Manchester City - Post Match

[Exiled_red]

Wooooof!



I feel like I have deprived Matt of some pedantry now.



Minor thigh injury in warm up. Tried to start game to see how it went but came off early on. Sat in stand watching game so can't have been that bad.

Looks like a thigh strain on his right leg

Thanks

Good, so nothing serious then, I missed the early part of the match so didn't see that bit just heard about it.

[Buzzo]

i hope they learn to do what the gaffer wants them to do: create good passing angles and make themselves available for the pass. so we can keep possession with 10 mins to gp and not let them have the ball and attack us.

Obviously...

But doing that cost us 2 points today. I am more of the opinion (as said by Alan Hansen) there are two types of ball, the right ball and the wrong ball. Skrtle chose the wrong option and cost us the win.

I'm not having a go at the overall ethos. Its impressive and seems to be coming together quite quickly. However we will lose more cheap goals if we **** about with it at the back all the time. Skrtel got caught in possession last week as well, so, for all the plaudiits (and I am handing them out myself) we have let in 5 goals in 2 games.

[BigChief]

So relieved Coates didn't make any fundamental mistakes. Gave Ballotelli a knock for good measure. So looking forward to the new era under Rodgers. Games can't come quick enough.

[Muddled]

So let's get this clear:

The ball shouldn't have come in the first place.

Reina should have got it, even though the reason he didn't is that the ball flicked off the top of Skrtel's head just in front of him.

Kelly should have anticipated that Reina might miss the ball, even though the only reason he didn't get to it was, that just before it reached him, the ball flicked off the top of Skrtel's head. So the ball was diverted from its trajectory a matter of maybe three metres from Kelly, and one metre from Reina but Kelly should have been ready to clear the ball with his left foot even though the path of the ball changed not far in front of him.

Ok.

The left back essentially should stop the cross coming in and to a lesser extent, the left midifielder. No cross, no goal. And nothing to do with Reina, Kelly, deflections etc.

Positionally, the defensive line was sound, but as soon as that ball comes in towards the back stick, the left back (because Johnson had tucked in and it was Sterling defending the ball coming in) is out of the game, meaning our centre-backs and Kelly as right full back need to be ready to clear the ball.

Reina will no doubt have shouted for the ball, but Kelly should still be watching the flight. If it *has* taken a deflection off Skrtel at the near post, he should be even more aware that he needs to shape himself to clear the ball; That change in the flight of the ball should have sent alarm bells ringing, not the thumbs up to switch off.

You can argue that he could anticipate it, control it and clear it with his right foot or that he could shape himself to clear it with his left foot. Either or, depending how strict you are on the error.

So yes,

#1. The cross should have been stopped,
#2. The area the ball was arriving in should have made Reina come for it. (which he did, but didn't get to it),
#3. As the full back defending the back stick, the change in flight of the ball means the onus is on you to clear the ball and as such, should anticipate it.

[Red_Polo]

It was Toure's fault.

[Neil Young]

The left back essentially should stop the cross coming in and to a lesser extent, the left midifielder. No cross, no goal. And nothing to do with Reina, Kelly, deflections etc.

Positionally, the defensive line was sound, but as soon as that ball comes in towards the back stick, the left back (because Johnson had tucked in and it was Sterling defending the ball coming in) is out of the game, meaning our centre-backs and Kelly as right full back need to be ready to clear the ball.

Reina will no doubt have shouted for the ball, but Kelly should still be watching the flight. If it *has* taken a deflection off Skrtel at the near post, he should be even more aware that he needs to shape himself to clear the ball; That change in the flight of the ball should have sent alarm bells ringing, not the thumbs up to switch off.

You can argue that he could anticipate it, control it and clear it with his right foot or that he could shape himself to clear it with his left foot. Either or, depending how strict you are on the error.

So yes,

#1. The cross should have been stopped,
#2. The area the ball was arriving in should have made Reina come for it. (which he did, but didn't get to it),
#3. As the full back defending the back stick, the change in flight of the ball means the onus is on you to clear the ball and as such, should anticipate it.

I agree about the cross being stopped and I've said Reina could be blamed for not telling Skrtel to leave it.

But once the ball flicks off Skrtel's head, everything changed. It's unpredictable. You can't anticipate the unpredictable.

I know football analysis makes out you can but that's because football analysis, at the level we do it anyway, is a load of bollocks methodologically suspect.

[Neil Young]

It was Toure's fault.

Exactly.

[Muddled]

I realise it would still have been an error. What I said though was that none of us would have noticed it. Maybe the club's analysis team would have picked up on it, but we wouldn't.

So how many other mistakes are there every game that aren't obvious/costly enough for us to notice them?

Depends how closely you watch the game.

Maybe some of us do notice it, despite not being part of the club's analysis team. Off the top of my head, you could say that Coates made a couple of errors in committing to the challenge, but was covered well by Kelly at full back. Allen made a poor, cross-field pass that left us short in the middle of the park, but our defensive line held them up.

Either of those could have been picked up on, if the initial error had cost us a goal.

[Muddled]

I agree about the cross being stopped and I've said Reina could be blamed for not telling Skrtel to leave it.

But once the ball flicks off Skrtel's head, everything changed. It's unpredictable. You can't anticipate the unpredictable.

I know football analysis makes out you can but that's because football analysis, at the level we do it anyway, is a load of bollocks methodologically suspect.

It can catch you on the back-foot if the flight of the ball had changed dramatically, but it didn't. To look at it another way, he anticipted the Tevez effort that clipped the post; that effort came off Reina's fingers yards infront of him, but he lent with his head to try and intercept the ball after leading with his body after (possibly) anticipating the need to eliminate the Tevez pull-back.

[Paul12]

Do we need Gerrard anymore?

It is good that we feel able to ask that question, bearing in mind his age. He is making less of an impact each season.

[Norbs]

Sorry

[Vermilion]

Happy with that.

Toe to toe with the mega rich Champions and we come away feeling a draw was poor reward for our play, and for me today, our play was the most important thing, so much so that i'll happily accept a point.

[Neil Young]

Depends how closely you watch the game.

Maybe some of us do notice it, despite not being part of the club's analysis team. Off the top of my head, you could say that Coates made a couple of errors in committing to the challenge, but was covered well by Kelly at full back. Allen made a poor, cross-field pass that left us short in the middle of the park, but our defensive line held them up.

Either of those could have been picked up on, if the initial error had cost us a goal.

Sure, we might all notice some. Maybe between us we notice them all.

There are two points though:

1. It is almost inevitable that we give too much weight to the mistakes that cost goals (and maybe near goals as well). That's outcome bias and the only way to overcome it reliably is through systematic rigour. I doubt we manage to come anywhere near to the level of rigour required and so our analysis must be flawed.
   
2. It is absolutely inevitable that we give too little weight to the mistakes we don't notice - by definition.

My conclusion is that it's unnecessarily harsh of fans if they blame a player in circumstances like Kelly was in.

Ok, if it happens time and again, there's probably a pattern - it could still be random but obviously that's less likely than a one-off - so maybe it would be more justifiable.

Ultimately I think we go into too much detail and get too critical. Equally we probably go overboard too, but that's ok really, it's just excitement.

And I don't really think all these detailed blogs help that much at the moment. They give the illusion of depth and rigour but we don't know what they miss out, what they choose not to tell us or choose not to count. And we have no real idea how accurate their stats are. They're better than MOTD or Sky analysis of course but not reliable.

[SB]

Amy word on the Lucas injury?

[Gibbo]

Apperently Lucas was talking to the copper because his missus rang to ask if he was alright!