Get it off your chest here

[stevefromdonny]

the start of the play leading up to their goal, Demichelis was left for dead on the touchline and as the play continued he was just stood about 20-25 yards away with not a Chelsea player 15 yds near him. in fact a Chelsea player who was nearest to him was in pen box and in a bit of space in ball went to him. Demichelis should of got nearer that player just incase the ball went to him, but as a dm he should be in centre of the area not stood out of the wing selling programes

[Bleed_Blue]

500 dollars wtf

You bet $500 ?? Ohh shitt, feeling sorry for you mate. Hope you are rich

[dick dastardley]

Pelle got totally out thought and didnt make the right changes last night, we should have strengthened the midfield, silva and navas arent tacklers demi too slow, yaya was being over run.
Nasti was poor against a strong attacker hes not good enough!!!
Front two were shite dzeko back to his usual, negredo looked fooked after 20 mins, saying all that its not the end of the world were still 2nd with a few injuries.

[bayblue]

There was nobody who could play in ferna position today other than Demi, Milner who returned from injury yesterday, rodwell who didnt perform up to the standard against Watford, dont even know what kind of injury Garcia has. Looking at the missed chances, which should have been finished off by Yaya, Silva, Negredo and Dzeko. Today was just not our day, but goal posts have shown their loyalty. Kompany was quite agitated today, generally he is really calm. Nasti was fucking up, tackling Kompany. Never seen Kompany so agitated from the start of match.

Spot on. Kompany was like the proverbial cat on a hot tin roof from very early on.
Agree with what you say about Demi being the only option as well but I am disappointed we didn't change shape when it was obvious after about 15 minutes that the players we had, in the formation we use, wasn't working. It just reinforced that Fernandinho and YaYa are awesome at their best, last night we needed a three in there.

[branny]

the start of the play leading up to their goal, Demichelis was left for dead on the touchline and as the play continued he was just stood about 20-25 yards away with not a Chelsea player 15 yds near him. in fact a Chelsea player who was nearest to him was in pen box and in a bit of space in ball went to him. Demichelis should of got nearer that player just incase the ball went to him, but as a dm he should be in centre of the area not stood out of the wing selling programes

He should have been strong enough to put the ball out of play when it was played up to Hazard.

[sheblue]

it was more than just a bad night or an off day. yes we were well below par but a lot of the tactics have to come into question.

persisting with two upfront against better opposition is not working, ok for the cannon fodder but not bayern, chelski or barca.
The two best teams how we have palyed at home are bayern and chelski. Leaving a man short in midfield hasnt worked and it wont work against barca or chelski again in the cup.

We have too many players who dont work hard enough at getting back to persist with two upfront.

Major blot on pelligrinis copy book.

[Mike J]

Was an off night and Chelsea played brilliantly.

Nastasic was a pile of shit imo though.

[Breks]

Silva wasn't on song, negredo was none existent. We missed fernandinho in the middle and Aguero up front. 20 games unbeaten is outstanding so lets start again and put on a league winning unbeaten run now. We are very much in this title race.

[Cit.revenge]

Dzeko & Negredo had a very difficult job on v a load of Chelsea players though. I don't think it's fair to get on their case.

Silva didn't give them enough effective support imo, nor did he give enough to Yaya, who sometimes had to beat 3 players to get a pass off. I thought Yaya was fucking immense apart from for the goal. He was like the fucking T Rex in Jurassic Park with the Raptors hanging off his back, still running. Really missed his partner to help him out.

The ability of Nasri, Aguero & Fernandinho to run at players was badly missed tonight though. We just had Yaya & Navas.

I'm all for the Count playing the attacking game, but tonight we simply didn't have the players available to do it. No guarantee it would have worked anyway against such a packed midfield, but much more chance of it working than tonight.

Realistically, we were fucked as an attacking unit when fernandinho broke down though.

What we are trying to do, isn't easy.

100% us soon i see that we have Yaya and Demi at back i was wondering how we going to play with two strikers with that Mourinho 5 in midfield . We should try 4 5 1 and i just don't get why we did not change that at half when it was so clear that we need three( somebody else to start action accept Yaya because Deni was just not able to do that ) down there to start attack , because they just cover Yaya and we have nothing to start Demi was good in defense but hes slow could not cover for Yaya like Ferna do i even se value of Garcia last night.Think Pelle was easy to read for Mourinho and with players with did not have he play him great.

[tc6828]

I'm really sick of watching Dzeko.

His general gameplay is absolute shite. He does score goals but mostly against rubbish opposition and having been given a million chances.

Since he boomed one in against the Hammers, he thinks that's the only way to do it - thrashes and lashes at everything. For a striker of his obvious talent, he should at least be hitting the target (not row F)

Yes he gets goals, but his inconsistency cannot be tolerated for much longer IMO

[bigblue]

Someone needs to tell Silva when he shoots to just act like he his playing a through-ball or pass (which he is great at and comes off 90% of the time) to the corner of the goal. Same technique, especially when most of his shots come in the 18 yard box. It's a purely mental block that he needs to get over.

[tc6828]

Neutral perspective on Demichelis.

It cannot be easy being Martin Demichelis, a stop-gap buy at Manchester City with the kind of ponytail not seen in these parts since the Hacienda was open for business for twenty-four hour party people.

The Argentine has an ambling gait, a distinct lack of pace and, while his team-mates can boast multi-million pound price tags and image rights, he arrived from Atletico Madrid last August for £3.5m simply because Manuel Pellegrini, his manager at Malaga, needed a reliable squad player to cover for any defensive emergencies.

Demichelis is the definition of being under-appreciated, but the 33-year-old made a point to his doubters as City struggled to cope with a vibrant and hungry Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on Monday night.

Despite his 1990s appearance and lack of visible athleticism, which perhaps contributed to the tangible anxiety among the supporters whenever he had the ball at his feet, the biggest handicap to Demichelis against Jose Mourinho's team was having to play alongside Yaya Toure.

Toure may be City's raging bull in midfield, the irresistible force that drives the team forward, but there are times against quality opposition when the Ivorian can become a liability.

And with Demichelis deployed in place of the injured Fernandinho in Pellegrini's midfield two, Toure's buccaneering style left his team-mate - usually a centre-half - exposed time and again when Willian, Eden Hazard and Ramires embarked on marauding runs forward.

Toure is adored by the City supporters, and quite rightly considering his contribution to the club's 2011-12 title success, but he could certainly do with some of Demichelis defensive discipline.

Of City's front six, Demichelis was the only one who was willing, or able, to tackle, block or intercept.

Having played at centre-half in each of his previous seventeen appearances for City, Demichelis stepped into the hole created by Fernandinho's muscular injury ahead of more obvious candidates such as James Milner and Jack Rodwell, who were named as substitutes.

But he could not have envisaged the workload he would face with Toure spending more time in the final third than the middle one.

With City obliterating every Premier League opponent to have visited the Etihad so far this season, perhaps they have simply forgotten that defending is not just the preserve of the back four, but something that starts with the centre-forward.

Demichelis knows this and , unsurprisingly, he was booked following a late challenge on Hazard. Still, at least he was there to earn the yellow card by fouling the Chelsea midfielder.

Barcelona, who visit the Etihad in two weeks' time for the first-leg of their Champions League last 16 tie against Pellegrini's team, will have noted the frailties exposed by Chelsea.

Toure's wanderlust, the lack of defensive work by City's forwards and the unconvincing nature of the left half of Pellegrini's back four.

Demichelis may be back alongside Vincent Kompany at centre-half when Lionel Messi and Xavi come to town, but while that will lessen the problems at the back, it will not solve them in midfield.

Unless Toure remembers that defending is just as important as barnstorming runs forward.

Harsh on Yaya imo, but it adds a bit of a different perspective to the one on here.

I have to agree with all of the above. Demi is getting an unwarranted kicking from the City fans. Yes he has limitations, but pound for pound he put as much effort in as any other city player. I am a big Yaya fan but increasingly he is scaring the shit out of me when he is playing defensive dribbling. He is a big unit and perhaps thinks he can out muscle anyone. When it goes wrong, and it does he leaves us fully exposed. This happened again last night

[Wooders]

Toure was our best player last night - Demi was our worst

[dazby]

Toure was our best player last night - Demi was our worst

Bullshit. Complete bullshit.

[Saul Goodman]

I haven't had a look at the schedule but the league cup now looks like our best chance for a trophy. The Chelsea match and this Norwich match are very worrying--the most free scoring team in the league can't score 2 weeks straight. These injuries could well pave the way for Chelsea to wrap it up as Arsenal drop points during this tough stretch for them

[Clowncrete]

He needs to instruct the team to play higher crosses and inswinging corners. Their entire box is filled with players and Navas constantly puts in a ground cross!

[Ted Hughes]

In the space of two games, Hazard has gone from pretty good to potentially world class & dragged Chelsea up to a different level, & Silva has once again failed to be the inspiration for City when we hit a difficult patch, as in the previous two seasons when the chips were down.

Swap the two a week ago & we would be clear now at the top of the league.

P.S. we now start to realise why Tevez was so good.

[Hazy2]

6 points behind next time we play

[Ted Hughes]

6 points behind next time we play

That's impossible.

[Hazy2]

6 points behind next time we play

That's impossible.

5 sorry