Manchester City (A)

[pete0]

Barry signing is a bit of a mare, he was great last year but there must have been better stop gap out there for this season.

[MC11]

Barry signing is a bit of a mare, he was great last year but there must have been better stop gap out there for this season.

He has been truly atrocious since returning from injury. In fact he's been shit all season.

[Guest rusty747]

I'm trying to snatch a few positives out of this and the one that springs to mind is that Ross and Sammy CAN play in the same starting eleven. Ross needs to play as one of the two 'defensive' mids in that he collects the short ball from the back five and either drives forward himself or makes like a quarter back and sprays the ball out to Kev or Aiden, or looks for big Rom.

 

Sammy can then play the number 10 role, without him and Ross getting in each others way. When Nais gets back that gives options to play either one of the 3 at number 10, or either Nais or Sammy at 10 with Ross remaining as defensive mid.

 

Positive #2. Struggling now but John Stones can't be far off a return.

 

Positive #3. Kev is starting to find his form and shooting boots again.

 

Positive #4. Barry got booked and must miss the next game. Hope Jimmy Mac and Besic and Ross start as a midfield three with Eto'o and Kev ahead of them and Rom up front.

 

Positive #5. Next game is a dead rubber against Krasnodar and represents a real chance for the you gsters to step up and replace what is starting to look like dead wood in certain areas.

Positive #6. We never stopped trying today and the team spirit obviously remains intact. Epitomised by Besic. Can someone tell me why he and not Barry was subbed please.

Enough. Time for Only Fools and Horses cjristmas special.

[MikeO]

Whatever out shortcomings it's just seriously annoying to lose to such a ridiculously soft pen, when on another night with a neutral ref it would have been 0-0 at half time with City down to nine men. Studs full on to the chest/head?

 

We were poor but we were robbed.

[markjazzbassist]

can someone explain to me, WHY WE DONT USE ALL 3 SUBS? pisses me off. atsu, mcgeady, jimmy the fucking kit man, anyone just put someone on the field and hope something happens. put the U-21 team 3 subs on i don't give a shit, just don't use 2 subs, worthless. city had all 3 used before 80'.

[MC11]

Today proved...... We do not need two sitters all the time. Tonight I saw Plan B'ish.

The second half performance really wasn't too bad. Martinez at least showed a little bit of courage taking one of the sitters off and putting Barkley in. Don't agree with Osman sub though... Away to City 1-0 down and he brings Ozzie on for Mirallas!

[markjazzbassist]

Today proved...... We do not need two sitters all the time. Tonight I saw Plan B'ish.

The second half performance really wasn't too bad. Martinez at least showed a little bit of courage taking one of the sitters off and putting Barkley in. Don't agree with Osman sub though... Away to City 1-0 down and he brings Ozzie on for Mirallas!

 

you know MC you've been banging on this for a while now and you're right. Barkley looked good staying back and bringing the ball from defense to attack. I would love to see him and mccarthy as the pairing once he's fit. maybe sell mccarthy and buy some more youth and have besic and barkley next year.

[MC11]

Whatever out shortcomings it's just seriously annoying to lose to such a ridiculously soft pen, when on another night with a neutral ref it would have been 0-0 at half time with City down to nine men. Studs full on to the chest/head? We were poor but we were robbed.

If Barry didn't give the ball away AGAIN there would be no penalty.

[MC11]

you know MC you've been banging on this for a while now and you're right. Barkley looked good staying back and bringing the ball from defense to attack. I would love to see him and mccarthy as the pairing once he's fit. maybe sell mccarthy and buy some more youth and have besic and barkley next year.

Definitely needs to implicate that option when the two sitters isn't working. I think McCarthy could do that job on his own. Barry needs dropping.

[johnh]

Didn't see the game but had a look at the stats on BBC website. Can't believe that Martinez made a substitution in the 88th minute. When you are losing 1-0 you need to give your subs time to have an effect. Maybe he was doing it to make sure it didn't get worse than 1-0.

[rubecula]

A mediocre performance interspersed with periods of pure rubbish, totally spoiled by a useless ref.

 

(Did I miss anything out?)

[markjazzbassist]

Definitely needs to implicate that option when the two sitters isn't working. I think McCarthy could do that job on his own. Barry needs dropping.

 

are you saying 4231 with the second holding mid being more box to box, or you saying it should be 4132 with just mccarthy sitting, barkley in the ACM, and eto'o/naisy behind lukaku in the 10?

[Guest rusty747]

I think MC and I are saying very similar things. Jimmy Mac or Besic and Ross as a defensive mid combo. Ross can then take the short ball from the back five and either surge forward with it or make like a quarter back and hit our runners.

[MC11]

are you saying 4231 with the second holding mid being more box to box, or you saying it should be 4132 with just mccarthy sitting, barkley in the ACM, and eto'o/naisy behind lukaku in the 10?

I'm saying Ross next to McCarthy or Besic. Not as a sitter but as a CM. He tracked back well.

[Cornish Steve]

Barry signing is a bit of a mare, he was great last year but there must have been better stop gap out there for this season.

 

Barry desperately needs rest, coming back too soon after injury - but who is there? With McCarthy and Gibson injured, who else is there? It's all very well to complain, but it's in midfield that we're strapped right now. Barry is trying to do what he's asked to do, but only because we have no other options.

[MC11]

Mcarthy Barkley(pushing on)

 

Eto'o/Mcgeady Naismith Mirallas

 

Lukaku

Edited December 6, 2014 by MC11

[Guest rusty747]

If everyone is fit and on form:

 

Howard

 

Coleman Stones Jags Baines

 

Ross. McCarthy

 

Mcgeady. Eto'o Mirallas

 

Rom

 

Subs: Joel, Browning, Hibbert, Besic, gibson, Naismith, Kone.

 

Maybe change Hibbert and Gibson for Garbutt and Ossie

Edited December 7, 2014 by rusty747

[Sideliner]

poor ref

and poor substitutions once again

how many more times must i say it - we need a proper nr 10 and a proper right winger -

if we chase a game what does Hibbert do on the field -

Mirallas needs to get fit - we can't sub him every game -

Osman is no impact player by any stretch of the immagination -

when we chase - we should use all our subs - unless those fresh legs are useless - then sell them

once Europe is out of the way this team will start playing to its limited potential

[MC11]

Hibbert doing just as much as Coleman has been unfortunately.

 

Hibbert for me has been great whenever call upon.

[Shukes]

To be fair he never put a foot wrong. One of the better players on the pitch.

[markjazzbassist]

Mcarthy Barkley(pushing on)

 

Eto'o/Mcgeady Naismith Mirallas

 

Lukaku

 

 

If everyone is fit and on form:

 

Howard

 

Coleman Stones Jags Baines

 

Ross. McCarthy

 

Mcgeady. Eto'o Mirallas

 

Rom

 

Subs: Joel, Browning, Hibbert, Besic, gibson, Naismith, Kone.

 

Maybe change Hibbert and Gibson for Chadwick and Ossie

 

i like the look of that. still 4231 but ross is attacking from deep, box to box. if we could get a better right winger than mcgeady i'd really be excited.

[Newty82]

The problem with playing both Barkley and McCarthy as the 2 CM's is that, at the moment, both will push on. At the moment, Barry does tend to stay back a lot more than McCarthy...who tends to make plenty of forward runs. Barry steps into defence when our full backs push on.

 

To make Barkley and McCarthy work, you'd have to restrict McCarthy...which isn't making the best use of his attributes. If you didn't restrict him, you'd have him pushing on, Barkley pushing on more so and the full backs pushing on. Leaving just the CB's at the back...Bit over exposed that.

 

Barry's having a mare at the moment. But Bobby ' s philosophy seems to be to play through it.

[MC11]

 

The problem with playing both Barkley and McCarthy as the 2 CM's is that, at the moment, both will push on. At the moment, Barry does tend to stay back a lot more than McCarthy...who tends to make plenty of forward runs. Barry steps into defence when our full backs push on.

 

To make Barkley and McCarthy work, you'd have to restrict McCarthy...which isn't making the best use of his attributes. If you didn't restrict him, you'd have him pushing on, Barkley pushing on more so and the full backs pushing on. Leaving just the CB's at the back...Bit over exposed that.

 

McCarthy best attributes are defensive, he's not an attacking player. So it's best to leave him deep.

[Paddock]

Didn't think we played that bad today, we were by no means great either but we were far from awful.

 

From where I was sitting (well standing) it looked a stone wall pen, I've not had chance to see it but radio and it seems here seem to think it was harsh?

 

Ref was an absolute crab the shitbag. One of the worse ref performances I've witnessed this season.

 

Can anyone please tell me why he has taken Besic off who was looking our best player again. He was getting stuck in, driving forward, mixing it up... Granted he can be a bit over zealous at times and be a bit wasteful but at least there's desire and commitment . Just don't get what he is thinking with his subs I really dont.

 

To be fair to him though I've been moaning we're far too predictable and at least he mixed it up today. Coleman atright mid should never happen again, thought Hibbert struggled as well gave far too much room to them in their left side. Feel sorry for Barry I think he's asking far too much from him, it's as clear as day he is nowhere near fit and someone said today he's playing with injections to get him through. If that's true the criticism is harsh on the lad, he's putting his body on the line and playing with an injury. No wonder he looks out of sorts.

 

QPR is an absolute huge game now. Austin was sent off today so that's one bonus but if we fail to be them we have a tough xmas period. People may laugh at this but get anything less than 3 points in that game and lose at Southampton we really are in a relegation fight.

[Newty82]

Didn't think we played that bad today, we were by no means great either but we were far from awful.

 

From where I was sitting (well standing) it looked a stone wall pen, I've not had chance to see it but radio and it seems here seem to think it was harsh?

 

Ref was an absolute crab the shitbag. One of the worse ref performances I've witnessed this season.

 

Can anyone please tell me why he has taken Besic off who was looking our best player again. He was getting stuck in, driving forward, mixing it up... Granted he can be a bit over zealous at times and be a bit wasteful but at least there's desire and commitment . Just don't get what he is thinking with his subs I really dont.

 

To be fair to him though I've been moaning we're far too predictable and at least he mixed it up today. Coleman atright mid should never happen again, thought Hibbert struggled as well gave far too much room to them in their left side. Feel sorry for Barry I think he's asking far too much from him, it's as clear as day he is nowhere near fit and someone said today he's playing with injections to get him through. If that's true the criticism is harsh on the lad, he's putting his body on the line and playing with an injury. No wonder he looks out of sorts.

 

QPR is an absolute huge game now. Austin was sent off today so that's one bonus but if we fail to be them we have a tough xmas period. People may laugh at this but get anything less than 3 points in that game and lose at Southampton we really are in a relegation fight.

Evertonians seemed quite noisy there, did that seem to be the case?

[Bailey]

Its almost like we regressed 2 years with that performance. 2 right backs, aimless long balls and an aging and jaded midfielder starting. Add that to barely any pressure on the ball and no pace in attack and it was like ground hog day.

 

There were many highlights to the game, at least not until the Barkley substitution. The penalty was never a penalty and its embarrassing for football that such a decision was given. It was made even worse by both players only being booked for terrible high challenges, especially Mangala's. City had the best chances but nothing concrete in the first half and it was still only really the Pozo chance that was concrete in the second. They had enough half chances to be worth winners at that point but we were better in the last half hour but didnt deserve to get back into it.

 

I dont agree with a lot of the comments on here about Besic. I thought he was very frustrating and almost had to be forced into his best moments. Barry was getting swarmed as soon as he touched the ball but Besic didnt help him out and a lot of the time he wasnt helping. Unneccessary 5 yard passes when there was already someone picking up Barry and space elsewhere, not pressing in the right areas (at one point Jags was going nuts at him) and also not covering the right space. At one point Milner was running into space from 40 yards out to our box and Besic just ran back in a straight line instead of getting across to cover. Milner got a crap shot off in the end and Besic was covering no-one. He did some good stuff too but a lot of the time it was a bit late and instead of anticipating the danger he was reacting to it and having to slide in to get there. He picked some nice passes too though and that's what I find more frustrating because he has it in his locker, same with his defensive work. It wasnt a bad performance by any stretch and he was better than Barry but in terms of contribution going forward Barry was playing the intricate passes, like the one that led to Lukaku's chance. He was giving the ball away left right and centre too though! That substitution woke us up though and Barkley again shows he can be trusted deeper and I dont know why he isnt given more opportunity in game where we are looking for the breakthrough.

 

I still have no idea why Coleman was used as a winger. I hate it at the best of times but to then stick with it all game is ridiculous. I just didnt get it at all. Hibbert has done well at RB but he doesnt have half of the scope to change a game like Coleman has.

 

In terms of performances, Jags was good again, along with Baines, Lukaku probably had one of his best all round game and his personal performance deserved a goal which he was unlucky not to get. Etoo came into the game late on, he was a bit frustrating early on but as the game opened up a little more he came to life. Mirallas tried but just couldn't quite break through.

 

We have to start taking the attitude we had in the last 30 minutes into the whole of the game. The transition from defence to attack was much quicker and we seemed a little hungrier to win the ball back despite tiring.

 

We must get 3 points in our next game.

[jofanon]

It's time to stop this 2 defensive midfielder stuff.

 

Play McCarthy or Besic to defend and give Ross the ball. Two up front.

[MC11]

It's time to stop this 2 defensive midfielder stuff.

Play McCarthy or Besic to defend and give Ross the ball. Two up front.

Finally people seeing it. We have to play through the middle now!

[JoeQuince]

How many cards does Besic have on the season? Barry had already picked up his 5th and would be missing next match. If Besic is on 4, then subbing him off, knowing Barry will be gone next match, makes sense. Wouldn't want to risk having zero fit defensive midfielders. I can get it, if that was the case. I don't know how many he's on though.

[Btay]

Feels a bit sour knowing we went away to the champions and only lost to a gammy soft pen... Agree on the single DM paired with Ross as a box to box midfielder.