City- Post match thread.

[JHP]

soory mate but anybody who is positive about our season is simply deluded!!

Think the discussion was about the future. That hasn't happened yet and one can take an optimistic or pessimistic view about what's to come.

Those with a negative disposition will inevitably conclude it will be ****. Those with a more positive outlook will think otherwise. But no one knows yet.

[Taxi]

Just been over to RAWK and apart from a few there are a lot of dickheads over there who thought we played well today! Alot of people still cant except how poor we are. They still think we will get it together this season with only 11 o so games left.

The excuses started in August and are still going strong.

This has been a **** season, the worst for many years and things just don't look to be getting better. I'm sure the return of Torres will be a boost, but I don't think its going to be enough.

Too many injuries and too many mediocre players. Money is everything in this game and according to some Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City and Spurs all have squads that cost far more than ours. Injuries have taken their toll, but Everton have had more and I'm pretty sure they've gained ground on us over the last 2 months.

[Exiled_red]

See I'm torn on that - especially after the Ngog incident and how we'd feel if an opponent did it. I only saw it on a crappy stream with no replay so I don't know if it's a penalty or not, but I think it's admirable that he stayed on his feet.

Ah heck what am I saying? A penalty would've been welcome. Why didn't he go down?!

The Ngog one was different, there was no contact with that when he went down. There was contact on Yossi.

It's frustrating that attempting to stay on your feet when you are fouled doesn't get rewarded, whereas if you make the most of the contact and go down, you get a penalty, you can see why people exagerate it.

[Rigadon]

Missed the game today, but doesn't look like I missed out.

Citeh seem to be suffering the same as us and can't put any sort of run together. After seeing Villa's run in, I have to say that I think they'll be 4th come the end of the season.

[BigChief]

Anyone seen MOTD2? Slaven basically said what's wrong with our tactics in very bad English. And everyone understood it. I wonder if he speaks very bad Spanish?

[Craig_H]

Lots of disappointment on this thread, which in the scheme of things, i find just slightly strange.

Nobody would try to pretend we thrusted forward time and time again, we didnt attack much and we probably went there with the 'do not lose' mantra, something i've criticised Rafa for before, but not today.

City are unbeaten at Eastlands, so clearly it wasnt a game we should've been expecting to win easily.

Furthermore, if we'd lost today, 4th place would've been a massively tall order. Today wasnt a 'must win game' but it certainly was a 'must not lose' and from that perspective, it's mission accomplished.

Of course a win would've put us in a stronger position, but as i've said, City away was always going to be one of our hardest tasks.

If we'd thrown caution to the wind and played it like a must win game - and then got sucker punched at the other end, our top four hopes would've been nearly dead. And Rafa would've got the blame.

As it is, i dislike the cautious 'make sure you dont lose' philosophy as a rule - but your philosophy must depend on the whole scheme of things, and with that in mind, i'm happy we went there and made sure we didnt lose.

The way i see it, we had 12 games left before today, 3 very hard ones (City away, United away and Chelsea at home) and 9 more winnable ones. My take on was that if we got something from the 3 hard ones and win maybe 8 of the others, we'll take 4th easily.

The final positions will be decided over what happens between now and May, not between 3pm and 5pm this afternoon - although if we'd lost, we would've had a mountain to climb.

Good solid display, and if Yossi hadnt insisted on being the good samaritan at the end, we'd have won. Not slating him for it, but by god i wish he'd gone down.

Biggest irony of the day is that Rafa picked an attacking XI, and yet the game was entirely cautious and defensive Just shows that it's not all about the personnel who play, but also the mindset and mentality they're sent out with. Today it was 'do not get beat' and i've no criticism of that, in the circumstances.

[Lee]

Pretty much agree with that Craig.

I hate the saying but today really was a 'six pointer'. City in my opinion are our biggest challengers for 4th place - had we lost today they'd be four points above us with a game in hand - massive task to overhaul that. Today really was about setting out not to lose, and it's certainly no disgrace in drawing at Eastlands.

[Craig_H]

he's a joker is Rafa he meant we will defend not attack

What would you be saying now if we'd 'attacked' and got caught out at the other end? City would be 4 points ahead, WITH a game in hand, and our confidence would be shot to pieces.

We simply couldnt afford to lose today and we did what was required.

City still have to play Man United, Chelsea (a) next weekend, Spurs, Villa and Arsenal away. We have United, Chelsea and 9 other very winnable games.

Bigger picture, a point at their place is a good result. We've got one third of our hard games out of the way and they still have 5 left.

Let's see what happens. We'll most likely be 4th again next weekend, Spurs have Everton (who are on fire), City go to Chelsea, Villa dont have a league game and we have Blackburn at Anfield.

[Craig_H]

If he'd gone down he'd have got it, classic case of where honesty costs you. I know that is what leads to diving (which I'm not defending btw).

That's the thing, you dont need to be knocked off your feet for it to be a foul, and it was a clear pen - if the ref's too incompetent to realise that a foul is still a foul even if the player doesnt fall, then i've no qualms with going to ground to ensure you get the decision. Disappointed with Yossi. Saw Adebayor saying how good it was of Yossi and how he respects him for it - hypocritical cheating cunt that he is, you can bet he would've gone straight to ground.

[little dave hedgehog]

i think we got away with a couple today tbh.

[Craig_H]

Pretty much agree with that Craig.

I hate the saying but today really was a 'six pointer'. City in my opinion are our biggest challengers for 4th place - had we lost today they'd be four points above us with a game in hand - massive task to overhaul that. Today really was about setting out not to lose, and it's certainly no disgrace in drawing at Eastlands.

Precisely, today's objective was to keep our task realistic, and it certainly still is. If we'd lost, we would've been clutching at straws.

I'd have taken a point at 3pm and i'm content with having got it.

Only real disappointment is the fact that we should've had a match-winning peno at the death, and didnt get it due to our own player not being streetwise enough

[Ben_Itez]

I'd have taken a point at 3pm and i'm content with having got it.

[-V-]

What would you be saying now if we'd 'attacked' and got caught out at the other end? City would be 4 points ahead, WITH a game in hand, and our confidence would be shot to pieces.

We simply couldnt afford to lose today and we did what was required.

City still have to play Man United, Chelsea (a) next weekend, Spurs, Villa and Arsenal away. We have United, Chelsea and 9 other very winnable games.

Bigger picture, a point at their place is a good result. We've got one third of our hard games out of the way and they still have 5 left.

Let's see what happens. We'll most likely be 4th again next weekend, Spurs have Everton (who are on fire), City go to Chelsea, Villa dont have a league game and we have Blackburn at Anfield.

Very good post. Were still playing badly but all things considered it was a bad result for them but not for us. We have a better run-in and they will struggle

[Craig_H]

I dont think we're PLAYING badly. We just 'attacking' poorly Defensively, the upturn has been superb. We were a shambles, and losing to dross routinely. You dont turn that into flowing champagne football too quickly. First priority was to make us hard to beat and Rafa's done that very well. You cant run before you can walk I still fancy us to get 4th.

For the record, City's remaining games arent the only reason for optimism. I had a look at their recent league results & performances, and they're in very dodgy form. That, along with their remaining games means i'd be worried if i was a City fan:

Man City 0-0 Liverpool
Stoke 1-1 Man City (lucky not to lose)
Man City 2-0 Bolton (looked dire and without ideas, until a peno saved them)
Hull 2-1 City
Man City 2-0 Portsmouth
Everton 2-0 Man City

Only 2 wins in their last 6, both home, both against dross. They look dire away from home. Their last 11 away league games have yielded just 1 win, 6 draws and 4 losses.

And they still have tough away games at Chelsea, Fulham (who are picking up their form), Burnley (whose home record is 6 wins, 4 draws and only 2 losses) and Arsenal.

Not to mention home games against Man Utd, Villa and Spurs.

Based on their form and dodgy overall away record, who'd really bet their house on City getting 4th?

[Guest]

I agree with Craig. I don't think we played that badly, we're controlling games now, which we didn't do two months ago and we're putting teams under pressure. We don't have enough quality in the final third, nothing to do with how 'Rafa set us out so as not to lose' bollocks.