***city v the ref, sorry v barca match thread***

[gmercer1]

Surely there are going to be changes at half time.............surely?

[Nick]

ONE SHOT ONE GOAL

3 SHOTS, 2 GOALS. ITS SAME SHIT

NEW THAT CUNT WOULD SCORE.

DOESNT TELL A FULL STORY COS WE STARTED OFF SO WELL UNTIL WE HAD TO DEFEND A SHOT ON TARGET... (I SAY IT EVERY GAME, FIRST CLEAN SHEET WAS COS NEWCASTLE HAS ONE SHOT AT HART).

How do we change it?

dinho on for dzeko? I just dont know. we need a runner.

navas too? dzeko isn't working with aguero for me.

we have 442 so have no ball but yet arent threatenin on the break. Bony? Dzeko isnt that player. hes HINDERING aguero for me by going wide

[foreverblue]

have we actually played a half worse than that in the champions league? i know we have had shocking performances and results but have we actually been so utterly pants in absolutely every area of the pitch before?

I want to substitute kompany, clichy, fernando, milner, nasri, silva, aguero.

[Cit.revenge]

Kunb again invisible against Barcelona but Peller with that midfield , WTF he was thinking. We need replacment for Yaya and no more Fernando Garcia players. we need some like Radja from Roma.

[Dameerto]

Im now starting to see how bad Fernando actually is. He offers us absolutely nothing

He's not bad though - he's just bad in Pellegrini's system. IF we played three in central midfield he would be a perfect anchor but with just two he still hasn't found his balance between defending and holding the middle of the pitch for us - he's still way too defence-heavy. Given how Garcia improved after a full season and a bit with us I still haven't given up on Fernando, I just hope he finds the right balance soon and it all clicks for him.

[Cocacolajojo1]

IMO, replace SIlva for Navas and let Nasri and Milner pull the strings.

[Mase]

Can't believe that not one of our playets has targeted Suarez and tried to wind him up. Fuckin idiots we have wearing the blue!

[iwasthere2012]

Prediction:

We will go in 0-2 or 0-3. rally like we always do when it's too late in Europe, and say how brave and committed we were late on, but still lose.

If Pellers doesn't change to 5 in the middle this could be more embarrassing than 3-0.
Trouble is he's wasting one substitution if not two just to rectify the situation. He fucked up big time with that selection.

[twosips]

Im now starting to see how bad Fernando actually is. He offers us absolutely nothing

He's not bad though - he's just bad in Pellegrini's system. IF we played three in central midfield he would be a perfect anchor but with just two he still hasn't found his balance between defending and holding the middle of the pitch for us - he's still way too defence-heavy. Given how Garcia improved after a full season and a bit with us I still haven't given up on Fernando, I just hope he finds the right balance soon and it all clicks for him.

By 'perfect' do you mean competent? I've not really seen much to suggest that he's that good an anchor. Matic for example clearly is.

[Ted Hughes]

They're like rabbits caught in the headlights at times. You'd swear they'd never met each other before tonight.

That's the truth.

Why the fuck people are singling out Fernando, apart from they already decided before kickoff, I've no idea. He dropped a bollock with a backpass. Nothing else has got anything to do with him. What options do him or Milner have when they get the ball ? Each other or the defence.

The difference in the way Barca's players are looking for the ball, is stark. Silva is stood sonetimes between 4 Barca players with no angle for a pass. If we hit it long, the so called attacking midfield are 40 yards deep. We could play fucking ten in midfiekd and play like this & it wouldn't work.

They are playing like shit.

[Blue In Bolton]

Desperately need a dynamic box-to-box midfielder in the summer because Barca are currently walking through ours. You may as well give then the ball if Fernando is on the ball which I think is having a negative effect on Milner. Fernandinho on for Fernando at half time and snap those tackles and for the love of god get tighter on them!!

[guv111]

"At least try"......Dixon. He may have a point.

Even clueless chasing around would be preferable to THIS.

At least TRY, you bunch of craven, pointless ninnies.

[Ted Hughes]

Im now starting to see how bad Fernando actually is. He offers us absolutely nothing

He's not bad though - he's just bad in Pellegrini's system. IF we played three in central midfield he would be a perfect anchor but with just two he still hasn't found his balance between defending and holding the middle of the pitch for us - he's still way too defence-heavy. Given how Garcia improved after a full season and a bit with us I still haven't given up on Fernando, I just hope he finds the right balance soon and it all clicks for him.

By 'perfect' do you mean competent? I've not really seen much to suggest that he's that good an anchor. Matic for example clearly is.

Matic would be nowhere in this.

[sheblue]

No pressure on he ball, no marking, really shit performance so far, we deserve to be 2 down.

[Tesl]

I think people in here are actually being harsh. I think Barcelona have been brilliant, better by miles than any other opponent we have faced this season. We aren't suddenly terrible, we actually look quite dangerous going forward, but in the middle of the park and in attack they are just better than us.

Its easy now to blame Pelligrini, but the criticism last time was we didn't try to play our way and we changed our whole game because it was Barcelona. He's trying to set us up how we are normally strongest, but we are being beaten by the better team. I don't think its a fair criticism, we'd be losing with 5 in midfield but then he'd be blamed for changing our shape (as we know from last time).

People in here are way too reactionary with no attempt for rational thought.

[Dameerto]

Im now starting to see how bad Fernando actually is. He offers us absolutely nothing

He's not bad though - he's just bad in Pellegrini's system. IF we played three in central midfield he would be a perfect anchor but with just two he still hasn't found his balance between defending and holding the middle of the pitch for us - he's still way too defence-heavy. Given how Garcia improved after a full season and a bit with us I still haven't given up on Fernando, I just hope he finds the right balance soon and it all clicks for him.

By 'perfect' do you mean competent? I've not really seen much to suggest that he's that good an anchor. Matic for example clearly is.

I haven't seen much of Matic so I can't comment, I have seen enough of Fernando to know how good he is at anticipating where he's needed to cover in the back four or how good he is at winning the ball back.

[LookMumImOnMCF.net]

The problem is Barcelona are just better.

Players like Clichy, Milner, Fernando just don't play for clubs gunning for this competition. You might get away with one if the rest are superstars but City's next level aren't exactly brilliant.

This stage is about par for this squad.

[Sideshow Bob]

fernando can't tackle, his positional play sucks ass, and he's like richard fucking dunne on the ball. other than that I have high hopes for him.

[foreverblue]

I think people in here are actually being harsh. I think Barcelona have been brilliant, better by miles than any other opponent we have faced this season. We aren't suddenly terrible, we actually look quite dangerous going forward, but in the middle of the park and in attack they are just better than us.

Its easy now to blame Pelligrini, but the criticism last time was we didn't try to play our way and we changed our whole game because it was Barcelona. He's trying to set us up how we are normally strongest, but we are being beaten by the better team. I don't think its a fair criticism, we'd be losing with 5 in midfield but then he'd be blamed for changing our shape (as we know from last time).

People in here are way too reactionary with no attempt for rational thought.

i get what you're saying but this is why we bought Bony isn't it?

[iwasthere2012]

Im now starting to see how bad Fernando actually is. He offers us absolutely nothing

He's not bad though - he's just bad in Pellegrini's system. IF we played three in central midfield he would be a perfect anchor but with just two he still hasn't found his balance between defending and holding the middle of the pitch for us - he's still way too defence-heavy. Given how Garcia improved after a full season and a bit with us I still haven't given up on Fernando, I just hope he finds the right balance soon and it all clicks for him.

The guy isn't a footballer. Nobody can convince me he's Brazilian. Agree that Pellers has done him no favours asking him to do this job though. He's not capable.