City- Post match thread.

[Craig_H]

We had moments where we controlled it, but so did they. I dont think there was anything between the sides, both were cautious and clearly ****ting themselves about losing, and you could see how keen every player was to make sure they didnt make the crucial mistake. It was a fair result, neither side deserved to lose or win.

Mascher should've been off, so should Barry. They should've had a pen for the Agger push on Adebayor, and we should've had one for Kompany's foul on Benayoun.

[Mike]

The thing which annoys me is that there is no flare whatsoever about our attacking play in the final third. No spark, no creativity. We need it to make some cutting edge passes into dangerous areas - where we struggle to get the ball into recently.

[Craig_H]

That's a consequence of the poor run we had previously (confidence is being restored gradually), and missing players with an attacking thrust. Not to mention the importance of not getting beat.

I guarantee we'll show more attacking thrust at Wigan.

[Guest]

We normally leave it to Stevie to create things, the ball goes to him all the time and all teams have got to do is try to control him. We need more from Babel, Yossi, Torres and the likes. For example, Torres isn't going to take the ball from deep and run at defenders even though he does it from time to time, he isn't that good doing it - he loses the ball so many times. His role is to maraud the penalty area and to be on the end of things.

Yossi is our only other player who can dictate the play and we need him back to his best quick. I think Maxi will come out good, but as Rafa said, he isn't the type of player who will dribble and use speed to beat opponents. He will need time to adapt his game here; that's why he was bought for free.

[Craig_H]

Yossi will bring creativity, Riera will give decent balance and threat down the left when he decides to stop arsing about being ****, Babel will do something creative once in a blue moon, he's next due something on November 28th 2010.

[Icon]

Happy with a point? Sod that!

I know I am alone here but - I would rather lose fighting than be happy with a draw.

[Darkon]

Also where was Pacheco? The lad come on and helped us get the winner in midweek and what was his reward? He was dropped from the bench.

I was thinking that myself, he deserved to at least be on the bench again, and even have a go in the end. One of the few players that have looked really motivated on the pitch lately, so hope to see him in the squad again soon.

[Shaggy]

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?

Bernie Slaven?

[SimonNo7]

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.

What annoyed me most is not the fact we didn't win, I don't for one minute think we should be winning every game 4-0 or something like that, it's the fact that we don't seem to be able to do the basics right, half our players control is shocking for Premiership players, we have no creativity whatsoever, we don't pressure, we don't have any urgency, we do not make space for each other we seem to expect the ball to come to us with no opposition player near us and finally we have not looked like a team all season, we are so disjointed.

That's what annoys me.

As for the run in for the four teams going for fourth, I wouldn't say anyone of us has a harder or easier run in than the rest. Any team can beat any team but on the way each team is playing I would say we are the most likely to miss out and that is because we do not seem to be able to score goals. Let's hope Torres coming back will change all that.

[Craig_H]

Happy with a point? Sod that!

I know I am alone here but - I would rather lose fighting than be happy with a draw.

I'd rather not be out of contention for a top four finish.

Each to their own though.

As for the run in for the four teams going for fourth, I wouldn't say anyone of us has a harder or easier run in than the rest. Any team can beat any team but on the way each team is playing I would say we are the most likely to miss out and that is because we do not seem to be able to score goals. Let's hope Torres coming back will change all that.

So who would you say wouldnt miss out then?

Cos City's form is dire.

[the rev leeroy brown]

**** boring game. cant beleive i actually beleived rafa saying we would go there and attack these cunts. he put out a team that on paper looked like it could do a job but gave them **** tactics to spoil the game. city favourites for 4th now and i'd say villa second favs. at least torres is back. and ste looked pretty good again.

[Craig_H]

I seriously wouldnt have City as favourites, bearing in mind their form and their remaining games.

Not to mention Bellamy's fallen out with the manager, Tevez has been ordered back and gone AWOL and Mancini's defensive tactics.

Bookies have them as slight favourites at 2/1, while we're 9/4. Spurs 4/1. Cant remember Villa's price.

City's run in is an absolute stinker.

[cream]

I predict 11 0-0 draws for us till the end of the season. No point looking at the run ins, they never pan out the way you expect.

[PTP]

same old isn't it -

God it’s so depressing – we just look like a team with our hearts ripped out. Everything has just become a long hard depressing slog. I think that both rafa and the players, look so tight and nervy, they are looking only at keeping things compact and rigid and battling on – with a view point that once torres is back all will be fine and dandy – well i’m sorry it won’t – we have to change and freshen things up – let the shackles off and go out and WIN. There was a point last season, where we had a bit of a slip and gave united the edge – then all of a sudden it looked like the players/manager thought **** it.....it’s gone now, they relaxed, and just went out and ****ted everyone.

I’ve been saying it for a few weeks, but if we don’t change something – we will not get 4th the way we are playing, and we won’t win the europa league.

The sooner Johnson, benayoun and torres are fully fit the better – i’d then like to see us change something – go 4-4-2, drop gerrard in alongside mascher/lucas, play torres up front with kuyt/Pacheco/babel/ngog – let’s go out and get at teams and put their defence under pressure.

Yesterdays result wasn’t a disaster. Had we lost, I think we would have been in serious trouble. But we are running out of games now, so it has to change!! – 11 games left, we have to go for it. Imo, we need to improve 100% and win these games

Blackburn (h)
Wigan (a)
Portsmouth (h)
Sunderland (h)
Birmingham (a)
Fulham (h)
West Ham (h)
Burnley (a)
Hull (a)


If we get our act together, and some how win those 9 games, we should just about do it. – the other two games are Chelsea and man u – anything extra from them is a bonus. The worry is, as we at the moment we haven’t got one win in us never mind 9

[cream]

We probably won't finish in the top four, I don't think we are good enough.