Very Concerned

[dick dastardley]

Having thought about the past couple of games, my thoughts are pelle must have told yaya to protect our weak defence.
By not venturing forward when kompany is back I'm hoping. Yaya will bring some much wanted midfield attacking,
If pelle is out of his depth in the prem then pixie and Dixie need to work a miracle to sort this out.
If kompany is fit for next sun then we should beat the scum but if he's out a draw is looking on the cards

[corvo19]

Toure is not playing in attacking mode because of our poor defense. I think pelle has told him to stay behind to act as a cover for the fucked up defense!!

[Beefymcfc]

I agree we are most possibly worse off than 4th, because we have still to go to the swamp, Anfield & Goodison but our rivals have had some of those games alrady. Yet I made the exact same point early last season after certain results & got told I was talking shite.

I don't get why people ever thought Garcia/Nastasic/Kolarov, Rodwell/Milner, Jovetic on debut was likely to win at Stoke though. Mancini never won there in the league with a much stronger side & got knocked out of the cup on one occasion, after playing them twice.

This was a desperate selection to avoid injury to key players.

The Cardiff game is of more concern to me, as it was a stronger side.

Yesterday was a point and that's all we can take from it. We've had problems away to Stoke on numerous occassions and I thought we'd broke that hoodoo last season when we beat them in the cup. What was worrying yesterday was the amount of shots we had, and therefore shots on goal. If I remember right, we were well into double figures in the last couple of seasons and near into double figures for shots of goal. Yesterday I only rmember 2 or 3 and they were just skimmers from outside the box; I remember nothing of note.

Cardiff and Hull have been our worst games so far. Although we won against Hull the performance was far from great and both games showed up our defensive frailities. I know we may want to ret players but again, as we sometimes said about Mancini, put the best players on and then take them off once the game is won. We're still learning the new system and the only way for that to bed in is to have the majority playing game-in, game-out.

Like last season, we look lethargic again. I could sort of understand it last season as I felt we all still had a hangover from winning the league, this season though, surely we should be starting to fire. Is it the intense training that Vinnie talked about or is it just a lack of a spark from the players, I'm not sure.

[Socrates]

I already said as much, no point harking back to the halcyon days, we are shit again and will be for a while. I have accepted it.

You are painfully predictable.

Four games in and you're calling the manager a clown?

Get out of mancini's arse will you ffs.

You really think we will win the league with this chap in charge? He made Hughes look good yesterday. I'm not going to be dishonest and say I think he will succeed. I hope he will but I don't see it. We swapped a proven winner for an old manager who has got used to 2nd or 3rd best being good enough. He looks completely out of his depth. This isn't about Mancini, it is about the mediocrity they have replaced him with. Going to be a long haul while the new director of football comes to terms with the Premier League. His failure to see that we need to protect the defence in this league is going to be something we pay a heavy price for this season. Spending fortunes on 28 year old players is not building for the future and the players bought collectively won't deliver in the present. I've come to terms with, for now you continue to be in happy denial. Your choice.

[MilnersJaw]

The oppo did not score because we did not let them and,if they had I am sure we would have raised our game enough to get the same results we have had.

You jokin? We were lucky against newcastle the mistakes we were making and the chances stoke had as well. What games you watching?

[Rag_hater]

The oppo did not score because we did not let them and,if they had I am sure we would have raised our game enough to get the same results we have had.

You jokin? We were lucky against newcastle the mistakes we were making and the chances stoke had as well. What games you watching?

All of them actually and to me the fact that the game was a draw and then we were in the lead until the 80th minute gave me the impression we did ok.Its only when I came on here and read the wrist slashing comments I realised we were shit.I thought we were ok and the sheep shaggers were lucky but seems I was mistaken.

[gmercer1]

My only concern is him playing Garcia again!

[Twobob]

Cardiff got lucky (they hardly ran us of the park, made Joe MOM)and where they are gonna be at the end of the season them taking points of us is a concern but not a huge one

What part of Cardiff's win was lucky mate?

[Twobob]

They will also have to test their defences against us if they want to beat us. We have been playing against teams who have run their balls off trying to keep us out. Most of the the 'top' teams, like us, have players with talent who also like to take a breather when the oppo has the ball.

We have some serious options going forward for any team who wants to take us on. All of them look poor defensively to me.

We saw that against Newcastle, when our firepower click together we will be scary going forward, they're probably looking at us with the same thoughts but will be more wary of our front line than we 'should' be of theirs.

I do suspect that once we stop changing our CB's we'll solidify and then it's just the midfield we need to get rolling straight.

However, we do need to get back to be able to grind out hard work 0-1 results away from home against teams like Cardiff, Stoke etc - if our challengers also drop points then it will make the league a better place.

I am very excited about this Tuesdays CL game though, will be good to see how we line up and see if there's differences between how we approach that game to a league game.

[Rag_hater]

Cardiff got lucky (they hardly ran us of the park, made Joe MOM)and where they are gonna be at the end of the season them taking points of us is a concern but not a huge one

What part of Cardiff's win was lucky mate?

For me the fact that we had more possession that them as many shots,taking the lead and getting more corners than them made me feel that we were on top despite what some commentator was saying.

[Jorgobot]

Im concernd but we are in 4th followed by rags and if we win head to heads we should be alright since most teams have dropped points

[phips]

Pellegrini is not used to playing in a league with, top to bottom, defenses that are this good.

[AG7]

I am confused ... no, genuinely I am confused ... why most of the slagging off is being done around here about our defence? We have three clean sheets from four games ... what's more worrying is us not scoring or attacking as much as we should with all that spend on attacking players and promises of a delightful, beautiful, whatnotful attacking teams Pellegrini puts out ... I am yet to see even glimpses of anything like that (apart from Newcastle game, but lets be fair they were piss-poor that day and shot themselves with the sending off too).

Which is our bigger worry? Defence or Attack?

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

Think we sold our best player in the summer and are struggling without his drive and (on the pitch) attitude. Don't see anything from anyone else willing to step up at the moment either.

Defensively gone to shit too. Too many maybes and misfits as opposed to just getting in one man to do the fucking job.

It may well be holistic, but this attitude doesn't look like it's going to win matches.

[Goaters 103]

Said it before, will say it again, we have far too many indians and no chiefs in this squad.

The distinct lack of leadership when Kompany is absent is glaring. Add that to a new formation, some strange team selections - Garcia, why? - and the distinct smell of a bog standard 4-4-2 has us all concerned.

Not sure Tevez can help us defend set pieces, fix Kompanys persistent fragile state, or sort the midfield malaise though he could have nobbled Garcia in training perhaps.

[Original Dub]

You really think we will win the league with this chap in charge? He made Hughes look good yesterday. I'm not going to be dishonest and say I think he will succeed. I hope he will but I don't see it. We swapped a proven winner for an old manager who has got used to 2nd or 3rd best being good enough. He looks completely out of his depth. This isn't about Mancini, it is about the mediocrity they have replaced him with. Going to be a long haul while the new director of football comes to terms with the Premier League. His failure to see that we need to protect the defence in this league is going to be something we pay a heavy price for this season. Spending fortunes on 28 year old players is not building for the future and the players bought collectively won't deliver in the present. I've come to terms with, for now you continue to be in happy denial. Your choice.

I think we can win the league with him in charge.

But I'm not sure. No on can be sure either way.

We've played four games.

[Socrates]

You really think we will win the league with this chap in charge? He made Hughes look good yesterday. I'm not going to be dishonest and say I think he will succeed. I hope he will but I don't see it. We swapped a proven winner for an old manager who has got used to 2nd or 3rd best being good enough. He looks completely out of his depth. This isn't about Mancini, it is about the mediocrity they have replaced him with. Going to be a long haul while the new director of football comes to terms with the Premier League. His failure to see that we need to protect the defence in this league is going to be something we pay a heavy price for this season. Spending fortunes on 28 year old players is not building for the future and the players bought collectively won't deliver in the present. I've come to terms with, for now you continue to be in happy denial. Your choice.

I think we can win the league with him in charge.

But I'm not sure. No on can be sure either way.

We've played four games.

The transfer window closed and Barry can't be recalled. Thinking this side could turn out to be champions is delusion on a grand scale.

[Blue Since 76]

The transfer window closed and Barry can't be recalled. Thinking this side could turn out to be champions is delusion on a grand scale.

So after 4 games, who will be?

[john@staustell]

I thought he rested a few on Saturday with Tuesday and Sunday in mind. Hughes was probably right in his 'under-estimating' comment, but at the end of the day a point is all we usually get at most at Stoke.

Obviously we are totally changing style and I didn't expect it to click in straight away.

[Socrates]

The transfer window closed and Barry can't be recalled. Thinking this side could turn out to be champions is delusion on a grand scale.

So after 4 games, who will be?

Not us and not Sunderland or Hull...