City- Post match thread.

[-V-]

Yes but you have more chance of winning football matches regularly if you play with an attacking mentality and throw everything at the opposition. Like we did for a few months of last season when we were destroying everybody. The negative, scared pussy football we have played this season has got us into the position we are in.

So don't try to tell me that you want to watch this kind of football regularly and you get pleasure from it because thats bull****.

[squaddie]

I didnt say i enjoyed it. But if playing **** football means making it to the top 4 i'm not going to complain.

[cream]

I didnt say i enjoyed it. But if playing **** football means making it to the top 4 i'm not going to complain.

What if we play **** football and don't make the top four, can we complain then?

[Shaggy]

Slaven Bilic at a guess......showing your age or taking the piss not sure which one !!

Bitta both mate

[squaddie]

What if we play **** football and don't make the top four, can we complain then?

No.

[Guest]

No.

[Craig_H]

If its true that Tevez' daughter was born prematurely and is now in intensive care then its pathetic to be ordering him back to work. If you buy players from the other side of the world then you have to be sensitive to their family needs too.
How can you order a guy to come back to work when his new-born daughter is in intensive care on another continent?

Pathetic

I agree, and i think Mancini's already feeling the pressure. Heard on the radio yesterday some City fans calling for his head already

Does Tevez's wife not live over here in england with him though? Seems weird situation.

[Craig_H]

It's totally irrelevant if you believe that anyway. As a supporter I really, really don't care how we play. I'll take a goal-less away draw against a team higher in the league than us any day of the week. I'd also be very happy with scrappy one-nil wins with lucky deflections or own goals for the rest of the season.

For me it's how many points we end up with rather than how we play that matters. That's been the way since I started going to the game 45 years ago. If we happen to have played well so be it, but I always get just as much pleasure from an away draw or a lucky win when playing badly as I ever do from some swash-buckling high-scoring win

At the end of the day I'm a supporter so I follow Liverpool blindly no matter how we play or where we are in the league.

If I wanted entertainment I'd never watch any football at all, I'd go to the pictures. In supporting a team entertainment is way down the list. Getting to the best position you can in a tournament is all that matters. Those who prattle on about being bored by their own team and wanting entertainment really don't sound very much like true supporters to me. But then I'm not one of mentally-feeble Facebook generation

Totally agree with all that.

Winning is plenty entertaining enough.

alonso wasnt a defensive midfielder at all.

He was a midfielder who played deep and had more influence on our team than most realise.

He had the ability to defend really well, but his strength was his playmaking.

He was probably at the start of pretty much every one of our attacks. He didnt get final assists or many goals but he was quietly brilliant.

Xabi's contribution can be summed up by saying that me made us tick. Not my words but those of Steven Gerrards.

God we miss him.

Completely agree with this too. I said it at the time and it's being proved correct, we should've simply said to Xabi "Sorry son, but it's not to the benefit of the club to let you go now. You have a contract which you will be required to honour and you'll only be allowed to leave when it becomes beneficial to the club, not to you"

[Shaggy]

It's totally irrelevant if you believe that anyway. As a supporter I really, really don't care how we play. I'll take a goal-less away draw against a team higher in the league than us any day of the week. I'd also be very happy with scrappy one-nil wins with lucky deflections or own goals for the rest of the season.

For me it's how many points we end up with rather than how we play that matters. That's been the way since I started going to the game 45 years ago. If we happen to have played well so be it, but I always get just as much pleasure from an away draw or a lucky win when playing badly as I ever do from some swash-buckling high-scoring win

At the end of the day I'm a supporter so I follow Liverpool blindly no matter how we play or where we are in the league.

If I wanted entertainment I'd never watch any football at all, I'd go to the pictures. In supporting a team entertainment is way down the list. Getting to the best position you can in a tournament is all that matters. Those who prattle on about being bored by their own team and wanting entertainment really don't sound very much like true supporters to me. But then I'm not one of mentally-feeble Facebook generation

Shaggy likes this.

[Craig_H]

I personally would still have City as favourites because of their squad. Bellamy falling out with Mancini doesn't really mean anything, he will still try and when he came on yesterday he made a difference. When they get Tevez back he will make a big difference.

My thought is, after looking at all four teams is that I would put us as the least favourites, which I really don't like to/want to do, as I can see us drawing too many games just like last year. I can also see the other three winning more games than us and I just put this down to how lacking we are going forward.

One thing I have been wondering about as to the reason why we have been so bad this season is, did last season just missing out on the title mentally affect the players so bad that they just don't believe they can do it.

I dont understand that at all. You can speak about the squads and us lacking in attacking areas, but these things have been true for a while, and yet City are STILL in poor form and dropping points like its going out of fashion - despite this squad of their's. Spurs are still always liable to be done by a Wolves or a Hull, and Villa still have a distracting cup final, as well as fixture congestion and a thin squad.

Our problems in attack might also just be boosted by the beautifully timely return of the world's best striker and one of the most creative midfielders in the league.

Whatever else anyone says, we're the ones with the bottle and experience, we're the ones who have an upturn in form and we're the ones who are looking hardest to beat right now.

That is not the case according to the BBC, sounds like the press making a sensational story out of a managers comment without checking the facts first (who would of thought?)

Manchester City grant Carlos Tevez more time off

Tevez has scored 19 goals since joining City from Manchester United

Manchester City will allow striker Carlos Tevez as much time off as he needs after his baby daughter was born prematurely, BBC Sport understands.
Tevez, 26, has missed City's last three games after being granted compassionate leave to fly to Argentina where his daughter, Katie, is in intensive care.

Club officials have spoken to Tevez but do not know when he plans to return.

Roberto Mancini's men face Stoke in the FA Cup on Wednesday and play Premier League leaders Chelsea on Saturday.

City manager Mancini hopes to have Tevez available for those matches but has not spoken to the Argentine, who has scored 19 goals since joining City from local rivals Manchester United last summer, since Wednesday.

The club do not know the player's exact whereabouts because they are treating the matter as private and personal, so do not wish to bombard to him with telephone calls.

"I don't know where Tevez is," said Mancini after Sunday's 0-0 draw with Liverpool dropped them to sixth place in the table. "I think he is in Argentina.

"It's a big problem for us because we have an important week and we don't have Tevez. For me it is no good. Carlos has been eight days at home and I don't know if, while in Argentina, he has been working (on his fitness).

"I hope Carlos, within the next two days, can come back here because we need him. Maybe he is on the plane. He had some problems with his family but now it has been resolved and I hope he comes back. I need him."

As well as missing Tevez, Mancini is also without suspended midfielder Patrick Vieira and injured winger Martin Petrov, while striker Roque Santa Cruz has a knee injury.

City have won only two of their last seven matches in all competitions and Sunday's draw meant both they and Liverpool lost ground in the race for fourth spot, with Tottenham and Aston Villa both winning.

"Against Liverpool it is not easy to win the game, we tried but Liverpool are a good team," added Mancini.

"At the end of the game the draw was the right result as we didn't concede any chances to Liverpool and they did not concede any chances to us."

With all due respect mate, i actually saw and heard the interview with my own eyes and ears, as i'm sure others will have done too, and the reporter asked him 'have you ordered his return?', to which Mancini said 'yes'.

[The Birdman]

Man U won the league last season because of their defence (12 one nil wins in a row or something) and 2 world class footballers (Ronaldo & Rooney) who won them games. We finished 2nd because we had a strong, stable defence and had 2 world class players in Gerrard and Torres that had they been fit for more of the season would probably taken us to the title.
We've struggled this year because we've been without our 2 star players and we've had to chop and change the defence practically all season, we lost games by trying to integrate a system with more attaching full backs.

Open, attacking football week in week out rarely wins anything (and we aren't good enough to try that), being solid, hard to beat and nicking games is what Chelsea and Man U have been doing for years and they have been the yard stick.

[Craig_H]

Man U won the league last season because of their tendency to get absurd decisions in their favour an absurd number of times and at crucial points.

Corrected that for you

[Craig_H]

Open, attacking football week in week out rarely wins anything (and we aren't good enough to try that), being solid, hard to beat and nicking games is what Chelsea and Man U have been doing for years and they have been the yard stick.

I agree with this, but would add two points.

You cant play open attacking football every week, you're right. But you do need to have both the willingness to turn it on when needed, and the ability to do so. We're struggling to find either.

Secondly, they're sent out in every game (almost) with the mindset of 'we are better than them, lets just go out there and beat them with our quality' instead of "whatever you do, dont concede - and hopefully, somehow (not sure how exactly, but somehow) maybe we can nick a goal".

We too are better than most of the other teams in the league, in terms of ability on the field. But belief is gone.

The only way you get back that quality, is to work hard which we are doing, and most importantly, to TRUST your ability.

I'm not convinced either the players or the manager trust the ability of the lads on the field enough at the moment, to let it flow.

[Roboklopp]

Scarily, I'm finding myself agreeing with Craig on a lot of this.

[Rich]

Yep, being a fan is not about demanding "champagne football" (god I hate that term) every week but surely part of the enjoyment derived from watching your team is the times (however rare they are) when they turn it on and play good stuff.

Yes, I'd take success over the West Ham philosophy but we don't look like we've got a good game in us and haven't looked that way all season - that makes me sad.