Hanshithispantz

Other than Merino we're so bad man

He's too slow to be a good workhorse I don't think every grafting winger needs to be up and down the pitch like Jonas Gutierrez.

If we had shown the same application as they did or we did against Liverpool or Tottenham or City you would not have heard a buzz from me even if we had let in 3 or 4. Nobody is denying their quality and that’s exactly why I am saying you don’t allow teams like that to be allowed to walk the ball into our third of the pitch without even a challenge or a token effort to put pressure onto their team and to not give them the time or space to pick their pass. The last 15 minutes is exactly how the previous 75 should have been played as we then started to put the pressure on and the challenges in. We were chasing the game at 0-1 down, their defenders were tiring and we put pacey players on as subs in Gayle and Atsu. I think it's quite easy to say "we should have played like that the whole game" but it just wouldn't have worked like that. We would've tired with them playing passes around our press we would've gotten done 3 or 4+. We tried rushing Man Utd, Bournemouth and Leicester and ended up getting dicked after 20 minutes (well, 45 against Bournemouth). It's likely City would have double fisted us. Up until the first goal at Man Utd we were excellent and then fell to pieces. Leicester in parts we played ok also. That's the thing though, rushing them like we did in those games is the only other real alternative I can think of, and it never worked out well against worse sides. In terms of pressing well and catching them on the break we haven't been able to do that effectively for most of the season (West Ham 3-0 and Stoke 2-1?), I cannot imagine it working suddenly against City.

I think we started well against Leicester and then they dominated after they scored, we were unlucky to lose in the end but we were by far 2nd best for most of the game. I thought similar 2nd half against Bournemouth. But yeah it isn't really relevant, the point is we never lasted long on top in those games so I agree trying similar against City would have been a bad idea.

If we had shown the same application as they did or we did against Liverpool or Tottenham or City you would not have heard a buzz from me even if we had let in 3 or 4. Nobody is denying their quality and that’s exactly why I am saying you don’t allow teams like that to be allowed to walk the ball into our third of the pitch without even a challenge or a token effort to put pressure onto their team and to not give them the time or space to pick their pass. The last 15 minutes is exactly how the previous 75 should have been played as we then started to put the pressure on and the challenges in. We were chasing the game at 0-1 down, their defenders were tiring and we put pacey players on as subs in Gayle and Atsu. I think it's quite easy to say "we should have played like that the whole game" but it just wouldn't have worked like that. We would've tired with them playing passes around our press we would've gotten done 3 or 4+. We tried rushing Man Utd, Bournemouth and Leicester and ended up getting dicked after 20 minutes (well, 45 against Bournemouth). It's likely City would have double fisted us.

We only put pressure on them in the last 15 as they dropped back though, that was the point of the plan (or to catch them on the break if they tried to maintain their intensity for the full 90).

I'd definitely keep a few as back up. I know Ritchie get's a lot a stick but with a proper winger on the other side, an AM and top striker I think he'll look a lot better as Rafa's typical workhorse winger.

Difference is restricting them to a few not many like we did against Liverpool and Tottenham. All teams will usually get one or two chances in a game. They got behind us time after time except for the last 15 minutes when we started to actually put pressure onto them. When though? I can think of 4 times, 1 due to really bad individual play (Dummett), another due to some comical team defending, and the other 2 through De Bruyne being on another planet? There might have been more but I cannot remember them, I didn't feel on edge at all like I usually do in these games.

How were we 'cut to shreds'? They created chances because they're a fantastic side, it would have been nigh on impossible to restrict them to creating nothing and we were always going to need a bit of luck, but they hardly got in behind us at will like you're making out. The goal, De Bruyne's 1-2 and Dummett's fuck up to let Aguero in are all I can really think of. EDIT: 1 piece of comical defending after our corner led us to being hit on the break too.

Aye basically. They're the only 2 I can see being regular starters in a couple years time if we get this takeover.

We need to replace our entire squad.

This City side now is literally what everyone thought was going to happen if we gave Pep an infinite budget in this league, they're far beyond anything we've seen before. There isn't any comparison to any other side in Premiership history, not just Manchester City sides of previous years. They're probably not as strong as the Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich sides we've seen over the past decade but I doubt they're miles off. I'm not 'happy' with a 1-0 loss but I'm definitely happy with the effort and tactically I thought it was a wise choice.

What areas of his game are second to none? He's a good passer, that's it Erm, you said it yourself - passing... When we're actually playing on the front foot and have possession for decent stints, Shelvey is comfortably the best & most talented player in our squad. Ah right, I thought when you said "areas" which is plural you might be talking about more than one area. Silly me Terribly sorry friend. Vision would be another, which is a separate attribute to passing, although they go hand-in-hand. His vision is out of this world at times. Brilliant. You're seriously suggesting Shelvey has better vision than Merino when it comes to passes? What? What?! In what world has Merino shown a better eye for a pass than Shelvey? I think Merino looks a potentially very good player, and his ability to see and pick out a pass is obviously pretty great by our standards, but I'm honestly stumped why people think he's a better passer than Shelvey, or even that he can spot a pass better. Its basically all Shelvey is strong at, but he is very, very good at it. Shelvey's biggest problem is his workrate and hiss complete lack of ability to impose himself when the other team have the ball, something Merino is fantastic at. Merino also has far better technique so he's better at getting himself out of a tight spot which means he looks far more comfortable when there isn't much room in the middle. We don't need to go over the top about it though. EDIT: And I've said it before, but replace Shelvey with Hayden in the middle and we're no better defensively - despite Shelvey being blamed for every goal we concede. We're just not strong enough as a unit.

We went on a 9 game winless run as we have an absolutely vile squad. There's basically Lascelles, Gayle and Merino who have looked definitely better.

He is though

We know Slimani's shit, so I'd go with Dembele.

Still love the Asensio one, there's just something so pure about it.

Asensio's was fucking disgusting if it's the one I'm thinking of, so this Chema thing must be canny.

Going off that we should be playing Elliot behind the striker.

Howlers that come to mind are Bristol City (h), Norwich (a) and Rotherham (h). He recovered from the latter thanks mainly to Yedlin. Didn’t give Clark a shout against QPR too.

How much of Woodman have people seen?

Pretty sure Darlow threw 3 games in a row for us last year Clearly hasn’t improved either, he’s a total liability.

Darlow to throw one into his own net.

It's the equivalent of Anthony Joshua kicking the fuck out of a 7 year old and lamenting the fact he was the only one looking for a fight in the police interview.