesterday, nor do I agree that we don't go wide and everything goes down the middle.

Yesterday provided a perfect example of what we do wrong, irrespective of what direction we attack from. WE OVERPLAY. We always seem to want to make that extra unnecessary pass.
Yesterday, almost as soon as we got the ball, even in our own half, Reading almost immediately formed a 5 man defence in a string across their back. They also formed a 4 man sliding defensive line line in front of that. As we moved forward, they moved back and as the pressure from us increased, their back usually became a back 6, with a 3 man sliding defence in front. We pressed those lines back and they retreated further, their wider defenders moving infield.

Like squeezing a sponge, the more pressure we exerted, the more compressed they became. 10 defenders almost all in the 6yd box or within a pace of it means their is absolutely no space to move through or pass successfully into. Such was the proximity of defender to each other that when City forwards received the ball, they were immediately blocked by 3 r 4 defenders. The same applied to crosses. desperately defended by a masse of bodies. Legs, feet, bodies all in the way of shots or blocking our runs and movement.

It is NOT wider that we need to be looking but a greater distance. Our refusal to shoot until we are within that compressed space, allows efences to compress and deny space. Defenders don't have to defend any further out as we offer no threat from a longer range. If we created more of a balance between long/short range shots, we would also create a threat that would need to be defended further out and it would decrease the amount that defences could compress and deny space.

JOB SORTED.

[Hazy2]

I hope he gets him, however top Brazillians leaving home as the World cup arrives seems unlikely, Paulino, also seems to be a target.

[Nigels Tackle]

Sid,
I don't get this about not getting behind them yesterday, nor do I agree that we don't go wide and everything goes down the middle.

Yesterday provided a perfect example of what we do wrong, irrespective of what direction we attack from. WE OVERPLAY. We always seem to want to make that extra unnecessary pass.
Yesterday, almost as soon as we got the ball, even in our own half, Reading almost immediately formed a 5 man defence in a string across their back. They also formed a 4 man sliding defensive line line in front of that. As we moved forward, they moved back and as the pressure from us increased, their back usually became a back 6, with a 3 man sliding defence in front. We pressed those lines back and they retreated further, their wider defenders moving infield.

Like squeezing a sponge, the more pressure we exerted, the more compressed they became. 10 defenders almost all in the 6yd box or within a pace of it means their is absolutely no space to move through or pass successfully into. Such was the proximity of defender to each other that when City forwards received the ball, they were immediately blocked by 3 r 4 defenders. The same applied to crosses. desperately defended by a masse of bodies. Legs, feet, bodies all in the way of shots or blocking our runs and movement.

It is NOT wider that we need to be looking but a greater distance. Our refusal to shoot until we are within that compressed space, allows efences to compress and deny space. Defenders don't have to defend any further out as we offer no threat from a longer range. If we created more of a balance between long/short range shots, we would also create a threat that would need to be defended further out and it would decrease the amount that defences could compress and deny space.

JOB SORTED.

overplay or is it that we struggle to finish..??

several cases of suarezitis at the club...

[DoomMerchant]

Pato & Robinho exit Milan
Balotelli to Milan
Someone in at City (Neymar, Falcao are the rumours)

that's the maths that the paper tittle tattle would like us to believe.

Seems awfully complex for a January window, let alone the summer.

I believe we will do /nothing/ in Jan. I won't be sad because it's not the time for the kinds of disruption we need around a couple of midfield players, and striker coverage. Let the Spaniard in the backroom (oddly in most US sports we call it the "front office" in case you weren't aware of that. the UK is always like a mirror universe to me, it's amusing)....anyway, as i was saying let the new spanish fuclers unleash hell in the summer after we've won the league again and forced Baconface to retire or better yet allowed rigor mortis to set in because he's died from a state of shock.

[john68]

overplay or is it that we struggle to finish..??

Like almost all things in life Nigel, our problem of not converting chance into goals cannot be simply put down to just one thing. Lack of accuracy must also have some part of it. Because of the amount of possession we had yesterday,it provided an excellent opportunity to observe how Reading set up defensively and how their defensive lines developed as we pressed them from almost every direction.

Time and time again, we put the ball into the right areas only to be either crowded out or have the passes/blocked by sheer weight of defensive numbers in such a compressed space.

[Beefymcfc]

I miss Robinho.

[zuricity]

Sid,
I don't get this about not getting behind them yesterday, nor do I agree that we don't go wide and everything goes down the middle.

Yesterday provided a perfect example of what we do wrong, irrespective of what direction we attack from. WE OVERPLAY. We always seem to want to make that extra unnecessary pass.
Yesterday, almost as soon as we got the ball, even in our own half, Reading almost immediately formed a 5 man defence in a string across their back. They also formed a 4 man sliding defensive line line in front of that. As we moved forward, they moved back and as the pressure from us increased, their back usually became a back 6, with a 3 man sliding defence in front. We pressed those lines back and they retreated further, their wider defenders moving infield.

Like squeezing a sponge, the more pressure we exerted, the more compressed they became. 10 defenders almost all in the 6yd box or within a pace of it means their is absolutely no space to move through or pass successfully into. Such was the proximity of defender to each other that when City forwards received the ball, they were immediately blocked by 3 r 4 defenders. The same applied to crosses. desperately defended by a masse of bodies. Legs, feet, bodies all in the way of shots or blocking our runs and movement.

It is NOT wider that we need to be looking but a greater distance. Our refusal to shoot until we are within that compressed space, allows efences to compress and deny space. Defenders don't have to defend any further out as we offer no threat from a longer range. If we created more of a balance between long/short range shots, we would also create a threat that would need to be defended further out and it would decrease the amount that defences could compress and deny space.

JOB SORTED.

agree with your comments J68

[sidSmith]

Sid,
I don't get this about not getting behind them yesterday, nor do I agree that we don't go wide and everything goes down the middle.

Yesterday provided a perfect example of what we do wrong, irrespective of what direction we attack from. WE OVERPLAY. We always seem to want to make that extra unnecessary pass.
Yesterday, almost as soon as we got the ball, even in our own half, Reading almost immediately formed a 5 man defence in a string across their back. They also formed a 4 man sliding defensive line line in front of that. As we moved forward, they moved back and as the pressure from us increased, their back usually became a back 6, with a 3 man sliding defence in front. We pressed those lines back and they retreated further, their wider defenders moving infield.

Like squeezing a sponge, the more pressure we exerted, the more compressed they became. 10 defenders almost all in the 6yd box or within a pace of it means their is absolutely no space to move through or pass successfully into. Such was the proximity of defender to each other that when City forwards received the ball, they were immediately blocked by 3 r 4 defenders. The same applied to crosses. desperately defended by a masse of bodies. Legs, feet, bodies all in the way of shots or blocking our runs and movement.

It is NOT wider that we need to be looking but a greater distance. Our refusal to shoot until we are within that compressed space, allows efences to compress and deny space. Defenders don't have to defend any further out as we offer no threat from a longer range. If we created more of a balance between long/short range shots, we would also create a threat that would need to be defended further out and it would decrease the amount that defences could compress and deny space.

JOB SORTED.

I agree. We overplay and we don't take on a shot when it seems to present itself. But, the other thing that is a byproduct of overplaying is our apparent lack of pace, or willingness to hit teams fast and hard on the break. Possibly because of a lack of movement from the front men, but also because we slow it down to commence the buildup compressing play you describe.

We sometimes cause our own problems and we need to mix it up sometimes and play with more urgency. We did this as time went on yesterday and we also did it v the scum after we went 2 down and got Tevez on.

Maybe the real 'problem' this season is our inability to convert many of our chances. After all, there isn't a great deal wrong with us otherwise.

I think we're on the same page. Not sure how any of this relates to Neymar mind ;-)

Young talented prospect. What's the risk? I guess we could lose money in the long run, but he isn't a big enough ego to disrupt the experienced squad we have. Tevez's tantrum didn't hurt us and they also cope fine with Ballo being a tit.

[john68]

Sid,
Thanks for reminding me mate. I apologise to the OP for taking his thread off on a tangent. It was a comment of yours that I picked up on and maybe got carried away.

Just as a final comment, I agree that our slow methodical build up is a bit contrived and does allow defences to set themselves.

[Swales4ever]

It is NOT wider that we need to be looking but a greater distance. Our refusal to shoot until we are within that compressed space, allows efences to compress and deny space. Defenders don't have to defend any further out as we offer no threat from a longer range. If we created more of a balance between long/short range shots, we would also create a threat that would need to be defended further out and it would decrease the amount that defences could compress and deny space.

JOB SORTED.

Very important point!
also, I'd like that several of next training would be dedicated to focus our strikers/forwarders on the idea to follow the action ALSO on the far post: it's not always easy but in the last games that something that screeched.

[Swales4ever]

No Brazilians please, in 40 years of watching football I can count all those I had gladly taken on a mutilated hand.
Neymar is certainly not a Tonino Cerezo, to say one.

So should we sell the Brazilian we already have in the squad? Don't remember the objection when we signed Maicon.

Maicon is a particular kind of signing - like Paddy Vieira - deemed to maximum input with minimum cost.
Totally different story would be to[strike]invest[/strike] gamble, better say, dozens of millions on pure unreliability.
for the records, just because of my personal prevention towards Brazilian players, I was certainly not the most excited when we signed Maicon, despite understanding the merit of it.

[DoomMerchant]

No Brazilians please, in 40 years of watching football I can count all those I had gladly taken on a mutilated hand.
Neymar is certainly not a Tonino Cerezo, to say one.

So should we sell the Brazilian we already have in the squad? Don't remember the objection when we signed Maicon.

Maicon is a particular kind of signing - like Paddy Vieira - deemed to maximum input with minimum cost.
Totally different story would be to[strike]invest[/strike] gamble, better say, dozens of millions on pure unreliability.
for the records, just because of my personal prevention towards Brazilian players, I was certainly not the most excited when we signed Maicon, despite understanding the merit of it.

WRT Maicon. i dunno why some people feel that we can't sign a squad player with a fantastic winning pedigree. i think that's what you want in the dressing room and on the training pitch and it's where they are honestly doing most of their work, so...makes reasonable sense to me.

[Swales4ever]

No Brazilians please, in 40 years of watching football I can count all those I had gladly taken on a mutilated hand.
Neymar is certainly not a Tonino Cerezo, to say one.

So should we sell the Brazilian we already have in the squad? Don't remember the objection when we signed Maicon.

Maicon is a particular kind of signing - like Paddy Vieira - deemed to maximum input with minimum cost.
Totally different story would be to[strike]invest[/strike] gamble, better say, dozens of millions on pure unreliability.
for the records, just because of my personal prevention towards Brazilian players, I was certainly not the most excited when we signed Maicon, despite understanding the merit of it.

WRT Maicon. i dunno why some people feel that we can't sign a squad player with a fantastic winning pedigree. i think that's what you want in the dressing room and on the training pitch and it's where they are honestly doing most of their work, so...makes reasonable sense to me.

In fact that what i meant and think You mean too, if I get right the WRighT. Otherwise, with reference to, Maicon, there is the mention to Paddy.

Happy Christmas Doomster, I'd really love to have You keyboarding the surf on our Late Night's... :-)

[Dameerto]

Very important point!
also, I'd like that several of next training would be dedicated to focus our strikers/forwarders on the idea to follow the action ALSO on the far post: it's not always easy but in the last games that something that screeched.

It's been like that for a few (at least two) seasons - and if you notice, the person playing those balls that the others should be running onto or making more of, is almost always Aguero. It's something I mentioned in a previous post (I think last season), a part of his game or his style that he's grown up with is to play percentage balls 'blindly' for a team mate to get onto the end of (after carving defences open with his runs). Sadly our style of play as a team doesn't include this, and a lot of chances go begging because our midfield and fullbacks tend to stand around expecting him to do all the work himself instead of anticipating a chance from his movement. And I might add, it's a fucling shame we don't focus a bit more on this aspect because we have one of the best converters of percentage balls in the league sitting on the bench and being underused/misused (Dzeko).

[Swales4ever]

Very important point!
also, I'd like that several of next training would be dedicated to focus our strikers/forwarders on the idea to follow the action ALSO on the far post: it's not always easy but in the last games that something that screeched.

It's been like that for a few (at least two) seasons - and if you notice, the person playing those balls that the others should be running onto or making more of, is almost always Aguero. It's something I mentioned in a previous post (I think last season), a part of his game or his style that he's grown up with is to play percentage balls 'blindly' for a team mate to get onto the end of (after carving defences open with his runs). Sadly our style of play as a team doesn't include this, and a lot of chances go begging because our midfield and fullbacks tend to stand around expecting him to do all the work himself instead of anticipating a chance from his movement. And I might add, it's a fucling shame we don't focus a bit more on this aspect because we have one of the best converters of percentage balls in the league sitting on the bench and being underused/misused (Dzeko).

agreed mate, bar about "our style of play as a team doesn't include this".
our passing and moving is naturally designed - and often even too much emphasized/taken too literally - at reaching the end with the ball on feet: so that should come natural to have someone attending the opposite post as often as the drive allows.
I cannot even consider that Mancini is not focused on prompting that and I'd be much intrugued to hear some details on next reports by Sir DH.
I had few loving rants to Sergio, just because of his supreme talent You always expect the best out of him, but sometimes we should also take into account how young he still is: to an upper level but yet to be a finished article.... and thanks for that, MCFC!

I too had long wondered and posted about it since long, just wanted to stress that in recent games we had some blatant samples.

[Dameerto]

Our style of play is about fluid quick passing, but always aimed at someone (IE a rapid one-two to give someone a bit of space) - percentage balls rarely feature in our game at all except from Aguero (and Balotelli when he first joined us, until Mancini trained it out of him). It seems to be deliberate, and a style thing.

[Swales4ever]

Our style of play is about fluid quick passing, but always aimed at someone (IE a rapid one-two to give someone a bit of space) - percentage balls rarely feature in our game at all except from Aguero (and Balotelli when he first joined us, until Mancini trained it out of him). It seems to be deliberate, and a style thing.

right, but when You reach the end, and not have a proper shooting angle from the 1st post.... and we did see it at least 3/4 times in the last 2 games. Good sign, as it means one-twos are working with recovered fluidity but... Mancini must prompt them to follow the drive with some perspective: on saturday Zaba and dave got on the end line, twice and Tevez and Aguero were attending on the penalty spot, surrounded by CBs, just as they were Carroll or Mark Hatley... not wise enough.
It's up to the manager, that's 4 sure

[Ted Hughes]

I too have a 'no Brazilians' policy but if both Tricky & Bob agree on signing one, then I have to trust they know what they are doing.

I recon Maicon has done ok but Bob has used him occasionally at the wrong time.