eddie's toothless triers v's pep's teeth like amity's worst fucking nightmare

[LondonBlue 754]

3 minutes ago, The Fish said:

I think that Man City can handle most teams pressing because it's not always married with the kind of bravery on the ball that we showed. So often you face a team who're pressing from the front, ahead of an entrenched back line. So they press, force you to play the ball long or more quickly which leads to a turnover, but once they have the ball they lump it or knock it around at the back, they don't commit men forward, or try to play around you. Guimaraes, Joelinton exemplified that bravery on the ball, taking touches under pressure etc.

 

I don't think you played poorly and, yes, when Haaland is more accustomed to his teammates, the PL and Guardiola's style, you'll be even more dangerous. However, I think the way we set out, played to our strengths AND exploited the chinks in your almost impenetrable armour. 

 

i agree aside from the play it long bit.

 

one thing to take from yesterday, and as pep would say "we already knew it", eddie howe is quality.  i had him as a long term pep successor, arteta too. i fear both may be beyond our reach now.

 

 

[Rayvin 5217]

1 hour ago, LondonBlue said:

read a few comments and decided its best not to read any more as i know the mixture you get just after a match.

read some on city fans being a nasty lot in years gone by. so a quick comment on that. i had a season ticket as a boy in the 70s and i do remember all the "city aggro" type chants and seeing some stuff and i do remember feeling unsafe walking to the ground.

that was then, this is now. i don't remember seeing any violence or feeling unsafe at all in a good 20 years. i moved away to london and couldn't afford football for a long time. i started going again in the late 90s. with all the entertainment that city lay on around the ground it also has a good family atmosphere these days. obviously i'm a home fan there though. also i don't have an ounce of violence in me so maybe i see things differently. i think football is now much more sanitized everywhere.

 

so as a guest on your forum my blue biased view on the game

 

really enjoyed the game. you took the game to us instead of sitting back as so many do. 

for spells you attacked us with quick counters which is how palace did the double over us last year. we struggled with Zaha's pace - ring any bells?

our possession play was lacking its usual cutting edge which i think might be in part due to us trying to adapt from a false 9 to a genuine 9.

there was a spell at 3-1 where it could have gone on to be 6-1 we just couldn't figure out a plan until we did.

We do tend to hang in there when the going gets tough just look at the last day of last season.

I thought trippier should have gone other than that i think the ref did okay in what was a fast paced and exciting game

If you guys play like that week in week out, you just might make kevin keegan happy on 2points - style and finishing above our neighbours

oh and haaland is now 3 in 3 - adapting

 

finally heard what grealish said about almiron, bit of a dick thing to say.  but i do like it when players have personality and say things they shouldn't. 

 

sorry but that's my blue spectacled view and i'd rather say it as i felt it than lie to appease you.

 

arsenal at the top are looking all the more impressive this morning.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for checking in, was hoping you would. City look incredible and I think most of us are delighted with how we performed to be able to come away with a draw. I still think you'll win the league fairly comfortably this season.

 

Don't really dislike anything about your club personally, and I hope we have many more enjoyable games with you in the future. At some point we'll start winning though  

[sammynb 3355]

3 hours ago, RobinRobin said:

Thought you would like it 

 

Thanks RR, nice to know I can count on someone.

[Alex 35063]

10 minutes ago, LondonBlue said:

i might, but i'm "working from home" so it'll have to wait until tonight.

tbh i often skip motd when we don't play well.

but i balance that out by rewatching city 2 villa 3

It’s just a really clumsy challenge. Stones makes quite heavy contact with Schar and is nowhere near the ball. The match is a bit of a blur tbh but I think VAR checked and decided against it. As they said on motd it’s one of those where it’s a foul anywhere else on the pitch. I think Stones’ body language suggested he knew he’d gotten away with one. Anyway it was a great game and a very good result for us, even if we maybe should’ve won it. I think we lost the plot for about 10 mins after going 3-1 up. As I think someone else on here said we could’ve easily lost it too. I think you’ll win the league again. Haaland looks like he’s what’s been slightly lacking in terms of allowing you to be a bit more direct when you need to be. Hopefully you can finally win the CL 👍🏻

[Christmas Tree 4725]

On 14/08/2022 at 10:58, thebrokendoll said:

foolishly stepping up to the plate here for what is likely to be a losing match thread.

A good effort 👍🏻

[The Fish 10855]

21 minutes ago, LondonBlue said:

 

i agree aside from the play it long bit.

 

one thing to take from yesterday, and as pep would say "we already knew it", eddie howe is quality.  i had him as a long term pep successor, arteta too. i fear both may be beyond our reach now.

 

 

I don't follow. If any team is pressed as you were yesterday, they have two options to get around the press, they either; play the ball quicker around the pressure, or they play it long over the pressure. Either option increases the likelihood of turning over possession.

[Howmanheyman 33142]

55 minutes ago, The Fish said:

In their previous two PL games, Man City conceded 

 

> Insert Egyptian hieroglyphics here <

 

Away from the stats I think with a better RW (Almiron had a great game) and with a proper left back instead of out of position Burn, I think we win that game. We pressed intelligently, rarely letting them build from the back unaccosted,  the midfield wasn't panicked on the ball and we were a constant threat on the break. 

[LondonBlue 754]

10 minutes ago, The Fish said:

I don't follow. If any team is pressed as you were yesterday, they have two options to get around the press, they either; play the ball quicker around the pressure, or they play it long over the pressure. Either option increases the likelihood of turning over possession.

normally when pressed we play it around at the back quickly. sometimes it goes wide and back in field a few times sucking more players into the press before a ball i s played through the lines and off we go. 

 

long is usually a last ditch tactic by us. except for balls pinged from one side of the pitch to the other.

 

we rarely play and over the top style long ball.

 

but of course i could be talking bollocks. i am on antibiotics for a chest infection cold thing, maybe i'm feverish  

[catmag 337]

I went to the match yesterday - the first Prem game I’ve been to in years. Some observations stood out:

 

- the atmosphere was ridiculous. Much has been made of the support and when you see it on TV you can see it but it was something else. It felt different to anything I’ve felt when I’ve been there before even back in the day when we were challenging for the title. Complete goosebumps.

- ASM was outstanding. My only criticism would be that there were a couple of occasions when he should’ve gone for goal himself instead of looking to pass it, which is in complete contrast to when we’ve screamed at him to pass it in the past.

- The ref was abysmal.

- We actually have a defence that means I don’t absolutely shit myself when the ball is anywhere over the halfway line. 

- Jack Grealish must now wish he could play like Miggy.

- Everything about Bruno.

- Trippier’s free kick.

- One of the first people I saw when I got there was JawD which was class and felt like no time had passed at all except we both had our kids with us. 
- My teenager clearly isn’t going to follow in my footsteps by staying out for hours in the pub post-match as we went for one drink and he wanted to know if we were going home soon 😆

 

Class day ❤️

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by catmag

[Dr Gloom 21912]

11 minutes ago, catmag said:

I went to the match yesterday - the first Prem game I’ve been to in years. Some observations stood out:

 

- the atmosphere was ridiculous. Much has been made of the support and when you see it on TV you can see it but it was something else. It felt different to anything I’ve felt when I’ve been there before even back in the day when we were challenging for the title. Complete goosebumps.

- ASM was outstanding. My only criticism would be that there were a couple of occasions when he should’ve gone for goal himself instead of looking to pass it, which is in complete contrast to when we’ve screamed at him to pass it in the past.

- The ref was abysmal.

- We actually have a defence that means I don’t absolutely shit myself when the ball is anywhere over the halfway line. 

- Jack Grealish must now wish he could play like Miggy.

- Everything about Bruno.

- Trippier’s free kick.

- One of the first people I saw when I got there was JawD which was class and felt like no time had passed at all except we both had our kids with us. 
- My teenager clearly isn’t going to follow in my footsteps by staying out for hours in the pub post-match as we went for one drink and he wanted to know if we were going home soon 😆

 

Class day ❤️

 

Mint. I felt like that after the Arsenal game last season. I haven’t felt an atmosphere in the ground like it since the keegan days. Dare I say it, it even felt more special, more raucous now. No team is going to look forward to coming to St James’ anymore 

[OTF 7295]

So jealous of you lot that get to go to games. My desire to attend had been almost extinguished by Ashley but it's definitely back. Now it will be q case of waiting a few years and taking my boys (and the Mrs).

[The Fish 10855]

27 minutes ago, LondonBlue said:

normally when pressed we play it around at the back quickly. sometimes it goes wide and back in field a few times sucking more players into the press before a ball i s played through the lines and off we go. 

 

long is usually a last ditch tactic by us. except for balls pinged from one side of the pitch to the other.

 

we rarely play and over the top style long ball.

 

but of course i could be talking bollocks. i am on antibiotics for a chest infection cold thing, maybe i'm feverish  

I think we're agreeing here. 2 options, play quick or play long, both increase likelihood of a turnover. You might not use long ball often, but it's an option. That's all I'm saying. 

[David Kelly 1244]

It's great to feel disapointed at not winning that yesterday.  A year ago if we'd lost 4-3 I'd have been happy if we'd just showed a bit of anything against a team that good.  But now we're actually having large spells of the game where we are the better team.  As their support sung though, that's why they're champions.   Players like KDB and Silva are just so good they can create out of nothing, and as LondonBlue said, they do keep going which one of the most impressive things about them.

The thing I do disagree with LB about is that it was never a sending off.  There may come a day when they decide a professional foul like that is worth a red card but that's not what the rules say now.  Trippier knew what he was doing and it's the kind of fouls the top teams do every week because they know they won't be sent off for it (unless you're Rangers of course).  I was furious with Longstaff for not doing something simiar on the edge of their box right near the end when they were breaking.

I've not read this whole thread and I'm probably just echoing what others have said, but I thought it was easily ASM's best game for us and Joe was fucking unreal.  Bruno showed his quality by keeping his head and not getting sent off playing for so long on a yellow and still being able to maintain the agression.

I read Diego's opinion on Trippier costing us with dropping back and playing their scorers onside and while it's hard to disagree with that, it's also noticeable that it was BDB who lost his man on both second half goals.  The second one for sure could be due to him playing a less familiar position but I guess Haarland's movement was just too good for him on that one.

Regardless though, it's great to see that we no longer have anything to be frightened of with anyone anymore and a couple more signings will hopefully only renforce that.

[Gemmill 44811]

 

I know you all live for this lad's analysis. He fucking loves Newcastle, Howe and especially Joelinton. 

 

 

[Gemmill 44811]

I was thinking about this last night, I reckon yesterday will end up working out nicely for Man City. I can see other teams that don't have our fitness levels or an ASM and a Joelinton deciding that the way to get a result against them is to copy us and be aggressive, and City running up some cricket scores off the back of it. 

 

 

[The Fish 10855]

1 minute ago, Gemmill said:

I was thinking about this last night, I reckon yesterday will end up working out nicely for Man City. I can see other teams that don't have our fitness levels or an ASM and a Joelinton deciding that the way to get a result against them is to copy us and be aggressive, and City running up some cricket scores off the back of it. 

 

 

Yeah, if Palace, or Brighton try that, I think they'll get taken apart.

[wykikitoon 20115]

Anywhere else on the pitch its a free kick.  That's what annoys the fuck out of me on some decisions.  The officials seem to shit their pants when it's in the penalty area. 

 

One thing v Sven Botman.  IMO to say it's only his second game he's done well.  A few times was a bit dodge and I am sure if Targett was fit he would have been on the bench and eased in a lot more slower.  But I have to say impressed thus far. 

[Dr Gloom 21912]

8 minutes ago, wykikitoon said:

Anywhere else on the pitch its a free kick.  That's what annoys the fuck out of me on some decisions.  The officials seem to shit their pants when it's in the penalty area. 

 

One thing v Sven Botman.  IMO to say it's only his second game he's done well.  A few times was a bit dodge and I am sure if Targett was fit he would have been on the bench and eased in a lot more slower.  But I have to say impressed thus far. 

finishes like a centre half mind 

[RobinRobin 11261]

14 hours ago, catmag said:

My teenager clearly isn’t going to follow in my footsteps by staying out for hours in the pub post-match as we went for one drink and he wanted to know if we were going home soon 😆

 

You're going to have to leave him at home, clearly.  Can't have him interfering with your post-game drinking. 

[Howmanheyman 33142]

4 hours ago, RobinRobin said:

You're going to have to leave him at home, clearly.  Can't have him interfering with your post-game drinking.